The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife

Friday Rant: Never Enough Time

2012-02-24T10:00:00.000Z

Until recently I’d never joined in with Muddling Along Mummy’s Friday Rant and now I’m joining in twice in two months! (I love her blog by the way, good honest writing, from the heart.)

This morning we were up at six; the girls complained through breakfast, The Doctor rushed to commute to London and I persuaded everyone to get dressed and out in the double pushchair down a muddy towpath for the half hour walk to nursery. We’d not even got to Marsworth bottom lock before the pushchair got a puncture. While I blurted out some mildly child-friendly curses Big Sister suggested taking the pushchair back to the boat and getting a taxi. I concurred. So I bundled them back home, took them to nursery in a taxi and returned home to face a to-do list that looks like a peculiar pile of noodles in my head:

Boil the kettle to do the dishes, run the engine to get the electric to run the washing machine. Write some emails and write some blogs for clients. I have a full day’s work to do for my business, but it makes sense if I also squeeze in the dishes and the laundry and now I’m going to have to fix the pushchair puncture. Must read some more of the massive tome Social Media Marketing for Dummies before the library insist on having it back. I need to implement some of the tips in that book How to Get Things Done without Trying Too Hard . I wish I had some spare time to read more blogs and leave supportive and witty comments. Must remember to have lunch. Must remember to collect kids. I want to write a book called I Don’t Know How She Does It (On a Narrowboat). I want to write ebooks and create passive income streams. I want to cook impressive meals for my husband and keep the boat spick and span. I want to laze on my bed in our cabin reading a memoir about a Gypsy Girl . But there’s never enough time and it must be down to planning and I must plan to make more time to make a plan!

Ever felt like that?!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon, to several good books I wish I had time to finish!

Do You Know Who I Think I Am?

2012-02-22T10:30:00.000Z

Phil Bassett

Following my earlier blog about How to Sell a Boat on the Inland Waterways I thought I’d share a bit more about who we are at Boatshed Grand Union.

Phil is the owner of the brokerage. Phil and his wife Lynn love to get out and about on the Grand Union on their 48ft narrowboat Persephone. He also runs Canal Experience Training, an RYA Training Establishment for the Inland Waterways. http://www.canalexperience.co.uk/

When he’s not working on brokerage or coordinating helmsman training then he spends time supporting the work of the South West Herts Narrowboat Project, a charity which runs a narrowboat for Youth and Community groups. http://www.swhertsnarrowboat.org.uk/

In fact it seems that Phil loves canal boats and boating as much as I do. I have lived aboard for twelve years and share a 70 foot narrowboat with my husband and two young daughters. My daughters were born on board our boat and sleep in a gorgeous boatman’s cabin all painted with traditional roses and castles. At Boatshed Grand Union I help with the administration, blogging and social media networking. I work for a number of other boating related businesses doing similar work and I’m also a freelance writer. If you’re considering living aboard you may enjoy a series of blog posts I wrote about living on a boat.

Both Phil and I write articles for the Boatshed blog. If you enjoy our blog you may like to subscribe by email or RSS (links are near the top of the side bar). Alternatively our contact page http://grandunion.boatshed.com/contact.php has links to our Twitter feed and Facebook page. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter you get weekly blog updates, recently reduced boats, new listings and other boaty news.

We have recently welcomed Adrian Ezard to the team as a broker. He will be working from Gloucester and covering the Severn, Avon and Sharpness Canal. His work includes meeting boat owners on board and taking up to 80 photos and videos of each boat. Either Phil or Adrian accompany all viewings and communicate all offers to the seller. We handle the sale from start to finish, keeping you informed throughout.

Brian Duckett

We also work closely with Brian and Johannah Duckett at Boatshed London. http://london.boatshed.com/index.php If you are buying or selling a boat in London - in St Katherine's Dock, South Dock Marina, Limehouse Marina, Chelsea Harbour, Poplar Marina, Gallions Point or any of the other London marinas or moorings, they would be happy to help you. They run Boatshed London from their office aboard HMS President which is moored on Victoria Embankment, close to Blackfriars Bridge.

Boatshed Grand Union and Boatshed London are just two local parts of a worldwide brokerage. Boatshed has offices across 10 countries and each one is owned and operated on a licence basis by people passionate about boats.

So that’s who we are: boaters who love boats. If you have a boat for sale we’d love to take it on brokerage for you.

