The highlight of a wonderful week away surrounded by our amazing family was being able to cook for a crowd (I forgot how much I loved doing that, what a gesture of love it is to be the cook for lots of people special to you.) I’ve not had the chance on the boat toContinue reading “Positives and planning- 2025 in a nutshell”
Author Archives: pickingupducks
Goodbye and farewell
Looking back it’s been a year of significant difference for us and also one of new opportunities. We started 2024 on the Ashby Canal, headed onto the Coventry, Trent and Mersey, Bridgewater and Leeds and Liverpool. Through the late Spring and early summer, we had 3 months stationary in one place (thanks CRT for yourContinue reading “Goodbye and farewell”
For you
Living and working afloat isn’t stressless or plain sailing, but it is full of wonder, surprise, and physical achievements. All of these are uplifting. Combined with slow travel with a top speed of 4 mph, it is a calm way to live. We are very fortunate in many ways. So this year, your Christmas cardContinue reading “For you”
Luck, good fortune, fate, or good planning?
Who knows what it was, perhaps a combination of all of the above, but we survived Storm Darragh just as we survived Storm Bert and before that earlier this season, Storm Ashley. We are not defeated or even deflated (although this is a boat nearby – not ours!). Some have not been so lucky thisContinue reading “Luck, good fortune, fate, or good planning?”
Time flies when you’re busy (and watching water levels)
Several times this week, boating friends have anxiously asked if I’m suffering from withdrawal symptoms or the dreaded itchy tiller syndrome, as we enter our third week moored in one place. When you’ve been used to moving the location for your home and office regularly, seeing new signs and new sights almost every day, stayingContinue reading “Time flies when you’re busy (and watching water levels)”
Diverse perspectives are invaluable to keep us all afloat
We have been on our first winter mooring for near a fortnight now, and strangely, it doesn’t seem anywhere near that long. There has been much to do for work and family as well as the many additional tasks that Storms Bert and Conall have created for boat dwellers and many others. How time fliesContinue reading “Diverse perspectives are invaluable to keep us all afloat”
Tenterhooks, astonishment and unbelievable fortune
Setting a goal and being thwarted can be a challenge. We’ve been thwarted many times in our aim to reach our first ever winter mooring, but last Saturday was the first chance for us to try and make the trip across and up a river to reach our spot – and we went for it.Continue reading “Tenterhooks, astonishment and unbelievable fortune”
How do you wait?
How do you wait – patiently, productively or frustratedly? By the time you read this we hope the enforced hebetude of the past weeks will have left us and we will be on the move, making our way at last in the chill morning air across the misty River Trent onto the River Soar. EveryContinue reading “How do you wait?”
Going for a festive make or break?
This is the run-up to Christmas in our family – four birthdays in rapid succession, then barely a pause before the festive season presents take over our thoughts. It is a time that, for many, can literally make or break how they manage financially for the next 6 months, at least. Black Friday, that AmericanContinue reading “Going for a festive make or break?”
Go slow and say no for a better life
We move slowly through life living and working on a narrowboat, but we get as much if not more done than we used to, at a fraction of the stress. Our stresses are perhaps different, but the pace at which we approach and deal with them appears to make that difference. I am particularly awareContinue reading “Go slow and say no for a better life”
Pickingupducks 