Up and Down we go again!

it's a funny thing, but i bet if you live in a house, you don't much wonder where your doorstep is gonna be today.
it has rained and rained, proper big lumps, for 2 days now. last night when i went to work i had to step *up* onto the river bank - when i got home a little while ago, i had to step *up* onto the boat......the river has risen at least a foot overnight!
the ropes are ok though, when the water levels fluctuate you have to keep an eye on them or they can become too tight and start to pull you over a bit. the pain in the ass of rain is that what goes up must come down, and once the levels start to go down again you get caught on the bank and the boat gets proper pissed, so you have to loosen the ropes off and push away from the side till you are fully afloat again. andy doesn't seem to mind but for some reason i find it incredibly irritating when the boat is on the wonk!!! and sometimes the dog falls over :) which makes me laugh lots.....

but you just can't beat the sound of the rain drumming on the roof, i think it is so comforting, reassuring, it makes me feel all warm and safe and toasty, and thunderstorms - well that's for another day.

i do wish it would stop though, i wanna clear the shed out and make some 'larder' space. i have discovered the joy that is Costco, a wholesalers, and i want to do a bulk shop of non-perishables but i can't fit that much in the little kitchen. ho hum, what an exciting life i lead lol!

and i want to get the Boat Saftety Certificate this month or next cos it's nearly licence time again......


sometimes i think if we won the lottey i'd like to buy or build a really big open plan house (it would be an eco house set in a hillside, but big), and then i think, we'd probably rattle around in it after being on the boat so long. i do not miss living in a house made of bricks and mortar, there are no comforts i crave, but occasionally, i wonder how i would cope going back to that again. there's no doubt that money is to be made from bricks and mortar though.........i wonder whether we should sell this boat while it's only 2 and a half years old, before it starts to depreciate in value...........and get another or do something different? i'd love a pair of old working boats really, but they are more expensive than our measly pot will allow.
i think it's one of those situations where we would have to see - it may be that living a 'nomadic' lifestyle is firmly engrained in us now, it was there years before we actually went ahead and did it, and would i miss the river when i wasn't on it? or would i quickly revert back to keeping up with the jones'?
answers on a postcard please................

i will report back soon, possibly fom the middle of the field if this bleddy rain keeps up!!!!

here are a few piccys

this is where we got stuck when it snowed in 2009, enroute to our present mooring.

erm, we may have slightly been pushed off course to the bridge by a strong current - it was *not* in the slightest bit funny at the time!!!

gorgeous sunset on the nene

long time, no blog!

i thought it was about time i updated here, so here goes.

it's bloody cold. it has been white here since 17th dec 09, it has snowed on and off and it shows no sign of abating......the river and surrounding countryside is stunning though.
the woodburner is just about keeping us warm enough, god knows what the last batch of wood andy collected was but it's shite. the standpipe is frozen, but our interior pipes have been fine - lots of people ask, 'isn't it cold living on a boat?'.
well, yes, of course it is, if you do not have a source of heat, just the same as if you live in a house with no heating (which we have done). but once the burner is fired up it is really toasty!
the lane from the moorings to the 'main' road ( a B road) is proving to be challenging though, when it is bad we have to leave the car parked at the top of the hill and walk up to it to get to work. we got caught out the first time it snowed and 3 of us couldn't push it up the hill on the packed in snow until a couple of days later after the sun had thawed it all a little.

i'm gonna see now if our crappy little camera can do any justice to the beauty around me at the moment.oh, and i *promise* to blog regularly too.........