Three Months?!

Apparently that's how long I've been away from the blog. Wow. Time really does fly, either having fun or not!

In some ways, I suppose I can blame "summer" ! It's lovely in the new mooring and of course, we've had such great weather that we've been making the most of it with good food, good drink and great company keeping us entertained this summer.

However, since my operation, my knee hasn't been good at all and in some ways, has gotten worse.... It's all still ongoing with trips to hospitals, surgeons, doctors etc and no one knowing what the problem is or what to do next. So in some ways I've been pretty depressed with being limited in what I can and can't do and not knowing how long its all going to go on for.

I suppose for a while I'd fell out of love with the boat as well and we'd been thinking about what to do. Not knowing how manageable it will be in the future with my knee/leg being how it is has made us think about whether to go back on land or stay put. We've had our moments where we've said things like " what are we doing on this boat ?!" , but I think we're staying put. Things just get on top of you sometimes and that will happen whether if you live in a boat or a house.

I think it's been harder lately because I've always been the main boat maintenance person who would always wax the boat, touch up the blacking, deal with the paintwork, engine/bilge work etc and its been neglected for so long now and it was a bit disheartening to see the boat going downhill a bit.

However, after a good wash and wax and with two of us touching up the blacking in the last few days as well as running some wire wool over the window frames to brighten and clean them, the boat looks brand new - probably the best it's ever looked lately to be honest! I think its given us both a bit of renewed motivation.

The boat hasn't been taken out though this year, so no travelling has been done where you get that "holiday feeling" just from standing on the deck of the boat whilst its moving, but we have still managed some fun where we are.

I suppose I've been away as well, because I felt that by just updating you with mundane day to day activities, you'd get bored! We've only recently started having some more work done, which I will blog about in the next few days, but other than that its just been gardening, shopping and vacuuming! Hardly entertaining for a blog read eh?

I've missed being here though! I've been involved in some other projects too which has also involved another blog, which has taken me away from here a little bit but I feel that writing here comes really easy as apposed to another blog I'm writing.

So how can I sum up the last few months? I suppose with some pictures!

Great summertime drinks....




Who's for breakfast on the boat?




The summertime garden/mooring and the boat having a good clean ( it seems to get so much dirtier here, and we washed and waxed it the other day after the paintwork looking extremely dull. I was a bit concerned the paint job was "gone", but luckily the waxing brought it back up to a good shine!):




We had a good veg garden this year and still producing lots of green beans. We had way to many radishes though ( remember me planting them before?), which meant "Derek", one of the resident horses here(!), had plenty of snacks:




A summertime picnic - we had a few of these. What's better than outside, on a blanket, great weather....and great, simple food....




The black and yellow cherry tomatoes came along fantastically.... Here they are ripening in late July followed by a mini harvest we had just last week. We get a good handful every day off the bushes at the moment (they've grown huge!)and they are unbelievably sweet - they taste nothing like supermarket ones (that's a good thing by the way!)












Great evenings outside, plenty of laughs and good food...












We had a few visits during the summer from my parents. It was great to catch up and I think (hope!) they had a really great time.

We would meet them in Poynton where we'd have a coffee in town and then bring them back here for the afternoon for good food and drink and plenty of good conversation.

It's always great to see them and its even better to spend a relaxed afternoon with some really simple yet good food - and in this weather, could life be any better (knee troubles or anything else?!)
















Strawberries anyone?? We had plenty in the huge raised beds we made this year. Unfortunately it looks like the harvest is over now :( here is Pawel collecting one of his daily harvests though early on in July :




Awww! We have plenty of flowers too:








I suppose I should stop there for tonight! I could go on and on, but overall, despite the problems, we've been having good times as well.

It's good to be back here....hopefully you'll agree ;)