One Thing After Another...

It's about 530PM as I write this. Pawel is off today and we headed over to the garden centre this morning after an early start. It was a little bit blustery but this evening has seen it get a lot worse. Our weather station has read wind speeds of over 41MPH - the highest I've ever seen on it, and it's actually getting quite scary, but entertaining, on the boat tonight. We've moved all the plant pots off the gas locker and off the roof and are basically sitting it out. I popped out before to move a few things about in the "garden" and felt like I was about to get blown off my feet! I think it's even worse here than if we were in a marina, as firstly, Higher Poynton is really high up (!) and in particular, our mooring is incredible exposed - there's nothing either side except for rolling hills and open fields. This gives you an idea: (I took that picture when we first came to this mooring in April this year) The trip to the garden centre was nice. It was

Big day today.... We had the gas guy coming at 8:30AM To fit the new hob and make the gas line safe. Drew didn't arrive until about 9 but got to work pretty quickly. We left him to it while we popped out and unloaded the 2cubic meters of logs we had delivered last night, into the log store. It's such a relief to get it done and know now that its safe and sound! Here's how the pipe work was looking before: (note the joins and the lack of support for the pipe!) One of the welded joints that are a no-no on the boat!: The pipe work along the cabin length also wasn't clipped adequately enough, so Drew sorted that also - did a really good job and it looks really smart now. Here's the pipe work to the hob now: Definitely looks a lot more professional! We also had to have the hob replaced as that was leaking slightly. To be honest it was due out anyway, it was really looking shabby: The aluminium surround was bad was badly scratched and it just looked quite dated too. The

Well, we've had a couple of days off and it couldn't have been better in terms of getting things ready and sorted for Christmas. We finally headed back to our mooring space the other day. It was good to be back, but we do love being out and about as well - even if it is just down the canal! Yesterday morning we got up really early and it was such a gorgeous sunrise. I took the picture below out of the bedroom ("cabin") window. You can see everything where we are - no obstructions view wise and the sunrise or sunset always looks really gorgeous. It makes you feel really lucky you live on a boat. I always love really early mornings when everything and everywhere is still quiet and you can just hear the start of the birds beginning to sing... We headed off into town quite early as we wanted to go food shopping, DIY store and also to place an order in the butchers for meat for Christmas. For Christmas Eve when I have company, it's going to be roast beef and thanks Car

It's been a busy week - so busy that there hasn't been any time for blogging. It's coming up to that time of year though isn't it where everything gets really manic! Christmas! I have to say, I LOVE Christmas, but don't feel the excitement much these days and the last few years, I've only ever really felt Christmassy (that's such a terrible word!) on Christmas Eve, by which time, its almost all over! This year, I have my parents coming over to the boat on Christmas Eve as they are spending Christmas in Manchester city centre this year. We won't be joining them on the big day but will make up for that on Xmas eve anyway, I'm sure! The scary thing is, I'm contemplating making a roast beef on the boat with 4 of us on board?! Have I lost it??! Well, like everyone else, it was incredibly stormy here the other day. We nearly lost a plantpot or two (! ha! the drama!) before we managed to rescue everything off the roof just in time. We secured all the s

We took the boat out today! Only down the canal just so we were near to the chandlery so we could stock up on coal from Andy. We're staying on one of our old moorings too as we have a gas guy coming on Monday. Seeing as we were here and closer to the bus stop, I went into Poynton this afternoon to do a bit of food shopping but also picked up this little chap: It's not the clearest picture I know, and i should have took it closer up - its the heather on the gas locker Im talking about! In one of the local florists they were selling them - only £2.95 and quite big, with really nice bright purple flowers on them. I needed something for the gas locker as all the autumn bedding plants have had their day already. Looks fab I think and adds a bit of brightness over winter. So, on Monday we have a gas guy coming but our normal mooring - it's difficult, if not impossible, for people to access it by car if they don't already know the place. Even giving the postcode (we've got

Well I finally got the worktop oiled and sorted now. It's iroko and still quite light in colour - I've seen some that turn almost mahogany coloured with age and light. Anyway, it took six coats of oil in total.... Sanding and tacking off between coats, it was a bit of a nightmare to be honest but its definitely worth it as it really does look fantastic. I just have to keep it that way now - I guess that means Pav is banned from the kitchen ;) Rob also made an extension that we can 'bolt on' to the 'bubble' (ha! Love that name - I mean the circle that curves out on the worktop). Basically, it turns the worktop into a larger area and makes it square shaped, meaning we can have people for dinner or even cake and coffee if we want to - there's easily enough space for 4 people. I haven't got any pictures to hand tonight but I will take some tomorrow and show you show it all works. Rob came up with the idea and did an amazing job on it as usual. We only or

I got busted trying to take a picture of Pav re-tying the ropes today! Ha doesn't he look impressed. I think its one of is favourite past times - pottering about on the mooring and inventing jobs for himself ;) Anyway, not a lot has been happening really. I went searching for some wallpaper today ( it's a surprise, I won't tell you where it's going yet!) but I couldn't find any that I actually liked, it w really a wasted journey! The only one I did see that we both liked was an 'online exclusive' and not available in the shop! Annoying or what?! We found a place for the new weather station too - on top of the log store, and this means (hopefully) that it won't end up in the canal this time! We've used way too many logs already too! Think we will have to plan for another 2 cubic meters to be delivered soon - we won't go cold though, as we always have plenty of coal too.

I've had a really busy day in the kitchen today. I make bread most days ( I get up too early for my own good!) and am currently addicted to my crusty white rolls/baps/cobs/barms (however you call them, depending on which part of the country you're from ! ) The crusty rolls are a variation on my basic white boule ( which can be found on My other site - The Narrowboat Baker It's mostly the same but uses a little bit more water and uses a folding technique rather than just kneading , however, the wet dough can be 'beaten' in a food mixer using a flat beater to achieve a similar result and is a bit quicker and less messier on the 'ole hands! Proving done and ready for the egg glaze and oven: The good thing about these rather than a huge loaf, is with every bite, they're really crusty and they cook in half the time too, meaning you can make them really quickly. I'll be posting the full recipe soon. They are so good!! Lunch time was good - what's better