Peggy Melmoth
http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Brian's office

Peggy's office

Tom Rolt on the Shropshire Union

2012-02-20T11:00:00.000Z

I’ve just finished reading the classic and legendary book ‘Narrow Boat’ by LTC Rolt. It was first published in 1944 and is believed to have a played a key part in the revival of the waterways as a leisure resource. He and his wife Angela fitted out the boat and then travelled the waterways enjoying the timeless nature of the English countryside.

As Tom travels he rejoices in finding rural remnants of times gone by, and deplores the sometimes ugly face of ‘progress’. Nostalgically at Nantwich he notes that the atmosphere of an old market town, catering soley for the needs of an agricultural area is preserved.

“The countrymen of Cheshire do not live out of tins and refuse to accept inferior imported foods. To ask a Nantwich butcher for foreign meat would constitute a personal insult, and during our stay in Cheshire we had home-killed joints that in their tenderness and flavour rivalled the famous roasts of Simpsons in the Strand.”

Here Tom and Angela enjoyed chorley cakes, pikelets, local oatcakes and Cheshire cheese. At that time Audlem was a “sleepy group of old houses, inns and shops clustering about a church perched upon a mound.”

They made light work of the Audlem flight, and enjoyed the rolling wooded country at the summit. They soon arrived at ‘Dirty Fair’ in Market Drayton and this is one of my favourite parts of the book. Tom describes the cattle market and gypsies in lyrical detail and tells a charming anecdote of horse trading, featuring a “plausible rogue”; a “picturesque characterful figure.”

I wonder if The Wharf Inn at Goldstone Common is still there with a cheerful fire blazing in the bar parlour? I’d like to travel the densely wooded cuttings of the Shropshire Union which even then was “uncommonly well supplied” with canal side inns. The Wrekin dominates the landscape here; part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Shropshire Canal terminates at Autherley stop lock and the working boatmen used to call this ‘Cut End’. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal down to Stourport was commonly known as the ‘Stour Cut’.

If you haven’t yet read this book it would be the perfect companion to take on the Canal Voyagers Stourport to Nantwich cruise. From Autherley to Nantwich Taurus and Snipe will be retracing the waterways cruised by Tom and Angela in 1939 and you can see for yourself what’s changed and what hasn’t. The Staffs & Worcester is Corinne's favourite canal and The Shropshire Union is one of Neil's favourites. Take your camera, because the views are amazing!

Find out more and check availability at http://www.canalvoyagers.com/cruises/sto-nan.html

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Neil and Corinne at Canal Voyagers. Follow the link to subscribe to their blog. Visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for business blogging, social media services and freelance writing commissions. This post contains an affiliate link to Amazon.

Roving Traders and the CRT Council

2012-02-15T13:13:00.002Z

Cheeseboat 2

So, voting has now opened for boat owners to elect four boaters to represent licence holders on the Canal and River Trust’s National Council. The council will consist of 35 members but only four of these will be boaters! Voting is open until noon on 9th March and ballot packs are currently being sent out to voters. However, BW does not consider Boatshed Grand Union brokerage to be a waterways business; they simply consider a waterways business to be a company that has a British Waterways trading licence; so we will not be eligible to vote.

A group of boaters who do hold trading licences have set up a website with the aim of giving a voice to the small roving canal traders on the UKs waterways. The aim is to promote and enhance their unique trading community which includes floating businesses such as; The Cheese Boat, The Graphics Boat, Fudge Boat, Cookie Boat, Tillercycles (who repair and sell bikes), Book boats, Coal Boats, Art Galleries, knitting and sewing boats, a traditional canalware and crafts boat, a boat selling LED lighting and two travelling hair salons.

It's important to have independent businesses like these represented on the CRT council. Graham Phillips owns Tia www.tiacares.co.uk a small business afloat, based mainly in the south Midlands, supplying environmentally responsible cleaning products. Lorraine Fox is based around London and owns www.thesandwichbarge.co.uk Together they are the two candidates representing the Roving Canal Traders. Read more at http://www.canaltraders.org.uk/

Any changes in waterways rules and regulations affect their ability to trade, so giving these traders a voice on the CRT council is important. There are just five candidates standing for the two seats available in the Boating Business “constituency”.

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a roving canal trader Boatshed Grand Union is the best place to start your search for narrowboats for sale; and if you have a canal boat for sale we sell boats for boaters. Will you take your business afloat this year?

Peggy Melmoth
Floating writer and virtual assistant!
http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.

