What are you leaving in your wake? What do you want your legacy to be? What do you think it will be? As Paris gears up to host the Olympic Games this year, expectations of legacy are being bandied about as ever. Legacy and sustainability are the key aims for Paris 2024. They want localContinue reading “What are you leaving behind?”
Tag Archives: lifeafloat
Join me and book a get-away
It’s been quite a week. I’ve been to Paris, Austria, Yorkshire, and the English canals in wartime. Only one in person, but all were vivid, visceral experiences. I’ve been absorbed in the lives of a male serial killer and his victims; an actress mother as a commercial boatwoman; a female global adventurer with a delicateContinue reading “Join me and book a get-away”
We can see clearly now
Our window on the world, or indeed windows on the world have changed dramatically this week. We see the wealth of birds and animals, people and the British weather around our floating home and office very differently today than we did this time last week. After years of planning, research, saving, and preparation – weContinue reading “We can see clearly now”
Tales of the unexpected – including a painful accident
The unexpected can be pleasant, but – as we know this week – not always. How we respond to the unexpected in our lives and our careers says much about us. American researchers are trying to teach AI (artificial intelligence) to cope with the meaningfully unexpected, to make it able to respond effectively to blackContinue reading “Tales of the unexpected – including a painful accident”
Moments are what matter – of hygge, niksen and ukiyo
Small is beautiful in our world. The fact that our home, office, workshop, and studio is just 50ft long is a clue to why small is something we treasure. Not everyone can have or would want to have a micro home, a tiny home, but everyone can have micro moments in their day that addContinue reading “Moments are what matter – of hygge, niksen and ukiyo”
Heading out into the unknown
It’s been a harrowing start to the new year for so many. We know of boaters who have lost their homes, been washed off moorings by rising flood waters and either damaged or sunk by water or falling trees. We’ve been hugely fortunate having made the decision to base ourselves in a marina with controlledContinue reading “Heading out into the unknown”
Make your own choices
This week, after months of trying, we completed our journey down the Rochdale Canal. It was the only one of the three trans-Pennine canals we had yet to navigate. It has been a passage that has taught us much about the benefits of physical effort, determination, and making up our ownminds, making our own decisions.Continue reading “Make your own choices”
A different view of our week wending and working our way from ‘up north’
We are now halfway along the length of the Rochdale with 44 locks and 16 miles of the canal still to go. Then it’s onto the Bridgewater, Trent & Mersey, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazeley, Coventry, North Oxford, Grand Union, and Leicester Line to our ultimate destination… a little way to go (191 miles and 143Continue reading “A different view of our week wending and working our way from ‘up north’”
Totally swamped
Exhaustion, relief, elation, achievement, fear and pride all in one week – a veritable tidal wave of emotions has swept us along. A week ago we were moored at Gunthorpe on the non-tidal River Trent waiting to leave to head towards the tidal Trent. We had our anchor at the ready, our lifejackets on whateverContinue reading “Totally swamped”
Taking control can change everything
We started our week in Marple, feeling frustrated and stuck. We finish it 52 miles, 31 working locks and 1 tunnel further on, feeling positive and upbeat in one of our favourite places. Moored as we now are at Great Haywood, on the edge of the historic Shugborough Estate, we are treating ourselves to aContinue reading “Taking control can change everything”
Pickingupducks 