A new start

I realise that little has been posted for ages, however I thought to update this would e a better idea than starting a new blog site - I intend to copy this to those that I already have in place.

The big news is that since last time I put anything together, I have had a few health issues (perhaps not surprising at my age!), however both of us are now very well and living a house called 'Tillerpin Cottage' in a lovely village called Oakthorpe (easily found by entering DE12 7RJ on Google maps or earth).

The house has a huge garden which again we have split into sections; a lawn area with cottage garden theme, Vegetable and fruit area - again with well drained raised beds, and this time we are raising poultry - namely bantam hens with a couple of bantam rooster. I call it a micro holding as it is only half an acre.

Our little (well sort of little) dog Bosun loves the place - though I wonder if he misses being CPO on  the boat that he grew up with, NB Mariner. Anyway he really enjoys going for walk around the local area as we are situated in the 'National Forest' which encompasses the counties of Leicetershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire. I'll see if I can still incorporate some pictures - but I seem to be having to rediscover the use of the blog devices.

I also have some video material to include - but that needs some explaining and might be best slotted into the next posting.

Its Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Well shiver my timbers, so it is and I haven't written or posted a word for ages. Been too busy twittering with the birds in the blackberry bushes - no that's too silly, and anyway Spring watch in our garden will reveal that the blackberry against the fence is coming along nicely, but seems to be lagging behind the tayberry and loganberry bushes. No room to hide tweety-birds in the foliage yet.

Of course all this rubbish is a bit of 'window' as a diversion from the fact that 'twittering' is all that I been bothered with lately.

 A qwerty keyboard is fine when using typewriter sized machines, but on a telephone you should use little thimbles equipped with little prods that that punch each micro-key on the character. Never mind, I've got a decoder-spell check in my phone that decides which of the four letters and numbers I've pressed sort out the most relevant letter for the report/email or whatever.

Now, back to boating, roving and gardening.

Yes a little bit dull, but not half as much as the rubbish that I've read on Twitter. Never mind; a little news on the Mariner front. First.

The interior  below decks now looks absolutely smashing - which is fantastic, but 'Oh dear,' says Jeeves, 'look at that manky paintwork.'

So, it is brushes and roller time; after a lot of preparation work. Bit like that awful stuff we had to do after school, but with swadges of sandpaper, electric drills with wire brushes etc.

Luckily Wooster is  not trusted with brush or roller, so is relegated to stay at home on gardening leave and other little chores like bringing in the clothes and mending the cold frame.

Lots of good stuff on Radio 4 though, Whilst doing the garden and digging the weed s(remember the song?), I'm not quite that old yet anyway.

This spring has been fantastic! Down to short shorts both trousers and sleeves on the 1st of April. Looked a right fool mucking about in the vegetable garden, but if this continues, there will be a bumper crop this season.

Jeeves has done a marvellous job on the mid-section of the garden - aft of the shed, and there is a delightful show of spring flowers and bulbs. We now have only to look forward to more and to summer.

The big question will be how we divide our time between garden boat and other planned activities. For example we mean to pootle off to France and then Lithuania.

I expect that we shall see....

Anyway we're off to a good start with the vegetable patch this year - though there will be no doubt many many railway trips back home to ensure that all is well, watered and planted out in time. Uour boating trips last year featured such interludes to make sure that everything was ship-shape at home.

The issue here of course is that when the cost of the railway journey from wherever is factored in, one cna't claim that vegetable growing on one's own plot is entirely economical, but there are othe resons for getting back to the house as well.

Most importantly though, the enjoyment of eating vegetables grown fresh in your own garden is hardly measurable in economic terms.

We thought that we

 might relax about the place for a bit and watch all the vegetables and herbs mature. . . .well of course we will a little bit, but (despite the fact that we have already mown it twice), we can't let the grass grow under our feet; therefore a trip around the Oxford ring is planned.

This will mean the usual jaunt to Braunston and a right turn down the South Oxford Canal which will take us all the way to the Thames. A right hand turn will then take us down stream to London where we will join the Grand Union Canal - after a good many stops on the way, of course.

One highlight we hope will be meeting up with Derek and Sheila (and of course Lexie) on Clarence. All of which is a lot to look forward to.

Kung Hai Fat Chow - or something like that

Yes, our New Year has been and gone, so we will no doubt be looking forward to a happy and prosperous 2011 for all of us. A healthy one too. There is one little laugh about this though; the snows have melted and we've had a wonderful white Christmas for the first time since I or anyone else can remember, And then . . . . .

Up comes the influenza scare again! Probably fewer people died of swine or bird flue last year than have died anyway from old age and smoking. We live to breathe in another Wawickshire spring morning and set out on on a bit of a ramble in the countryside near Rugby.

All thingsd being good and equal, a great New Years Eve was celebrated in the back garden - along with fireworks and rockets that had been judicioiucsly left in the spare roon from Guy Fawlkes night.

As has been mentioned, we had a tip of snow when in London. One amazing thing is that London never gets dark, even at midnight in winter. We took a couple of photographs from Clarence to show this. I suppose that the eerie light is exaggerated somewhat by the low level cloud.

Jeeves has made a start on the boat renovation and taken some 'before and after shots'. Luckily there is still plenty of water available and once lit and roaring away, the wood stove keeps the interior of the boat very cosy. Most work is cosmetic, but with best efforts will see us cruising again in the first Spring weather.

Oh! And we might treat her to an outside coat of paint. Haven't quite deiced what livery to apply yet.

Could be a possible alternative

Lot of work to do on other sites yet, but this one could be a good sounding board for some of the thoughts that I don't air on the othe two sites.

For example I can crow about the England win at t he MCG, which is something that I wouldn't dare do on Gleemaiden or Mariner.

Now, as fpr pictures; watch this space as I intend to stream some of the images that I have collected over the years.