Images from: http://www.canaltraders.org.uk/

The Frozen Canal Slide Show

2012-02-13T09:29:00.001Z

Narrowboat and frozen canal

I love Erica and Antonias ebooks and courses - especially the free ones! The Ace Blogging e-Course suggested adding a slide show to your blog and I've been meaning to try it for ages. But why use a slideshow? Erica says,
"A slideshow is simply another way to present content to your audience. It varies your blog up a bit, and there are some things that I think look better as a slideshow - for example presenting a number of pictures and telling a short story."
So this is a collection of pictures of the canal frozen around Marsworth, including lots of narrowboats and snow, ducks and swans. This is basically the things that I see on the nursery run when we're walking to nursery. Our boat is in there somewhere too.

Now, I thought embedding the code meant the slideshow would appear here on the blog but it seems you need to click on the link below and go to YouTube. Let me know if you know how to fix that! It took me ages to sort out 'cause I had to download Picasa and join You Tube, so please leave me a comment :-)

Anyway, if you only see one frozen canal slide show this year, see this one!

View Narrowboat Wife's Frozen Canal Slide Show

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link to Ace Inspire.

Boats That Blog

2012-02-08T10:00:00.000Z

I recently wrote about Boats That Tweet but you will find that a lot of canal and narrowboaters who tweet, are also boats that blog. Many narrowboat blogs are cruising logs, and while some are a written diary, others are more focussed on keeping a photographic record of their journey.

It’s pretty impossible to pick my favourite boating blogs because there are so many good ones! Instead I’ve chosen three very different boating blogs to give you a flavour of the variety that’s out there.

Granny Buttons
http://www.grannybuttons.com/

The UK Waterways ranking site lists the most popular boating blogs of the moment and Andrew Denney’s blog Granny Buttons is consistently at the top of that list. Granny Buttons is the name of his narrowboat and he shares his own thoughts and opinions related to the canals and waterways of England. This is a good example of a blog with a lot of reader interaction as the comments thread often sparks off discussions. He also displays a long list of boating blogs in his side bar so it’s a good starting point for discovering more blogs.

Writings From the Where Ever

http://fancifulalice.blogspot.com/

Alice Griffin is a mother, wife, writer, traveller, dreamer, vegetarian, animal lover, seeker of peace, crafter and sometimes a gardener; just doing her best to live an authentic life aboard her narrowboat. She writes heart-felt posts about finding beauty in the little things, and describes how living afloat and being so close to nature can be good for the soul and good for her little girl.

Living on a Narrowboat
http://livingonanarrowboat.co.uk/

Paul Smith’s website is more than a blog, it is a wealth of information about the reality of living aboard. It includes case studies of liveaboards, marina reviews, and lots of useful articles. To view all of the content you need to subscribe, but membership is free. There are over 4000 subscribers and the site receives up to 6,000 visits each month, so he must be doing something right!

To follow this blog click on the little orange button towards the top right corner of the page and subscribe to the RSS feed. Alternatively, you can receive Boatshed news updates by liking our page on http://on.fb.me/mdBX5L]Facebook [/lor following us on Twitter @BoatshedGU. Our news feeds also let you know when we have a new boat for sale. If you have a boat for sale, we would be delighted to take it on brokerage for you.

I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.
For business blogging, social media and other virtual assistant services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Now I'm a Page Three Girl!

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000Z

Who'da thought it, but my latest article is on page 3 of the January issue of Towpath Talk.
I met another boater on the towpath a while back, who said,
"Did you hear a couple of loud bangs the other day? They found a couple of unexploded bombs on the Aylesbury Arm!"
A little bit of investigating later I had come up with my 'scoop'!

Unexploded Bombs on the Aylesbury Arm

Several unexploded World War II bombs were discovered near Dixon's Gap Bridge on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union in early November. The British Waterways maintenance team uncovered seven mortar bombs which were about 15 inches in length and 2 inches in width. The team found the devices after draining a section of the canal in preparation to start lock gate repairs at Lock number five. The local police were contacted, who in turn alerted the bomb squad. After the suspicious devices had been x-rayed they were carefully removed from the canal bed and blown up in a controlled explosion on a nearby field.

Read more here: Towpath Talk January 2012 Issue

#SilentSunday

2012-02-05T11:12:00.001Z

Foraging with Children

2012-02-01T10:30:00.000Z

I'm excited to have Helen as a guest blogger on here today, she is a contributor to my eBook Canal Activities for Kids. (I am still accepting submissions if you are a writer/blogger.)

