Au Revoir until July

I will be travelling overseas on Tuesday for a two month work stint, so this is my last blog for a while.

Phil and I are trying to fit in some time together before I head off  and yesterday we spent the afternoon at our local nature reserve. It is a beautiful place with plenty of wild life. Here are some pictures we took:

Goose hiding in the undergrowth

Proud parents

Cock Pheasant which plagued us for food

Deer in the woods

Gosling Chick exploring

Marsh Harrier looking for food

I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family who I won't see for a while. We are going to spend tomorrow with our two sons and then it is time to focus on work.

There is no further news on the residential status and how it affects payments of council tax. We have complained to our landlords who have robustly defended their position on the lack of progress on this issue, but that doesn't help us who have now paid nearly £3000 in arrears and little reassurance about how much we will have to pay in the future, with 'negotiations' still progressing. It is very frustrating!

I have spent the last two weekends working in the Midlands where the canal network is extensive and we visited a number of marinas which charge much less than we are paying and the facilities are excellent. One of those also has residential status and they seem to have sorted out the council tax issue very successfully. The problem that we have here is that moorings are at a premium on our small section of canal and so the landlords can call the shots. We don't really want to move to the Midlands as we have all we want here, especially fantastic walking country with the hills of the Trough of Bowland and the Lake District so near. However, there is always a tipping point and that may be reached quite soon..... We will see. I will update when I am back in July and I really hope that by then some sort of decision will have been reached. Mind you I was saying that last November and here we are in May!!

I love going overseas and it is great to have such lovely warm weather, but I miss the Englsh country side so much.

Here are some of the things I will miss the most:

The bridge at our marina

Walks in the woods

All the young Chicks, Goslings and Cygnets

Cruising on our boat

sunsets

Views over the bay

I will be back posting in July, when we hope to travel around a bit on the boat so there will be some good pictures hopefully!

Al :)

Easter Traffic

Another work frenzy is over and we are enjoying relaxing on the boat at our mooring, over Easter.

Now that the weather is getting better, the leisure boaters on the marina are starting to come back and this Easter weekend many have come down who we haven't seen for a while. It has been really great to catch up with them and once again, a whole morning can easily disappear as we make our way along the jetty chatting to people boat by boat!

There is an exceptionally great crowd of people on our Marina at the moment and although we moan about the cost of our moorings and threaten to go elsewhere, I think it is the fantastic community here who hold everyone together and who make that decision to leave so much more difficult. It was not always so and whenever a berth comes free, we all worry about who is going to come in, but so far everyone has been likeminded, with a proper sense of social responsibility and community. Long may that continue!

Out on the cut, things are not so rosy. The season of hire boaters has begun and we collectively groan as they often speed past at such a rate of knots, that we bounce around on our moorings. There are an increasing number of hirers on our small section of canal, as boating holidays become more popular. Not all of the hire companies appear to brief the holiday makers properly, by explaining the etiquette on the canal, so the boats invariably go far too fast causing a disruptive wash. On a number of occasions when we are out cruising we have been hit by hired boats too, when they have been going too fast around corners and are not able to react quickly enough to another boat coming towards them. They also choose our empty berths to turn around in and sometimes even come in and moor up thinking they can stay overnight. They always seem surprised when told that these are private moorings and would they kindly vacate them!

Well, that's my moan out of the way! I know that many people who hire boats are experienced boaters, but we really do have a disproportionate number of hire boats for our 40 mile length of canal and it can become quite congested at times.

Other news is sparse. I keep repositioning the Otter Cam, but so far still haven't managed to get any pictures of it. The kingfishers have now mostly left the canal to return to their breeding grounds. We plan to go to a local spot where they are known to breed and we are going to spend a day there and stake them out. I'm detemined to get a picture of them!

I am now preparing for my next work tour overseas which covers the whole of May and June, so we are trying to make the most of  a free April to catch up with friends and get the boat ready for the summer.

We hope to get out for a cruise before I go away, but must take down our winter canopy before we can do this. I spent a very happy afternoon last week, chopping up all of our remaining wood which I had foraged from the tow path and putting it away to season for next year. We now have two full wood stores and although we are still lighting our wood burner just at night now, I can't see us doing that for much longer as the weather gets warmer.

I will post an update shortly on how the residential status is coming along. The main unresolved issue is the council tax and this has been going on for nearly a year now, with the residential boaters having to pay full council tax as well as an element of it in our mooring fees. We are becoming extremely frustrated and angry as the three parties involved (The Valuation Office, The local council and The company who own the marina), all pass the buck to each other, blaming the others for holding the process up. We are the poor guys in the middle and are just about to blow a fuse about it all....... watch this space!

