*****Is going there and back to see how far it is.*****













Hi I am Jo…wife, lover, best friend and soulmate to Keith. Lover of all things to do with nature and the canals. I am passionate about the Waterways and its history.


I hope you will join me in my rambles and do please comment – I love to hear from and meet new people in blogland!

Life on the cut through my eyes.

Daisypath Anniversary tickers
*****Stay safe and warm out there..*****













Saturday 15 May 2021

Time to open up.


 Dear family, friends and followers.

We all know what a long year it has been because of Covid-19 and the pandemic, and how businesses and people alike have suffered and struggled. Where we moor, has had its gates locked since March 2020, and we have not allowed any visiting boats or the public into the Arm, mainly because we have elderly residents who have poor health living amongst us. On the 1st June, we will hopefully be opening up to visiting boats again and to the general public, who come onto the site to enjoy everything we offer. Of course we will be taking every precaution to keep ourselves safe as residents and masks will have to be worn in the office, shop and laundry room. It is going to feel a little odd, having complete strangers in and around the Arm again, but like the rest of the country, it feels like we need to get back to some sort of normality, even with the Indian Variant causing concern. I am waiting for my second vaccination and I know I will feel much happier once I have had it. I am still going to take all the precautions needed to keep us safe, which includes doing the free flow testing. I had to do a prescription run on Friday, so picked up a couple of packs ready. 

I have continued with my morning walks. It really has helped me throughout this pandemic.
I love to take different routes and see the changes from Winter to the Spring and heading towards the Summer. The greenery has really sprung, with the rain and warmer weather.
My walks usually involve crossing the canal somewhere along the walk. There have been a fair few boats on the move, heading up and down the Hatton flight of locks. I have not yet ventured up the flight on my walk yet, because I felt it would be too busy. 
I still enjoy walking through the cemetery and have seen the changing of the seasons, just by the flowers which are growing in the wild areas of the cemetery. 
When I have not been on my walks, I have been helping out in the Arm, with the gardens and lately with the new security fencing we are putting up around our car park area. This has come about, because of the theft of a wood chipper a couple of weeks ago. It seems nothing is safe these days. Some people seem to think they can just take someone else's property without consequences. Thankfully the chipper was covered by insurance. Theft in any shape or form causes no end of stress and upset to the person or business, which has been broken in to. 

I hope that where ever you are, you are keeping safe and have had your vaccinations. Here's to some sort of normality going forward. 

Pop back soon xxx






Wednesday 5 May 2021

May to December.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

I am right in thinking it is May? Today's weather has made me question the fact that I welcomed May in my last post, because after a May start to the day, it has turned into December this afternoon.

At 9am, I set off for my walk in lovely warm sunshine. The birds were singing and the wildflowers were blooming and all was well in my world. 
My walk took me through the cemetery, where the birdsong was glorious and it was all I could hear, even the road noise was cancelled out by the birds. I spotted two Green Woodpeckers, which I had not seen there before. I have not seen the Buzzard for a couple of weeks, so I am wondering if they have moved on, or they are nesting in one of the many trees.
I left the cemetery to walk over the canal. There have been a few boats out and about over the past couple of weeks. We are still closed to visiting boats, until the middle of June, but people can ring to use the elsan, pump out and rubbish bins. Anyway I carried on my walk.
I walked down past the allotments, along the winding path through the trees.
The winding path, took me onto the playing fields, where there was one person using the exercise equipment. he was the only person I saw on the whole of my walk. Walking first thing in the morning, is always so much nicer. Back home, I decided it was time to do a spot of clearing out. I have a few things which have not been used and are taking up room, so I bagged them up ready to go out to the bins. I can feel a cupboard sorting day taking place, because the weather decided to revert back to December weather, with sleet and rain just before lunch. I have already put my Winter clothing away and bought my Summer things out, but I am now wondering if I need to get a couple of jumpers out? To be honest the rain is very much needed for the garden and the canal. But we British are very good at moaning about the weather. I tend to go along with the flow, because we are lucky to have such diverse weather. The fire is still going and we have been getting hot water from the back boiler. We changed the valves and all is working well now. It also means we do not need to use the emersion heater all the time, which puts the electric bill up. The back cabin stove has been out for some weeks, we just need the saloon stove going to keep the chill off, until Summer kicks in properly.
Off to sort my cupboards and to get rid of things which will never get used anymore.