Helen was a reluctant convert to boating but, having married a fanatic, finally embraced the inevitable and now delights in holidaying aboard their 42½ foot narrowboat. A serious accident in 2010 left her incapacitated for much of the following year giving her time to admire the hedgerows and develop something of an obsession in foraging and preserve making. Her watery and foraging adventures can be found at: http://wildthymebank.wordpress.com

Foraging with Children

Children are natural foragers. They enjoy collecting, gathering, sorting and, given the opportunity, will often while away endless hours outdoors. Watch any toddler and you will see them pick up objects and explore them; usually with their mouths. Naturally this is a source of much consternation to their parents but teaching a child how to forage safely has the potential to be an enjoyable family activity that helps us to re-connect with our surroundings.

The towpath is quite possibly the best place to learn about foraging. It is teeming with possibilities, all largely accessible and freely available. But before going much further, it is important to establish a few basic rules. To forage safely:

1. Never eat from a plant you cannot identify without absolute certainty. Teach your children to always check a plant with you BEFORE eating it in ALL circumstances. If in doubt, leave it out.

2. Take a good field guide with you. My favourites are listed on my blog.

3. Do not pick from land that belongs to someone without their permission. It is illegal to dig up any roots and some plants are protected so check before picking.

4. Do not strip a plant bare. Leave some fruit for other foragers, some for other wildlife and some for propagation. Only take what you can use.

These are useful principles to always bear in mind when foraging.

My experience of foraging with children is that short trips, picking with a definite, preferably delicious, purpose in mind are the ideal. This may, of course, be because my children have short attention spans, but then again, the same can be said of my husband! For a first venture I would suggest picking something that everyone can recognise like elderflower, blackberries or apples. Elderflower are found from late May to early July and line the towpaths in numerous places. Blackberries are plentiful in the autumn but the wild variety can be very prickly so little fingers may get hurt. Hunting apples is lots of fun. Again, during the late summer and autumn months many trees can be found up and down the cut. If you are lucky enough to be on a stretch of canal with abandoned lockkeepers cottages then fruit trees may abound as cottage gardens run to seed. Children enjoy gathering windfalls, climbing trees, shaking branches and then cooking with their harvest. The following recipe is an excellent one for all types of children, be they 2 or 92!

Toffee Apple Muffins

Makes 12

100g soft margarine

225g caster sugar

2 large eggs

150mls natural yogurt

5 tbsp milk

275g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 large apples

12 pieces of fudge (1 for each muffin)

Preheat oven to 190c/375f/Gas 5

Line 12 muffin tins with paper cases.

Place the margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, yogurt and milk until combined.

Peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and fold in to the egg mixture with apple until just blended.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.

Chop each piece of fudge into 4 and poke into muffin mix ensuring it does not touch the sides and is completely covered.

Bake for 25 mins or until a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in tin for 5 mins, then turn onto wire rack to cool completely.

Thousands of Miles of Waterways

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000Z

This is a guest post from Phil Bassett at Boatshed Grand Union, who has discovered some cool canal maps online.
.
I have heard many figures quoted for the number of miles of navigable waterways in the UK: It is certainly several thousand. How do you find your way around such an extensive network? Well there is a route planner http://http//canalplan.eu which I love. It's great for planning routes and will give you an itinerary, plot your route on Google maps and show you a photographic tour. Mike Kelly's http://eureauweb.com/Water-Way application is a great location aware information system that is really useful to have on board. All the information and route-planning of a Nicholson's Guide plus more, in electronic form. Lately I have found this great map of the inland waterways at the UKWRS site. So now you know how much of the waterways there is to explore and you have the means to find your way around. Jump into the Boatshed site and look at all the narrowboats for sale that we have in Hertfordshire and London as well as the Dutch Barges and Wide-beams.

Visit the Boatshed Grand Union blog here.

#BoatsThatTweet

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000Z

Yes, I too was one of those people who asked, “What is the point of Twitter?” I had already wasted hours on Facebook keeping in touch with my friends’ status updates, and I didn’t need a whole other social world on line to mysteriously suck away my time and energy. But as I got more into blogging and ‘met’ other bloggers on line I kept hearing that tweeting was the thing to do.

I find Twitter to be a lot faster and busier experience than Facebook, it is a constantly moving conversation, like walking into a bar where everyone is talking at once: That makes it sound awful! But it’s a quick and easy way of sharing news, links and information. It’s a place to socialise, network and meet new people.

To get people ‘following’ you on Twitter you need a short and interesting bio, saying what you’re about. Advertise your Twitter ID on your email signature, blog, other social network profiles, and website if you have one. Follow other people and companies with similar interests, and follow people that you would like to follow you. Whenever you see something interesting ‘retweet’ it, and that person will thank you.

