Foxglove Narrowboat

Took Wish for a lovely walk today. The sun was out and there were snowdrop flowers everywhere. This kind of weather really cheers you up. Wish played with a stick again most of the way until we stopped to take photos of the little lambs. The black ones are so cute. Considering Wish is a border collie you would think she would have taken an interest in the sheep but she didn’t. In fact she waited a few feet away as if to say “hurry up” I am waiting for my stick to be thrown!

Anyway on the way back to the boat it was bath time for 4 little 4 legged friends. Their owners were washing them down in the stream as we went past. One of the little dogs looked a bit reluctant but he was going to be bathed whether he liked it or not. Thank you to the owners who kindly let us take the photo. It was quite comical to see.

In the distance we could see Foxglove moored up and the closer we got we could smell dinner cooking. Smelt lovely.

It has been a lovely weekend as we had friends Haydn & Lynda over on Saturday who made us some lovely biscuits. Lynda had made them out of her Weight Watchrrs recipe book. They were delicious. Today we have had Angus, Janet  &  their dog Frank over which has also been great. We got Janet a birthday cake with a musical candle which she loved. Roy & Angus make me laugh. They both seem to be into their lace & ribbon plates!! Its not a girly thing though thank goodness it is a boaty thing!

The boat colour scheme has been a popular topic of discussion this weekend. We are definitely keeping it the same, but with some hearts on it 😁❤

Only just made it out tonight. We are safely moored up though tonight. We have just had a very healthy tea and day 1 of the diet had been a success. Once I have got the first few days under way I will be fine. I weighed myself this morning of which I am not disclosing to anyone but it is now or never.

Anyway enough about the diet. It is so warm and cosy in the boat tonight. I feel very relaxed after a very stressful week. Going to log off so I can enjoy the rest of the evening 😊

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JANET……
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Can’t wait to see you at the weekend Janet. Hope you have had a lovely day.
2 more days then we are off again. No work, no stress, just Roy,Wish, me and the boat and friends for the weekend.

Going to be a good one!

Oh my goodness, I have come home from work tonight to be greeted by the Gas & Electricity bill. It is extortionate for 3 months. This reason alone is good enough to move on the boat as the heating costs are far cheaper on a boat. It is also warmer on the boat.

Anyway on a brighter note Roy showed me a photo of our boat tonight with a different colour scheme and does not suit the boat one bit whatsoever. He used a computer program to change the colours…….I wish it was that simple to do the real thing. It has been good to see the boat though in a different colour because at least it has definitely made our mind up to keep her the same colour. 2 months to go….. I wonder how many more times I will change my mind during this time. I can’t wait to meet up with painter and discuss it all. Somewhere on the boat there will be definitely be hearts, I am making sure of that!

Not made plans yet of what and where we are going at the weekend as the lock at Great Haywood is closed for 2 weeks. Might head Stone direction instead. It is far busier along that part of the canal so it will certainly test our boating skills. The farmers market will also be on this weekend so it might be nice to have a walk into the town centre and see what they have to offer. Stone is a lovely town centre and it has everything you could need and is literally a stones throw from the canal. With a chandlery also on hand it is a boaters dream mooring.

Before anyone asks though we are not thinking of changing the name of Foxglove. I quite like it. If I could choose a name though it would either be after my dog, Wish, or probably something quite funny. The reason I have got onto this subject is because Roy found a fantastic name in the canal boat magazine. It was called “Squeeze Box” with a picture of an accordion underneath but of course it has the double meaning of squeeze box of trying to fit everything into a small place. I think that is one of the favourite names I have seen. A lot of boats are named after their owners, pets, musical terms and places and some have names with a good sense of humour.

“Meander” is another good name although it was months before I understood this one…..Me and her……

“BeauLocks” is another good one……no explanation required on this one

“Grumpy Old Git” is another one we have seen and I remember asking the man driving it “are you.” He laughed back

“No More Mondays”….. Like the sound of that one

“Recycled Teenagers”……. Sounds like Roy and myself that one does.

If anyone has seen anymore good names out there please share them. Some of them show what a good sense of humour people have.

I ensured I finished work on time today because we planned to go away for the weekend…..well off I went and met Roy at the marina who had got the boat all warmed up, fires lit in the front and back cabin, engine running and ready to cast off with Wish on board. It was quite exciting rushing over to meet him because we literally had 30 minutes left of light to make our way out of the marina and find a mooring spot for the night. Well we made it and it is so peaceful out here at the moment. Wish is fast asleep by the side of me and I don’t think it will be too long before I am asleep. It has been an exhausting week.

We are heading for Wolseley Bridge. The last time we went there was last year with our daughter and her friend. We ended up calling in the garden centre there last time where we let Wish choose her own toy which she carried to the till. All the staff made a big fuss of her. There is also an antique shop over there which is really interesting.

Talking of antiques , Roy has bought me a present tonight. Oh by the way I don’t mean Roy is the antique what I mean is he has bought me an antique. As you know I collect anything to do with hearts, well he has bought me an antique horse brass which has a heart at the bottom of it. It is lovely. Very thoughtful of him. Apparently it is from 1900. Definitely Victorian. It is very worn but the fact it has the heart on it is lovely. Thanks Roy.

It is really cosy on here tonight. The fire is glowing and it is so peaceful except for one sound……

WISH SNORING…..zzzzzzzzzzzZzZZZZzzzzzz

Thanks Rachel!. Todays saying of the day on our calendar at work is “If you are going through hell keep going”.

We sometimes have a laugh at work over the “Saying of the Day”. Todays is a good one

Must admit though this week is going so quick it is almost weekend. One more day then finally it is weekend. Roy has already been over the boat this week and put some kind of covering around the toilet area to cover the wood. Should be interesting. I know it is sad but I am actually quite excited at looking at what he has done. Pictures were put up last week and all Roy was getting quite brassed off, by that i mean he was putting all his brasses up. Finally got all the oil out of the covers in the boatman’s cabin, so all in all things are still coming together and improvements are still being made. We are trying to ensure everything is finished inside before the work on the outside starts. Still got lots of storage we have not used and we are trying not to fill any space with anything that we don’t really need.

Hopefully we will be on it again this weekend. Weather should be o.k although I have heard it is getting quite cold again. When we are on the boat I do not care as long as the fires are glowing and keeping us warm.

Lots of pictures waiting to be taken this weekend.

Keep Watching!!