For my eyes only?

This blog wasn't originally intended to be public. It was to be simply a log of our retirement life that we could use to reminisce. And we do. Often. I didn't know at the time that I could make it private, unavailable to anyone else. Then I found that others were reading it, and commenting, so I started to write it for them, too.. Readership increased, folk from several other countries joined in and... it's all history.

Unsurprisingly, the daily number of readers has dropped considerably since I stopped posting about our life with our feet under water over a year ago. Details of life in our house isn't likely to attract huge numbers of readers. So the following may simply end up being a record for us. Bear with me.

Much of our time since the last post has been spent decorating the new studio/lounge for Jess, and moving Grace properly into the room Jess has now vacated. I've been cutting back and tidying in the front and back gardens. The recently renovated pond is looking very good; the frogs are back.

We've also been decluttering our books and DVDs and the contents of a very overfull loft. We've both been writing, though I've probably given up the latest book I've been working on. Most recently I've been helping Steve and Nome to de-turf Steve's back garden prior to re-turfing. The past three storms,  Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, put an end to that for the time being, though the worst that happened to our family in those storms was part of a fence falling down in Steve and Karolina's garden, and a trampoline landing in it.

I've been trying to develop a routine of exercise for body and brain, Trying, but not being very successful. I'm not nearly as keen to go for walks as I was during lock-downs. I was doing well learning Italian, too. And exercising. It was all so much easier on the boat! Why is it not so here? Largely, I've been bored, and that's anathema to me.

 A while back, Naomi, Grace and I visited a Stamp Art exhibition in Luton's Stockwood Park. Very clever, but ultimately tedious, I thought.

Our visits to see grand-daughter Nina and to take her for a pram-ride have been too few, but very rewarding. Oh, I haven't mentioned Nina before, have I? She did appear briefly back in my Christmas post, when she was two months old. Here she is more recently, five and a half months old.

I've been a member of a few photographers' groups on Facebook over the past few years, but left each one when I found that they were heavily engaged in cameras rather than photos. It was all about lenses and settings and size, all very boring to me, so I was pleasantly surprised when I was invited to join the Amateur Photography Facebook Group Just For You. I invited numerous FB friends, and the group has grown quickly. Most importantly to me is that the pictures submitted are all about the subject, not the camera, and there have been some wonderful posts. The same man as created that FB group also launched the Narrowboat Facebook Group Just For You. Some of you may want to take a look and join it.

We do plan to go back to Kantara at last next month. We have a guy coming to re-felt our leaky summerhouse roof on the second, but after that... Fingers crossed. 

Just in case you've forgotten Kantara...

I hope I will be more interesting/interested the next time I post!

Memories are made of this...

I'd normally be filling this blog with stories of our travels on dear Kantara, but my hernia's put an end to that for goodness knows how long. So I've been looking back on my ten years of boaty photos, and loving the memories. These are the last I took, in 2020 before the first lockdown; a leisurely four-day trip down to Braunston to get broken fasteners on our cratch covers replaced. We made the most of it, not knowing when next we'd be able to travel.

It seems so long ago now.

Recently, I stumbled over a collection of photo albums I'd created on Facebook over the past decade. Maybe you'd like to take a look? 

Scenes from our windows

Very often when we moor, I take photos from out of our windows to capture what we see from inside when we're eating, sitting up in bed, playing cards, washing-up... They're never going to be the best photos - the windows may be dirty or covered with raindrops, and there are sometimes reflections in the glass - but I love them anyway. I think the arty word for them might be "authentic".

CLICK HERE 

(I'm sorry of you get a redirect notice when you click there. I have no idea why it happens. Just click the long link on the first line.)

Talking of Facebook... I was becoming more and more fed up with the moaners and groaners on the FB boaters' groups of which I was a member. Very shortly after I quit them, I was invited to join a new group, "Narrowboat facebook group just for you", which is, so far, free from negativity and unpleasantness. It's early days yet, with far fewer members than the groups I left, but I recommend it to all boaters, would-be-boaters and other canal users/lovers. Give it a try, and help to grow it.

If you're a keen amateur photographer, take a look at "Amateur Photography Facebook Group Just For You", created by the same guy - Guy Baldwin. Recommended!

That's all for now.