On Twitter I’ve discovered people that I would never have randomly met or spoken to in real life. Last week I discovered a campaign to stop the government closing 50% of coastguard stations that is tweeted by @CoastalJoe1. I heard that a 74 year old man who fell into the Coventry Canal at Tamworth is seeking the girl who saved him via @unofficialNBW and I heard that British Waterways are looking for volunteer lock keepers via @waterscape_com. It’s also useful to follow @BWcomms. Boats I’ve tweeted with recently include @hotelboats (Snipe and Taurus) @b0atg1rl, @nbchalford, @workinboatwoman and @albiondumsday (Granny Buttons narrowboat blog). I’ve even discovered a boating hairdresser @FloatingSalon. @workboatpug is an Oxford based marine engineer who publishes a daily online paper called ‘Tweets from the Fleet’, sharing boating articles and information.

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It is a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic. Hash tags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic by making it easier for them to find and share information related to it. Try following the hash tag #BoatsThatTweet and easily discover so much more about canals and narrowboating!

This week I will be taking over the Boatshed Grand Union Twitter account so why not follow me @BoatshedGU for regular news updates from this blog and information about buying and selling narrowboats?

You can also follow my personal account @Boat_Wife for blog updates from www.narrowboatwife.blogspot.com and any other random things I might tweet about.

I look forward to ‘meeting’ you on Twitter!

Boat-Wife
xx

I Want a Widget!

2012-01-23T10:02:00.000Z

Yes, a widget is an actual blogging thing, but I suppose the thing that I really want is an email gadget.

I’m happy to have begun working with Paul from the popular website Living on a Narrowboat. I’ll be providing some content for Paul and he has featured me in an interview on the site. I also wrote this article about living aboard with kids. When Paul emails me he has this great email signature that includes his photo, social media and blog feeds, so you can see his latest tweet and article title. It looks great and I want one!

So I signed up to Wise Stamp and was told that the more people I recommend the faster they will give me my widget!

If you would like one please click on my referral link here

Great for bloggers and businesses.

Urgent: Your Boat is Causing an Obstruction!

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000Z

Low water level - Startops Reservoir

I'm not usually one of those boating bloggers that rants against BW, so my apologies in advance because this is a bit of a rant.

Last Thursday I received an email from the BW Boating Co-ordinator South East to say that “The mooring of your boat is causing an obstruction to waterway staff and therefore it is essential that you remove the boat urgently.”

This was my reply.

Dear Boating Co-ordinator

On Monday afternoon I checked my email and found that the Tring Summit would be closed as of Wednesday and that we would have to vacate our winter mooring. At this extremely short notice my husband arranged to take Tuesday off work so that he could move our boat. I went to work, my husband took the children to nursery and by 9am he had begun working through the Marsworth flight.

At 11.25am on Tuesday 10th BW sent me some further information “regarding the water levels in the area where you currently have a winter mooring.” This lengthy explanation of the problem again re-iterated that the section would be closed to through traffic and moored boats from Wednesday 11th onwards. The document said that displaced boats could relocate their moorings

“to the north, adjacent to Marsworth yard. Good parking and facilities are available.”

Later that day we received a further email admitting that this was short notice, and giving boaters until Saturday to relocate. My husband had by then moored on the towpath in Marsworth but I told him that as winter moorers we'd received an email suggesting that we could moor adjacent to the Marsworth yard, allowing us the convenience of good parking and facilities. He moved the boat again.

Today the local enforcement officer told my husband that we should have been moored north of the bridge on a towpath mooring. Later today I got home from work to find two urgent voicemails and an email accusing us of causing an obstruction and asking us to move again, immediately.

I did not appreciate the tone of these messages when we have gone out of our way to move quickly to the place we were told to. We are unable to take any more time off work. If BW staff need access to the site they may relocate our boat as necessary to the north side of the bridge but I believe my husband has already requested that we are moored against the towpath (not double moored) as we have young children and a pushchair to get on and off the boat.

As I have since found out, local water-based businesses were invited to a crisis meeting last Saturday about the water level problem so I am sure this has not arisen completely “out of the blue”. Following the short notice, inconvenience and misinformation we've experienced I would think an apology would have been more appropriate than the emails, voice mails and conversations we've had with BW staff that seem to suggest we have done something wrong. This is unfortunately another incidence where BW has made me feel that I am an inconvenience instead of a valued customer. We moved as quickly as possible to the place where we were told to and are being made to feel as if we've done something wrong.

