well, this is something i should have started a long time ago, in fact from the day we decided to sell the house and buy a boat. i suppose the history will tell itself over the course of the blog, but suffice to say, 2 yrs ago we sold our 2 bed terrace in a sleepy part of northants and put in an order for a 57' semi trad sailaway narrowboat.

lots of people ask us what it's like to live on a boat, so i suppose i am obliged to provide some kind of an answer!



we bought a sailaway - it was blacked and primerd, fully oak lined and had the beginnings of an electrical system. other than that it was bare. the fit out is still not finished, i guess it never will be really, and it is often the cause of me feeling a bit miserable. actually not often but occasionally.

its sort of akin to doing a house up - you get a bit sick of living in a building site with the fridge in the living room. you know the sort of thing!!

so, spring has sprung and the river is sparkling. i know spring is here because its too hot for a log fire. andy turned pyro on monday evening and after a couple of hours i had to open the windows and the side hatch, it was stifling in there! i had visions of the woodburner melting a hole in the floor and the keel and coming home from work to find the bed underwater!!!
no fire was lit this evening. we've done ok though, we've got about 6 bags of coal left from the ton we bought at the beginning of october! £260, how would that equate to heating a house? i have totally forgotten those sorts of things now.
we had a boat turn up at the moorings on monday evening just before it got dark. we'd never seen it before, but it turned into the cut and moored up for the night. we wondered whether they knew pete and june, our 'landlords' (for want of a better word), or if they'd been here before, or what really. they left the next morning and we still haven't found out yet.
i think i am the boat dwelling equivalent of a curtain-twitcher...............

oh yeah, the water has gone that lovely rusty colour it does when the water tank is nearly empty, so that's a job for tomorrow - after i get a decent sleep!!!