I will leave you with a picture that I meant to post some weeks ago but was too busy. We had the interesting phenomenum of a partial eclipse of the sun which was captured by Bob, a friend of mine:

We also had hoped to see the Northern lights a few weeks ago, as they had been seen as far south as the Lake District which is only 50 miles north as the crow flies, but we had too much light pollution, including a local football match on the village pitch which had floodlights on!

All for now

Al :)

Spring is in the air

We arrived back from a weeks work in the East of the UK to a very cold boat. It was relatively warm over on the east side of the country, but we had to drive through snow and blizzards over the Pennines on our way home. At least it wasn't snowing on the Marina this time.

We threw all we had at it when we opened up the boat, as it was very cold and damp. We lit the wood burner, put the central heating on, switched on the small panel heater and had the humidifier blasting for about an hour. It didn't take long to get warm and cosy again. We enjoy going away, but are always happy to come back to our lovely home on the boat.

I took the card out of our wildlife camera in the hope of seeing something, but all it had captured was a blackbird and some ducks. A fellow boater said that he had seen the kingfisher a few days ago, sitting on the chair above where the camera is positioned, which is typical! We seem doomed to never get pictures of the Otter or kingfisher, but I will keep trying.

There are signs of Spring on the way with the song Thrush becoming more persistent and frequent in his singing, in his efforts to attract a mate. The Mallards are starting to smarten their plumage up and our resident swan has found herself a mate. I'm hoping to enjoy some Spring walks when this latest work stint is over. I have April free before I go overseas again in May and it would be lovely if the Bluebells are out by then.

Whenever we go away in the UK, I seek out the local canal, as you are never far from an inland waterway. Last week I had a walk along the Grantham canal, which is sadly only partially navigable. Next week I am in South Wales again, so hope to discover more of the Neath canal. Here are some pictures of the Grantham canal:

April sees further developments on our residential status, with hopefully the issue of council tax finally being resolved. We have been offered some incentives in our new contract too, such as one free laundry token per week and it all helps, so if we can resolve the council tax, I will start to feel a lot happier about staying put..... watch this space.

Al

A Trip to Wales

We have spent the last week in Wales, visiting Phil's brother, sister and other relatives and friends.

I love going to Wales because the people in South Wales where Phil comes from, are so warm and friendly and the scenery is spectacular.

On the way down we stopped at Gigrin Farm to see the Red Kites being fed. The hides are really close to the feeding ground, so I was able to get some quite close up pictures:

We managed to get a couple of walks in, between visiting relatives and we explored the Neath and Tennant canals, which are now not really navigable, but are very pretty:

Welsh for 'Canal'

On one of our walks, we came across this sight in a puddle:

We wondered what it was ....

Closer inspection revealed Toad/Frog Spawn, strange that it was in a puddle, which could easily disappear!

After a lovely few days relaxing and catching up with people we hadn't seen in a while, we returned home to discover the Marina covered in snow!

It's a bit late in the year for snow, but it makes everything look pretty! The boat was very cold, but we soon had the fire lit and it warmed up quickly. We are now warm and cosy despite being surrounded by snow!

All for now

Al :)

Sploshing Otters

The weather over the last few days has been wet, windy and miserable and put paid to our hopes of Spring on the way. However, there are still some signs of Spring despite the cold, with the Song Thrush opposite our boat beginning to tentatively practice his repertoire and many Crocuses and Snow drops coming out.

I went to a rehearsal yesterday at a friend's house, to practice for our next concert. This time we have quite an ambitious program, which includes a Piano Quintet by Mozart and I have to play many very fast passages. It was here that the contrast between a draughty house and our cosy boat was most marked. Although they had the heating on, my hands were still cold enough to hamper my playing. It was lovely to return to the boat and our wood burning stove, which was throwing out heat throughout the boat.

A number of leisure boaters are returning to the Marina now that Spring is on its way and it is nice to have some company and to catch up with them. There were only three of us residential boaters (liveaboards) on the Marina over winter and it can feel a bit lonely and bleak at times.

On the wildlife front, I have been too busy practising the piano and preparing for my next work stint in March to stake out the Kingfisher, but I did move the otter camera to a position at the end of the jetty pointing at the water, because we hear it very regularly splashing around and swimming under our boats, especially at night. The latest images are inconclusive, but the camera has definitely captured something:

This is the water with no disturbance

There seems to be quite a bit of disturbance under the surface here

I think I can see a rough otter shape and maybe an eye?

Again I feel there is some shape here

 I may be mistaken, but there is hope that we can capture something, as I think we are now training the camera on one of his favourite spots. What we really want, is for him to pop his head above the water. I must also remember to reset the date and time on the camera, so we have an accurate recording of when he appears.


