Birthday Gifts

Look what my lovely daddy made for me.... a bench for my greenhouse. He also repaired it from the wind damage earlier in the year. Mum and Dad bought me a Pink Lady apple tree. It's a minerette tree that doesn't grow very big, so perfect for the allotment. Rob has just planted it for me and will teach me to prune it when it grows a bit.

Tea at the Ritz

This is one to cross off my bucket list!
My lovely eldest son and his fiancée treated us to afternoon tea at the Ritz. It was an amazing experience! The sandwiches, cakes and scones just kept coming. Of course there was jam and clotted cream for the scones. We chose Royal Ritz tea which was so nice we managed two pots! You couldn't finish all the food, because every time you did the waiter filled it back up! The Ritz is so beautiful, but I have eaten so much cake! But now excuse me I am feeling a little sick, must be coming down with something!!!

Alternative Lifestyle?

My new boss has been bombarding me with questions about the barge and living on a boat.  I didn't know if he was doing it as part of 'getting to know me' or out of general interest.  He then mentioned that he had a fascination and admiration for people who chose to live an alternative lifestyle.  I have never thought of the way that we live and what we are trying to achieve as 'an alternative lifestyle'.
Working for the MoD, my job is very much part of the system, my qualifications etc put in me a 'middle class' bracket (although certainly not a label I would use!!!), we own a house (albeit mortgaged), two cars and three boats!!!  Yet it is also true that we have chosen to drop out of the rampant consumerism of today's society (also by necessity if we are ever going to get the barge finished!) and try to live a simpler life, to do something that will give us a chance to enjoy our retirement and also to give us the 'home' and 'lifestyle' of our dreams.
Living on the water certainly makes you more in tune with nature. For a start we live by the tides. In the beginning we frequently got caught out by a high tide and couldn't get on or off the boat, one soon learns! But seriously I have felt a lot more at peace since living here. The depression that I suffered from for years has now lifted and life is great.
There is always plenty of wildlife around. Laying in my bunk at night I am never quite sure whether it's birds or rats running up and down the decks, but hey as long as they don't join me in bed I'm okay with both!
Anybody who has anything to do with boats will tell you how boat people will almost always go out of their way to help you and are generally very friendly and sociable. Our little community is no different, everyone is lovely and we all get along just dandy.

I honestly don't think that I would like to go back to living on land. I enjoy our alternative lifestyle, be it ever so humble it's now life afloat for us.

High tide in Tollesbury

Buttons, Boots and Bonnie

Rob and Emily have the patter of tiny feet around their house. Meet Boots and Buttons. They are so cute, but Alfie is terrified of them! I think it is probably because they are so small that he knows he cannot bark at them or shift them out the way with his paw. So much for our big brave guard dog!
Bonnie, my almost granddaughter, on the other hand is proving quite a playmate for Alfie. She has just started crawling and they have great fun when Alfie puts the ball just out of her reach and then grabs it back just as she gets to it. Bonnie then squeals with delight and the whole game is played over and over again!