Pop back soon xxx





Monday 3 May 2021

Hello May.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

April will soon be a distant memory and May is now here. The garden is blooming and all is calm within my world at the moment. 
Since my birthday, it has been full on busy. We have been helping out with jobs in the Arm and the last few days of April, we helped move the belongings of one of our residential boaters, who has had to come off their boat and moved onto the bank. It got me thinking, that although we have always said we will only come off our boat in our boxes, health or disability may change that reasoning. For our elderly resident, it was a case of no longer being able to cope on their boat and finding life as a whole difficult, due to ill-health and lack of mobility. Their family found them a wonderful place to live and then it was a matter of removing their belongings from their boat, bunkers and shed. A few of us got together to clear everything and to careful pack them into a van, which made three trips. Once all of their belongings were taken to their new home, we then cleaned out their boat, which will be surveyed and put into a brokerage soon. It was with great sadness that a fellow boater, should have to leave their boat in this way, but it has already proven to have been the right move, because they are already so much happier and looking forward to life again and hopefully making the most of the years left to them. 
At some point all of us living on a boat, may have to make that decision and I hope that when the time comes, we will make that decision for ourselves and not leave it up to the family, as was the case with this resident. I hope that we have the strength to know we must make the right decision and be able to find somewhere we will be happy on the bank. Life afloat is a unique lifestyle, which you will find no where else and so that is why it is so hard to leave. We have many friends, who have come off of their boats, for many different reasons, and pretty much all of them miss this way of life and would come back to within a heartbeat if they could. In fact one set of friends did just that. They moved onto the bank, then 18 months later, bought another boat and are back cruising again. Life afloat is addictive, to those of us who have it running through our veins. We have said, if the time comes and we can no longer cope on and with the boat, we would sell up and move into a mobile home some where in this wonderful country. Hopefully we have many happy years ahead of us, but none of us knows what life will throw in our way. 
With the move complete, my body over this Bank Holiday Weekend has needed a rest. I think, I have found all the muscles I have not used for the past year, due to Covid-19 and the lockdowns. On Saturday, I ached so much I was having a hard job turning over in bed. Oh the joys of hitting 59. The mind is always willing, but the body is screaming "STOP". I still do things physically that I did in my teens and twenties, forgetting that I am not that young anymore. 
The one thing I did get done, was to plant the Apple tree given to us by our resident neighbour, who is not landlocked. They wanted us to have it and because it was planted in a pot, it was easy to move. It will now hopefully produce Apples for us and be a constant reminder of the friendship we had. 
Our garden is in bloom and I am loving all the Blue.

The bees are loving all the Blue blooms. We have Bluebells, For-get-me-nots, Cornflowers and a couple of others, which I do not know their names, because they were here when we took on the mooring. The previous resident, loved Blue like me. 
Gooseberries are already forming and there will be more than last year.
The Rhubarb is coming along nicely and I will give it another manure feed in a few days.
I am really pleased that our Hosta survived the Winter. In all I now have four different varieties and will photograph the others as they spring into life. This one is early.
Today being Bank Holiday Monday, it is now wet and windy, so nothing much getting done. This morning, I sorted out some rubble and got rid of that and then got my sewing machine out to make some alterations to a few items in the sewing pile. Keith bought us both bathrobes and the sleeves on mine are ways too long, so I took scissors to the sleeves and have shortened them. I needed to hem some trousers as well and mend another couple of things, which have all been done in one go. I tend to let a few things gather on my sewing pile, before getting the machine out. 
It is now 3.35pm and we are watching 'Dances with Wolves'.

Have a wonderful day and week ahead.

Pop back soon xxx












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