On the subject of wildlife, this is the theme for this years village photography competition, so I am starting to sort out some photos. here are a few possible entries:

Bottle Nosed Dolphins near Inverness

Cormorant Catching an Eel

Grebes doing their courting dance

Moorhen Chick

Barn Owl Hunting

Hopefully, one of these might be in with a chance of winning a prize.

I  hope that we can get more otter pictures for the next time, watch this space!

Al :)

A possible end to the boating life

I was going to write this Blog yesterday as promised, but before I could put pen to paper, so to speak, I needed a day to do some sums and consider our options, before I could give an update on our current boating life.

I have occasionally given news of how the Residential status has affected life on the Marina. We were granted this status two years ago and Phil and I really welcomed it. We were very happy to become 'legitimate'. We wanted to pay our way and be officially recognised as living on or boat, rather than skulking under the radar and trying to avoid paying such things as council tax, TV license etc. The main positive about being granted this status is that the empty berths are now full of lovely people, who we really relate to and who have become good friends. Our status has also impacted on how the people in the village react to us. Whereas before, people would often treat the lot of us as social outcasts, we are now treated with friendliness and respect.

However there has been a disproportionate financial impact of this upgraded status, which is hitting us hard.

Our Marina owners have been negotiating a rate of tax with the local council which would reflect the fact that they also pay tax on our behalf and pass the cost down to us in our hugely increased fees, ( we are now paying double what we paid when we first came onto the Marina). These negotiations have dragged on and on and now the council have lost patience and have issued us all with a demand for full council tax for every boat ( the same as an owner of a small house would pay) and have backdated it to the date of the planning application, before Residential status was actually granted. We have had to pay £2600 in arrears to the council.

We have a hearing on this in April, but if we are told after this that we must continue to pay full council tax, while still paying for council services in our Marina fees and an element in our waterways license, then we will move back to dry land.

We have spent this weekend looking at adverts for rented accommodation in the area and we could rent a very nicely appointed flat or house for less than we are paying here.

Our utilities bills are obviously much reduced by living on the boat and I love foraging for wood to keep us warm etc. but things are all starting to turn a bit sour. It seems that these days everyone is after a slice of your money!

I will update on this issue as events unfold. We both love the life and have had five very happy years of boating, but there is a limit to what we are prepared to pay for that privilege.

More news soon and hopefully a more cheerful posting next week!

Al

A Sunday Update

I have been too busy to post recently and I am finding it quite frustrating. I have a concert coming up and the music I have been given to prepare is fiendishly difficult! This has meant that I have been putting in several hours of practice every day, just to learn the notes. That is just one piece, which is a wind and piano quintet and in addition to this I have several accompaniments to learn for the soloists, who don't usually give me the music until a few days before the concert. Add to this the project I am working on with a jazz saxophonist, who wants to do a gig in April and also to put down a CD and my time is fully taken up. Such is the lot of a pianist - everyone wants a bit of you!

I have now been given my work schedule for this year and I will be away overseas in May/June and October/December, I shall be glad to get away for a rest!

I am not happy with the infrequency with which I post my blogs, so I am going to try and post once a week on a Sunday and see how it goes.

On the boating front, much of our time has been taken up with keeping warm in this icy weather. The canal is frozen on most days and looks very beautiful:

The ducks slip and slide across it in search of food:

We have nearly run out of burnable wood, although we have two wood stores full of unseasoned wood. We have spent many an enjoyable hour chopping the wood we have collected along the tow path. There is much tidying up of overhanging trees going on at the moment and every time we hear a chainsaw, we follow the sound and usually are rewarded with a pile of wood kindly left by the Canal and River Trust! Our new chainsaw has proved to be very easy to use and is efficient at cutting through even quite thick trunks, but splitting them down further has been problematic. The axe doesn't always work, so we have bought a log splitting 'grenade' from ebay and will see how that works:

We are now in urgent need of wood we can burn and the best place for that is the estuary, which is only about 2 miles from the canal. One of our fellow boaters on the marina works at the local tip and had an old bike trailer which had been dumped. I bought it off him for £20 and Phil has done a great job of turning it into an attractive wood collecting chariot!! Here are before and after pictures:

On the wildlife front we have heard the otter swimming about between and under the boats on many occasions in the middle of the night but still haven't captured it on camera. I have now moved the camera to the end jetty after we found a half eaten fish there the other day which could only have been left by the otter.

The kingfisher is also proving elusive and as his favourite perch is currently surrounded by ice, there is not much hope of catching him there and I'm too busy to stake him out at the moment. Here is the empty perch:

There is not much else to report, but I do hope that posting regularly on a Sunday will provide more information on a regular basis. We are about to do a calculation of costs this winter and also hope to have news on our council tax status soon, so that may be interesting and useful for prospective boaters.

All for now. I will leave you with a picture of a beautiful sunset over the marina a few days ago:

Al :)