Tag: peace

Is Blackpool just pubs and B&Bs?

We are back living in our Lancashire house this week. We are not so far from Blackpool. Blackpool has a terrible reputation, not all of it justified. It is true that there is a fair amount of crime there, but no more than most UK towns. It is true that it is a bit “chavvy” in the summer, with stag and hen dos wandering the streets in various states of inebriation. It is true that some of the shopping areas are looking a bit run down. But it also has some lovely areas.

I took Lulu for a walk this morning to Marton Mere, on the edge of Blackpool. It is a lovely tranquil nature reserve, based around a lake, with pretty paths snaking round the reed beds and bird hides. During our walk we heard reed warblers, Cetti warblers, wrens, robins, white throats and many more.

It is amazing to be so close to a town and still be in nature. Narrowboating can feel the same. Sometimes I know we are travelling through the middle of a big city, but perhaps we are in a cutting, surrounded by trees, and it could be in the middle of the countryside.

I think anywhere you are you can find peaceful spaces, as well as noise and excitement. I know which I prefer.

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Which is better – a lazy week or a busy week?

This was the final week of our two month trip to Oxford and back. Most of this adventure has been pretty busy. There are usually lot of jobs to do – moving the boat, filling with water, checking the engine, visiting a new town, shopping for groceries. You know the sorts of things. I like to be busy. Mandy laughs at me because when we have a day off, I normally make a list of things to do, and enjoy ticking them off. So for me this has been an odd week. We found ourselves well ahead of schedule and so had lazy days, with maybe an hour cruising, and including three days when we just stayed in one place doing nothing.

It was a good place to be. The sun was shining and at this time of year the nesting birds are all calling to their mates. Using the Merlin app I listened out for them and in one five minute period I could hear about twenty different species, from willow warblers to robins.

I went on some walks, cooked some food, watched some TV, read a couple of books. A thoroughly lazy time.

It was nice to be lazy. We are, after all, retired. We are allowed to be lazy. But I don’t think I am very good at it. I found myself twitching and needing to find urgent tasks. I touched up the paint on the outside of the boat. I cleaned and painted an old windlass, and the “napppy pins” we use to moor up against Armco on the towpath. I found a stately home to visit.

One morning when I woke up, I found an angler set up just in front of the boat, staring at the canal, lost in his own thoughts. He left about 4pm. I don’t think he spoke to anyone. I don’t think he caught any fish. I expect my son would tell me he was being “mindful”. My idea of hell.

So yes it has been a lovely lazy week, at the end of a lovely couple of months travelling on Narrowboat Thuis. But enough now. We have to return to the house for a busy month of May, filled with weddings, reunions and trips. I am looking forward to it.

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Does March have the biggest temperature differences?

Living in a house, it is easy to ignore the weather. Central heating and good insulation literally insulate us from it. On a Narrowboat things are somewhat different. This week has given us a good example of that. We have had the most beautiful blue sky days. Great weather for Spring boating.

On Wednesday the temperature on the boat got up to 26°C, even with all the windows open. But overnight the clear skies dropped the temperature to 1°C. I think this must be the greatest daily difference I have seen. In Winter the temperatures stay cold. In Summer they are hot. And in the Autumn they tend to be mild.

It is a special time. I have loved starting the daily cruise with ice on the roof and wrapped in layers and a coat. I have loved shedding the layers as the day goes on. I have loved mooring up early afternoon and taking Lulu Dog for a walk to see fields full of lambs.

It’s a good time of year.

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Why I love March

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about why I hate January. It was a pretty miserable post, not really like me. So this week I want to celebrate what a wonderful change I feel, now that it is March.

Spring has sprung, and as the sun has come out this week, my whole mood has lifted. I have been on a lovely walk along the coast from Morecambe to Carnforth, I have wandered amongst the trees on the edge of the Trough of Bowland and as you can see, have even found time for breakfast in the sunshine.

In general I hate gardening but the good weather has even encouraged me to repair a hedge, mow the lawns, plant a tree I found lying in the woods, and mulch the flowerbeds around my house.

