Happy Anniversary afloat to us.

 

Hi everyone.

Week Two of a brand new year and we are celebrating 17 year's afloat. On the 4th January 2005, we bought Misty Lady from ABNB, who were then at Crick, but have since moved to North Kilworth Marina. For me, this was my first boat, but for Keith who had been on and around the canals for over 40 years at this point, having a boat was nothing new. Keith's parents had boats and Keith used to run Pisces the Historic working boat for the London Borough of Hillingdon for a number of years. We moved onto Misty Lady whilst moored at ABNB with the help of our friends Keith and Val, who helped to transport some of our belongings to Crick and we slept on her there for our first night. I remember we woke on the first morning to the smell of burning electrics. The fridge, which was thought to be several years old at least, had decided to die on us, which meant we had to go in search of a new one, before we could leave Crick. Thankfully we still had our car and so we drove all over the place looking for a new fridge, eventually finding on in Rugby. We certainly covered some miles that day. My first day on the move was to work Misty Lady down the Watford Locks. I had never done locks before, but Keith gave me instruction and left me to it and we came out of the bottom of the flight in one piece and neither of us have looked back since. Misty Lady was our home, whilst Hadar was being built. We cruised on her to the places that Hadar cannot go, such as the Leeds and Liverpool and we had some truly wonderful times on her. In July 2007, she went to her new home and we moved onto a finished Hadar. Misty Lady now lives up on the Bridgewater Canal, which was where we last saw her, with another new owner. I hope they love her as much as we did and better than the person who bought her off of us. 

To this day, I have never regretted moving onto the cut. For me and for Keith, it was and still is the best thing we have ever done and not a day goes by when I smile and think how lucky we are. Life afloat is not for everyone, we have met many who have tried it and found out, it was not what they thought. But for us, it is everything and more. Life is all about living it to it's fullest and that is what we have and are doing. 

We, are in our own sort of isolation, because Keith's operation is pending barring cancellation due to Covid. We are still seeing people, but at a distance. I really do not want him catching any sort of bug, let alone Covid. I am getting myself into gear as far as getting fit ready for a season of cruising all being well. I have been doing more walking and tomorrow (Thursday), I am starting something new and exciting. I will post about it after I have done my first day. I will say, it is something I love and I am so happy to be given the opportunity to join in. Having over indulged over Christmas, I need to lose a few pounds. I am not into dieting, but I will cut back on certain things and up my exercise. After all, I want to be fit and healthy to keep up with our grandson's. 

I hope that your New Year has begun in a positive way, but if you are struggling please talk to someone. Do not bottle things up or bury things, because you will feel so much better if you let them out. Life is to be cherished and lived.

Pop back soon xxx

Bloomin Mild.

 

Hello one and all.

Day one of our brand New Year and having done the morning walk and boat chores, I filled the bird feeder up and whilst doing so, out of the corner of my eye, something Purple caught my gaze.

The Violets are in bloom. Normally I would not expect to see them until March. Our Autumn/Winter weather has been so mild, that they think it is Spring. I have to hope that should the weather turn colder, that they will not be killed off.

The wild Strawberries are in flower.

As are the Marigolds and Elephants Ears.

Even one of our Clematis is in bud. The weather is extremely strange for the time of the year. But on the first day of a brand new year it gladdens the heart. I just wish it was not so muddy under foot. We have had copious amounts of rain, which means the garden is very sodden. I need to get outside and tidy up the rotten leaves and clear pots, but that will happen when it dries up a bit more. 

Here is 2022.

 

Hiya everyone.

Happy New Year Everyone. I wonder what this year has in store for us all. We know we have a new arrival coming to join our family very shortly, which is very exciting. Well, I am back after taking some time away from blogging. I needed time to process a few things happening in my life and to deal with things from my past. We all think we are coping, but to be honest, we are all Swans gliding along on the surface of the water with our feet paddling like crazy beneath the surface. 

The Covid-19-20-21 virus, has most certainly been difficult for us all, and then the Omicron variant came along to put the spanner in the works, but having had all three vaccinations it made me feel better. I have been pretty scared about getting the virus and have been doing my utmost to keep myself and hubby virus free. I have dodgy lungs due to years of Bronchitis and I am pretty sure getting the virus un-vaccinated would prove nasty for me. Even now with this Omicron version, I am hoping we all remain healthy. Keith, is waiting for a Hernia operation, and so I really do not want him to get the virus. We are ever hopefully his operation will be soon. He saw the Consultant finally in November, who put him on the operation list. Anyway, we will continue to do everything possible to stay virus free.

Life, has a habit of chucking a few curve balls our way. But, I am guessing, we will keep on dodging them the best we can. I have kept myself busy with family things. Talking about the family, we will have a new grandson at the end of January all being well. He is being delivered by a C-Section and the hope is we will be able to see him soon afterwards all being well and depending on Covid restrictions. I have kept myself busy with the boat, garden and doing my family history. The boat, is always going to keep us busy. The boat chores alone everyday, take up a lot of my time. Come to Spring, I have a lot of paintwork to sort out inside and out. Then there is the garden, which again is a full-time job, because the weeds do not stop growing. I planted some bulbs in the Autumn, which I hope will give us a show come the Spring. Because, we have the stove lit, it needs feeding everyday. The only wood we burn is kindling to get it going, so I am constantly filling the coal scuttles to feed the beast which not only keeps us warm, but also gives up hot water. Over the winter months with the stove going, we do not need to use the immersion heater, which is a huge saving on the electric. With, everything rising in price and saving is a bonus. Coal went up a £1 a bag, gas went up by over a £1 a bottle and electric is set to rise by over 4%. Also our mooring fees went up by 8.3%, so tightening our belts is called for. Next it will be the boat licence and we know that the blacking of the boat this year is more expensive. Food, has also increased in price, but I am still forever grateful to Mr Tesco for bringing our weekly shop, especially over the Christmas period and during the lockdowns. 