Boat Wife

Dear BW

I write to confirm that I have just spoken to the enforcement officer and we will be moving our boat tomorrow to Marsworth winter moorings, north of the bridge. Given that she has said this will be ok, I am disappointed that we had to be so stressed out yesterday by messages such as "urgent" and "immediate". Please forward my feedback to the people who handle your communications strategy.

Thanks

Boat Wife

Dear Boating Co-ordinator

CC: Senior Waterway Manager

Thank you for your apology.

I do indeed think we were misled about where to moor. I had assumed we were specifically told to go to the BW yard because of anticipated congestion in the area, and the fact that we had paid for a winter mooring.

I am working this afternoon, but if BW staff do need to move my boat today please ask them to leave me a voice message explaining where it now is. My husband got the impression from the enforcement officer that it would have to be moved urgently. Otherwise we will try to find an alternative mooring tomorrow, when we are not working.

Thanks

Boat Wife

Have linked this up to the Friday Rant at http://www.muddlingalongmummy.com/

Epilogue

The original urgent voicemail I received from the enforcement officer said,
“I know that you have a winter mooring but you should be on the towpath. We have two staff boats coming down there and they need to get on to the wharf.”
I know that BW are doing some work at the yard and I didn’t want to obstruct any working boats needing access, so we moved our boat on Saturday.

On Sunday, the enforcement officer (who usually moors on the Tring summit) had moved her own residential craft onto the mooring adjacent to the BW yard.

Read more about the Tring summit closure.

The pictures below show the current low water levels in the reservoirs and above Marsworth bottom lock.

How to sell a boat

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000Z

At a time when some businesses are struggling, our biggest problem at Boatshed Grand Union is that we seem to be selling too many boats – we have several under offer at the moment and are ready to take on more boats for brokerage. To meet the demand of our large and expanding database of 240,000 registered customers we need more canal and narrowboats to sell.

How is Boatshed different?

We put your boat onto more than 50 websites of our own websites, which we advertise in all the main boating magazines. We also have direct computer links that put you boat straight onto Apollo Duck and other similar sites.

No need to move your boat – we sell it where it is.

You can still live aboard.

No sale – no fee.

More photos than any other broker provides.

We offer a complete service, including handling all the paperwork and financial transactions. Our brokers accompany customer viewings, therefore making themselves available to answer any questions that a customer has. On average it can take about twelve viewings to sell a boat (that's the world-wide average) yet at Boatshed Grand Union the average number of viewings before a sale is four. By the time the buyer travels to your boat they have already seen so many photos of all aspects of your boat that they have a really good idea of what to expect.

When I bought my current boat from Boatshed I was amazed at how quick and efficient the process was: It's traditional brokerage but with cutting edge technology. If you're interested in experiencing a way of selling your boat with minimal hassle and stress then get in touch. After all – no sale, no fee, nothing to lose! We sell boats for boaters.

http://grandunion.boatshed.com/listmyboat.php

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.
For business blogging and other services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Family Friendly Working

2012-01-17T11:00:00.000Z

Today I am excited to be the featured mumpreneur on Antonia Chitty's website http://www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk/
Antonia is an inspiring writer and mumpreneur who combines writing non fiction books with running her own PR Agency, ACPR which specialises in PR training for entrepreneurs.

Family Friendly Working is for you if:

■~ you have a job, but feel fed up with trying to do too much in too little time

■~ feel torn between work and spending time with your children

■~ dream of being a mumpreneur

■~ would you love to find work that fits in with the family

■~ are running your own business and want resources and support

Thanks to Antonia and Kizzy for featuring me today.

Become a Mumpreneur (Affiliate link)

My brand new blog is here!

2012-01-16T10:30:00.000Z

At the beginning of this year I started a business blog covering the freelance writing, business blogging and virtual assistant side of life! I might write about blogging and social media tips, answer FAQs, showcase my writing, review relevant books, tell you about my experience and history or give you an insight into working from home on a narrowboat. I haven't really decided yet.
Now that I've got a few clients for business blogging and am doing some social media promotion and freelance writing work I thought I'd better add a blog to my business site.
Services include business blogging, content producing, copywriting, audiotyping/transcription, secretary service, virtual assistant, and social media. I've put some special January sale prices on the site too, as a special offer! Even if you don't need this kind of service, perhaps you could like me on Facebook so that your friends know about my new business, and I can get out there and promote their small businesses with my super blogging powers!
I've got a good feeling about 2012...

http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

The Best Goal is No Goal

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000Z

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there".
Lewis Carroll/ George Harrison

So, I’ve been procrastinating about making my New Year resolutions because Leo Babauta at Zen Habits blog says that the best goal is no goal! But what do you do if you don’t have goals?

