It’s been a dramatic week. From wet and muddy to a pollution incident. emergency evacuation, danger to life levels, and ice. Monday began with grandson’s school being closed on the first day back from the Christmas holidays because not enough staff could get in through flooded or snowy roads. This is a benefit of beingContinue reading “Flood, evacuation & freeze”
Tag Archives: river
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”
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?”
Fraud, dripping and fraught navigation
Ey up mi duck – we made it! If you read last week’s update we’ve completed the first part of Plan C. We’ve donned our life jackets (all 3 of us) and hurtled down the Trent before Storm Ashley sends it back into flood, and executed a sharp left turn from the river onto theContinue reading “Fraud, dripping and fraught navigation”
Sink or swim?
Sink or swim is the refrain running through my head…along with waving or drowning. Our plan to beat the stoppages blocking our route to the Rochdale Canal has given us insights and challenges beyond our expectations. We’ve made our way across the country from west to east and are now moored in Nottinghamshire, on theContinue reading “Sink or swim?”
Losing my cool and blame me!
Staying chilled in a metal box isn’t easy, and that’s basically what our steel narrowboat is. Here in Leicestershire, where we’re bobbing about on the River Soar, temperatures are exceeding those currently in Mexico and the Canary Islands – according to my irrefutable source, the Leicester Mercury. Normally on a river in conditions like these,Continue reading “Losing my cool and blame me!”
Pickingupducks 