I have been doing some running repairs and alterations to clothing. I have a thing about dungarees and pinafore dresses. I find them so comfortable to wear, but was missing a Brown pinafore dress. I have been looking for one for a while and found one on Ebay. It was described as a midi pinafore dress, when it arrived it came down to my ankles. Now I am short, I am only 5 foot tall, but this was way to long for me, so I had to chop some off to make it the right length. It is a good job I am handy with a needle and a sewing machine. I repaired a couple of Keith's shirts, which have definitely seen better days, but are alright for doing mucky jobs in. 

Going back to December and yet again Covid-19 was dominating the news and it affected our family yet again. My daughter's son who is 3 years old had been off of nursery school due to a chest infection, which took them to A&E. He had just got over that chest infection and had gone back to nursery for the last four days before the Christmas holidays, when on the Saturday the teacher contacted my daughter to say she had contracted Covid-19. Alarm bells began ringing and on Sunday 19th Dec, I got the call to say our youngest had tested positive to Covid-19, which means he probably caught it from the teacher at nursery. His first couple of days were the worst, where they were having a problem with getting his temperature below 38.5C. As he improved, his older brother went down with it a couple of day's before Christmas, which disrupted their Christmas Day, but they looked like they had a lovely time from the photos we received. Christmas Day night, I got a phone call from my daughter saying, she had been coughing, so did a lateral flow test and it was positive. This will be the second time she has had Covid-19 in four months and it all came about because the youngest grandson bought Covid-19 home from his nursery school, where his teacher tested positive. It just goes to show how quickly this flippen thing spreads. With my daughter being 35 weeks pregnant, this was of course a real worry for us all. For anyone still not decided on having the vaccination, I would plead with you to think about it seriously. My daughter, her partner and boy's have done everything they can to keep safe, and it has not made any difference. 

Our Christmas Day was quiet, we were looking after another boaters little dog, so he could go home to his family for Christmas. At 85, spending time with his family was so important. His elderly little lady, could not go with him to his family, because they have large dogs which frighten her and there was no way he wanted her to go into kennels because of her age. So we said we would look after her for a few days. Lucy, was an absolute dream to look after. We did not bother with a tradition Christmas dinner. Instead, we had Peking Duck with pancakes and lots of Chinese and Indian nibbles. A glass of Baileys with ice was first on the agenda. Now, we have never had Baileys before, but were told to try it with ice. It is definitely an acquired taste and is very sweet on its own, but I think I could get used to it. Our Chinese and Indian nibbles kept us going throughout the day, as we opened presents, listened to music and watched films all day, it was an enjoyable yet quiet one for us. Boxing Day came and with it a copious amount of rain, which meant the water level was well up. With the amount of rain we had been having the reservoirs will be filling up nicely. Sadly for us no snow this Christmas, but I know some parts of the country were lucky to see some of the white stuff. The day after Boxing Day and we were all set to take Lucy back to her owner, but she got to stay another night with us, as his owner did not get back to his boat until late, which was fine by us as she was a delight to look after. The following morning after her walk and breakfast, I packed up Lucy's things and took her back to her owner, who was so pleased to have her back. He had enjoyed his Christmas with his family, but like so many of us who live afloat he was glad to get back home to his boat and the peace and quiet. Later that afternoon, I took Lucy out for a walk, so he did not have to worry about doing it and of course I enjoyed taking her for a walk, I really have missed having a dog to walk, since Paddy died. On saying that, we are not getting another dog. 

The 29th December dawned and at last the letter arrived from the hospital documenting Keith's hernia operation and the other appointments he has before his operation. He has to go for a pre-op appointment, then three days before his operation he has to go for a Covid swab test. He then has to completely isolate for three days, before going to the hospital for his day surgery. We decided that, we would have our own isolation, before his pre-op appointment, because we do not want him to catch any nasty bug or Covid, which could mean us cancelling his operation. The only time I have to go out is to collect his prescriptions and living on a boat, isolating is easy to do. Because Keith, has been unable to do lifting, I have been doing all the heavy jobs on and off the boat for sometime. I am used to the work and have a really good system going. Come the time for Keith's operation, I will be in full nurse mode. 

30th December and all good plans were kind of out of the window. I had said we were doing our own isolating, well I had to meet the postman to take all the post for the site. Whilst taking the post from him, one of the other boaters arrived and promptly told me he had not been well with an upset tummy. I immediately told him not to come anywhere near me. I did this all masked up of course and then an item I ordered before Christmas arrived, but promptly had to go back because they had sent the wrong size, which meant a trudge to the post office and again I was all masked up. I then told myself, right that is it, no more seeing anyone. The postman has been told to just leave the parcels on our bench and we will sort it when he has gone. Why the flippen heck can people not keep their distance?

December 31st and we did nothing special. In fact we stayed in all day, which is not good for the waist line, but needs must right now. 

I cooked up some nibbles and we settled in for a party for two and a couple of films on the TV. I was thinking, we would stay up to see the New Year in, but come 11pm, we were both ready for bed, because Keith was not feeling great. Sleep was interrupted at midnight by fireworks going off across the Arm from us. Keith slept through it all. 

So here we are it is now 2022 and I wonder what adventures are coming our way this year. Well we know we have a new grandson coming very soon, so that will be very exciting. I will do my best to keep the blog going more this year.

Happy New Year to you all. xxx