“You simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.”

Last week I looked back at my resolutions and found that I’d achieved about half of my goals last year. For the ones that I did not achieve I’ve asked myself, did I really want to do them anyway?

Yes, I do want to finish one of the books that I started. I’m going to have to schedule in a time slot for that and get started on it. I love writing, it won’t be a chore, it’s just making the time for it. Time is a problem for achieving the other things too; housework, exercise and self-hypnosis. To make time for new things, other things have to go. In the first week of the year I removed the habits of red wine and TV from my life. I didn’t make myself any promises; I didn’t make any resolutions or sweeping statements. But I made conscious choices to do something else. I was busy. I had some writing work to do. But am I ready to let go and flow freely through life without goals? That sounds a bit scary, like being tossed about at sea! (Like the creatures in the river that are afraid to let go in Richard Bach’s Illusions).

For exercise I was thinking of trying running. I love to walk on the towpath enjoying nature. Surely running will simply be enjoying the canal, but at a faster pace? But then I look at that January weather and the squelchy muddy towpath and tell myself that I can’t remember where my trainers are…

So, instead of goals or resolutions, how about wishes?

I wish my book was finished and published.
I wish my boat was cleaner and tidier.
I wish I was fitter, healthier and had more energy.
I wish I drank less alcohol.
I wish I had more regular writing work.
I wish I had a driving licence.
I wish I was more calm and confident.

I know from being a hypnotherapist that all I need to do now is change those wishes into affirmations and actions!

I am now finishing my book.
My boat is becoming tidier and cleaner.
I am now fitter, healthier and have more and more energy.
I now drink less alcohol.
I have more and more writing work.
I am now learning my driving theory.
I am becoming more and more calm and confident.

So, my “goal” is to focus on the results, without setting down strict rules about how to get there.

What's your plan?
“Make each day your masterpiece.”
John Wooden, Sportsman

Why I Work for Boatshed

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000Z

On Valentine’s day last year my husband and I were in a pub talking about getting a bigger boat. I said that my perfect boat would be a 70 foot narrowboat, green, with side hatches and a ‘boatman’s cabin’. I’ve always fancied having the living room at the front of the boat with glass doors to the front deck so that you can look out at the glistening water up ahead.

Way back when I was looking for my first boat I feasted my eyes on glossy waterways magazines and caught trains all over England to boatyards full of gleaming paintwork and tongue and groove interiors. More than ten years later things have changed and so much of the searching can be done on the internet. After a couple of weeks of casual browsing, my husband sent me an email with no words, just a link to an online boat brokerage. At Boatshed Grand Union there are up to eighty photos of each second hand boat for sale so you can get a really good idea of what a boat is like before going to view it.

There, before my eyes was a 70 foot narrowboat, green, with side hatches and a boatman’s cabin. The living room was at the front of the boat with double glass doors to the front deck so that you could look out at the glistening water up ahead.

Phil, the boat broker said that I could come up to see it the next day. So while my husband went to work I took the kids on the train to Hertfordshire to see the boat. It was a golden sunshiney day: The boat was perfect. We put in an offer and I told Phil that I was moving to Hertfordshire and looking for work.
‘Do you need any help at Boatshed?’

The next day the vendor accepted our offer. I know that we were lucky, but it seemed like such an efficient way to buy a boat. The photos had shown us so much of the boat; the good bits and the bad bits, that we knew it was just what we were looking for.

After we’d bought the boat and moved on board I chased Phil up about helping him at Boatshed and after an eventful interview on his boat where I drank his wine and he broke his leg (another story) he agreed to let me become a part of Boatshed Grand Union! So that is how and why I came to work for Boatshed, the world’s number one yacht brokerage: Global reach and local knowledge.

What’s your perfect boat? Browse canal and narrowboats for sale at Boatshed Grand Union.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union. For business blogging/virtual assistant visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

You may also like this post:

http://narrowboatwife.blogspot.com/2011/05/ahoy-there-commodore.html

Who works on the waterways in 2012?

2012-01-04T12:43:00.000Z

During the Industrial Revolution as the Irish navigators or “navvies” continued to build the waterways network, steerers were needed for the boats and lock keepers were required for a variety of maintenance tasks.

