The First Three Months...

...well, such a lot has happened since I moved aboard Edie.  I went through a bit of a rocky patch when not only did I decide to stop taking my medication at the same time that my therapist went sick and then took three weeks leave, but the Ex also deviously managed to contrive a meeting on Valentine's Day which resulted in panic attacks galour and lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then I went through about three weeks of withdrawal symptons - dizziness, headaches, mania etc etc.  But as they started to wear off I started to see the world through my eyes again and not some fuzzy grey-tinged spectacles.  I'm aware I was silly for not consulting my GP, and, had I known I wouldn't be seeing my therapist for over a month I probably wouldn't have done it, but I'm so glad I did.

And Edie is now replete with ginger moggies!  The cats moved aboard at the beginning of March and took to life onboard like, 'scuse the pun, the proverbial ducks to water.  Apart from one incident when Jones went AWOL for almost 24 hours things have been fine.  They've met the ditzy dog next door and quietly hiss at him from the safety of the deck rather than run for their lives and leap overboard.  Next door's part-time moggy has also let them into the fold and I really hope they all get along and become the best of friends.

At the moment we are all drinking in the late evening sunshine with the doors open and birds singing while planes fly overhead.  I'm  beginning to understand why some people would never want to live on land again after spending time on a boat.  Life is so peaceful here; time seems to slow down once you walk through the gate and along the wharf and once I'm aboard I feel so safe and happy and at peace.  I'm even starting to not feel so bad about giving up a garden for a shared wharf - my little window sills are crammed with makeshift propagators full of veggie and flower seeds for the lottie and the planters.  I've got lots of plugs that will eventually go into pots on deck - trailing plants and night scented stock.  I plan on making an oasis of peace and calm in the middle of Brentford!

So, life is good and can only get better.  Roll on summer!

Coots...

I've since asked Dad who is the all-seeing, all-knowing oracle on birds of the British Isles and what I have been watching are, in fact, coots.  So remember that, dear waterbird watchers - those with white beaky-bits are coots and those with red are moorhens!

The First Week...

Edie is a 55ft Cruiser Stern Narrowboat.  She used be owned by a holiday company and is painted in traditional green and red, with a gorgeous red heart on her hatch.

I moved aboard 3 days ago, after almost 2 months of waiting, excitement building up to fever pitch by the last few days.

So far all I've been doing is unpacking my seemingly never-ending pile of bags and boxes - far too many you'd think to fit on to a tiny narrowboat, but surprisingly almost everything has found a place. 

In amongst the unpacking I've been taking time out to drink lots of tea and stand on deck listening to my local robin singing its heart out and trying (woefully) to identify the numerous water birds paddling by.  I can never remember which are moorhens and which are coots!  I think my first job of the weekend will be to get myself a pocket waterbirds book.

There's a pair of swans, lots of ducks, coots (or moorhens), herons and maybe a grebe or cormorant (I told you my knowledge was woeful...).  I have gone and looked up both grebes and cormorants on google and it's a cormorant.  Actually it's a pair of cormorants - how nice!

The black and white cat who lives on the boat next to me and I spent a good 20 minutes today watching the wildlife.  I hope she's friendly and won't mind sharing when my ginger mogs move in.

Here's some pictures I took as I was moving stuff on.  So clean and pristine!

Brave New Girl

2010 wasn't a good year.

I went through three breakdowns; that of my partner of 12 years and subsequently our relationship and then my own panic attacks and depression.  There have been some very dark times yet I am slowly but surely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This blog is about new beginnings and so I am not going to focus on what happened in the past or the breakdown of my relationship.  Suffice it to say that my ex was still going through his own problems, so it was left to me to hand in notice on our rented cottage, deal with packing, moving and all the other stressful things that go with that on top of battling my own demons.

And I had to find a new home for me and my ginger moggies, Jones and Pig.  My parents suggested I give them up as they thought it would narrow my options trying to find a flat with two cats in tow, but one thing I was adamant about was that none of this was their fault and there was no way I going to punish them for what had happened between me and my ex.

And so followed weeks of viewing after viewing of over-priced, unsuitable garden flats.  The majority were far too expensive for a single girl on a modest income to afford, and the reality of having to do this on my own cut to the quick. I put some very high demands on my search - it had to be on the ground floor; it had to have it's own garden; it had to be quiet and peaceful, cat friendly and in the same area I was already living in so I could be close to my friends.  But I knew I wasn't going to compromise on anything for this, the first place I would call my home.  I also knew that I would recognise my new home as soon as I walked through the front door.  I scoured the internet property sites four, five times a day and signed up with every single estate agent in my area but my new home never materialised.

And then I found Edie.