As I write this morning the rain has returned, but it is still relatively warm. The daylight hours are getting longer and longer. Soon the clocks will go forward and the evenings will be lighter. All I need for even more positivity is to go on an adventure on Narrowboat Thuis. And guess what, that is where we are heading tomorrow.

I am not sure whether March is my favourite month. I do love May, and September, and December. But is is such a turnaround from January and February that I will absolutely take it.

Simply lovely.

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It’s looking like it’s going to be a wonderful new year

We are staying for a few days with our eldest son Robbie, and his partner Alessa, in their swanky house on the South Downs. I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunrise.

We really are blessed to live in such a stunning country. Whether we are living on Narrowboat Thuis, or in bricks & mortar houses, there are few countries like the UK. I spent much of 2025 grumbling about the weather. When we were on the boat in the summer, it was sometimes so very hot. The canals dried up and became unnavigable. From September to December it felt like the rain never let up. The ground in some areas became like a marsh.

But on crisp, cold, clear mornings like today I could not wish for a better place to live. And having Christmas with one son and New year with the other, both with their wonderful girlfriends has been such a privilege. I am a very lucky chap.

I think it is a sign for me in 2026. My New Year’s resolution is not to complain about the weather or other challenges and what they are stopping me doing. Instead I will enjoy the moment and what it allows me to do.

A very very happy new year to you and your family.

Pete

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Why am I so excited about new canal books?

This week I received.a package in the post. It contained not a Christmas present, but four books with maps and routes of the canal network in the UK.

Narrowboaters have many options for navigating these days. We use a website called CanalPlan AC and an app called OpenCanalMap. But most boaters also like to read the guides. Some use the ones from Pearsons, but we prefer the originals – the Nicholsons. They have good maps of the routes, helpful lists of pubs and places to visit, and honest descriptions of the towns and villages on the route.

I also have a personal connection to the Nicholsons because one of my friends is the main author, Jonathan Mosse. I met him about ten years ago at a barbecue for narrowboaters in Scotland. He lent us a long chain for an anchor when we travelled the tidal river Clyde. And since we have been in England we have used our Nicholsons to navigate the huge network of rivers ad canals across the country.

Once a year I let Jonathan know all the changes and edits we have found in the books. Perhaps a pub has closed. Perhaps a bridge is incorrectly numbered. Perhaps we have discovered a wonderful new cafê. In return he sometimes sends me new editions, and that was what I received this week. In fact, guides 2 and 3 have not even been published yet. They come out in February but Jonathan has got me early copies.

We have been living in bricks and mortar houses since October, albeit with six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. I am itching to be back on Narrowboat Thuis. We won’t get properly going till March but perhaps we can get a week or two on the boat while it is moored in the Marina. Maybe New Year in our Narrowboat, with me, Mandy, the dogs and reading my new books. Sounds good to me.

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Can you have a community when houses are miles apart?

We felt very lucky this week to be invited to join the local people at a bonfire night celebration.

North Uist is a sparsely populated island, and the cottage we are staying in is in one of the remotest areas – Balranald. It has a church, a few houses, quite a few cows and a bird sanctuary. In the summer it has a campsite that looks as if it would be pretty busy but at this time of year that is closed and there is no one here.

That suits us very well. Whether on Narrowboat Thuis, or at home, we are comfortable with our own company and have had a very relaxing time here. The nearest proper village is Bhaigh (Bayhead) which is four miles away. It has about 40 houses and a shop. It also has the High School for North Uist, and every day about twenty minibuses carry the children to school from all around the island.

On bonfire night they bring together the local community to eat burgers, drink Irn Bru and watch fireworks. It was a great night. Not the most impressive display I have ever seen but still a very good one, complemented by the bonfire, the full moon, and the reflections in the sea. But what really made it was a couple of hundred people from toddlers to ancients gathered to enjoy it together.

The Hebridean accent is probably the softest of all the Scottish areas and I could hear it in the excitement of the little ones, the bickering of the teens, and the conversations between farmers and other locals. They had all arrived in their pickup trucks from miles around to be together.

One thing that did amuse me was hearing a father telling his child how good it was to celebrate the foiling of a Catholic plot, five hundred years later. Until the five mile causeway was built between the islands in 1960, there was very little mixing between Catholic South Uist and Protestant North Uist. I guess some views remain pretty embedded.

It was a lovely evening and it was good to be able to join such a distant but close community. Thank you.

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No more narrowboating this year – so what is next?

Narrowboat Thuis is back at the marina in Stone for the winter and we are back in our house in Lancashire. As always, we are a little sad at the end of this year’s adventure, but we will be back on “the cut” next year, and can look forward to the next few months of bricks & mortar life.

And I can engage in my favourite pastime of making plans. I get bored very easily and the idea of a quiet retirement fills me with dread. So we will have a couple of weeks at home, seeing family and friends and doing jobs around the house, and then we will be off to North Uist for six weeks.

North Uist is a small island in the Outer Hebrides. We have stayed there before and it will be very peaceful at this time of year. The tourists will have left and restaurants & attractions will have closed. But what will be left for the locals is simply stunning scenery and amazing nature. The weather will either be sideways rain, in which case our cottage with the open fire will be very welcome, or it will be clear and sunny with the best light in the UK. My brother in law is joining us for the first week and he is unconvinced. I can’t wait to take him to see some of the beaches and see what he says.

After the Hebridean trip it will be Christmas and maybe skiing in January. And then, all too soon, it will be February and we will be back on the boat. Come the end of this year I will have been retired for five years. Is it time to go back to a job? Not yet!

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It’s autumn on the Shropshire Union

It really feels that as we have entered September, we have entered autumn. I am waking up in the dark for the first time since March. It rains every day. I am wearing a top as well as a t shirt. I have even started wearing jeans instead of shorts.

So what is good about narrowboating in autumn?

Well one thing is the light. The sunrises and sunsets are just so beautiful. We are currently traveling in the middle of the Shropshire countryside and I look forward to walking the dogs each morning.

Another thing I love is my fellow boaters on the canal. I enjoy boating with the novices during the summer. But it is great at this time of year when my fellow boaters have a little more experience and knowledge. I spent an evening in a proper boaters pub yesterday, geeking out about the life with people who have lived on board since childhood.

And finally, best of all in autumn the insects start to die off. The sunny days have been nice this summer, but the horse flies and wasps less so. I have a boat full of spiders, which helps, but a few frosts will help even more.

But as we head towards winter, there is one thing I am not looking forward to, and that is muddy towpaths. Narrowboats are easy to clean, because they are small, but it is an uphill battle when the dogs bring in their dirty footprints every time they go out.

So what is in like in the “real” world? Are you enjoying autumn too, or missing the sun?

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Is narrowboat life tiring?

A lot of people ask us if it is boring to live on a narrowboat. I think they assume that when we are moving so slowly we don’t have to concentrate. And when we are moored, there is nothing to do. So how come we are all feeling tired this week?

I think there are three reasons. Firstly when you drive a narrowboat, even at 3mph, you have to concentrate the whole time. The boats seem to have a mind of their own and after few seconds lacking attention you can be pointing at the canal bank, another boat or more likely a bridge. I love it because you also see wonderful nature and industrial heritage, and every day is different. But all that fresh air can be tiring.

Secondly there is always something to do when we moor up. Perhaps it is fixing something, doing general maintenance, or the day to day tasks of shopping, filling up with water, greasing the stern gland. There is also plenty of time to read, watch TV or even write a blog, but it can be tiring.

Finally this year there is always the nagging concern about canal closures. More than half the network is closed now due to low water levels, and even though we have chosen a route for our final trip of the year that navigates the most reliably wet canals, rumours abound amongst the boating community that where we are now may also suffer. We really don’t want to find ourselves isolated, miles away from our home marina.

So yes, narrowboating can be tiring. But it is a good tiring and one where I fall asleep each night, looking forward to the next day.

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