Other related professions included Reservoir Keeper, Blacksmith, Superintendent of Canal Works, Canal Toll Clerk, Wharfinger, ‘Navigator’, ‘Canal Labourer/Navvy’ and ‘Boat Boy’. (1) The canal-side inn keeper often provided stables as well as refreshments, and later, when the boatmen moved their families on board, boat steerers became boatwomen as well as boatmen. Then of course there were occasional canal-side shops and the boatyards which included boat building, boat maintenance and the painting of boat names and decorative livery such as roses and castles.

At the height of the canal age these major trade routes would have been busy with cargo carrying boats working fourteen hour days; a very different scene to the relaxing leisure resource that the canals have become today. During a peaceful stroll down the towpath, a rural cycle ride or a day’s fishing would you suspect that the canal is still a hive of activity and a place of business for many modern canal folk?

In the 21st century there is a surprising diversity of businesses on the waterways. I can think of The Marine Engineer, The Boat Broker, The Coal boat, The Trip Boat, Roses and Castles, The Floating Hairdresser, The Virtual Assistant, The Writer, The Book Barge, The Sandwich Butty, The Cheese Boat, The Puppet Barge and Mikron Theatre to name but a few. I haven’t even begun to think of the variety of employees at British Waterways; soon to become The Canal and Rivers Trust.

People like Phil, Brian, James and I at Boatshed have made canals and boats a part of our working life. Phil says, “We are very pleased to be the first Boatshed brokerage dedicated to the Inland Waterways of the UK. We share a passion for canals and canal boats and we are very lucky to be able to work at something we enjoy so much.”

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius

New Year is a time for new projects and taking leaps of faith. Whether you’re thinking of working on the waterways, living aboard or taking up pleasure boating, your perfect boat could be waiting for you at Boatshed Grand Union. Seize the day!

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union
For business blogging and other services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/
Images of a day boat and a trip boat: part of a business for sale at Boatshed Grand Union.

Ref. (1) Census history reported by Marsworth Local History Group in The Marsworth Village Newsletter April 2011

Does Goal Setting Work?

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000Z

Becoming a Writer

It’s time again for the New Year’s Resolutions, so I thought I’d look at last year’s blog post where I made a mighty list of (unlucky?) thirteen resolutions! How did the year pan out?

1) Set Realistic Goals. I broke this resolution already when I made a list of 13 goals! I began this blog by writing that our mission was to be boaters, travellers, writers and parents, but I didn’t know if it was realistic to be all of those things, as well as a medical secretary, a hypnotherapist, a home-maker and a wife. In 2011 we were boaters, travellers, writers and parents, but I dropped the hypnotherapist and medical secretary parts of my life. I’m quite pleased with that!

2) Enjoy my children, every day. Spend quality time together. Life is short. I think I do this, but I still need to be reminded of it.

3) Put some TLC into my marriage; recognise thoughtfulness, make time for each other, listen, and focus on the positives. I did do this and we are in a much better place than we were last year. We happily enjoyed our five year wedding anniversary on 11/11/11.

4) Get a bigger home, more storage space, a washing machine. I’m really pleased about achieving this one. Our gorgeous new boat is my dream home, and it has a washing machine.

5) Sell a freelance article. I’ve had articles published, but this year I am going to be paid for writing something! I have bought a book about it. Ok so I didn’t read the book, but I have been published in Towpath Talk and Waterways World, with more writing work coming up! A dream come true. And I’ve set up my freelance website http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/writing/

6) Finish writing one of the three books I’ve started writing. Now I can’t remember what one of these books was! But the other two are still unfinished. But I am really going to finish the Narrowboat Wife book soon. And I did write an ebook, Narrowboat Families.

7) Keep on top of the housework/ boat chores. Not so good at this. But what mother of two pre-school kids has a pristine home? I’m better at not giving myself a hard time over this.

8) Settle in a community. Get some neighbours and a local pub. I’m happily enjoying our new winter mooring at The Grand Junction Arms and we’ve got to know a few local boaters, and even some house people!

9) Exercise – swimming or yoga? I failed miserably on finding the time for this. But now that we don’t live in London I walk a lot more – there’s not even a bus route to the Grand Junction Arms. I’m in The Countryside without a driving licence. I walk up hills pushing a heavy pushchair with two children in it; that’s got to count for something! I also pull mooring ropes and push lock gate balance beams.

10) Be more calm and confident – use self-hypnosis more often! I did not manage this one. I hardly listened to my lovely, relaxing self-hypnosis mp3 and have been waaay too anxious this year. But it did lead to some great creative writing about my imaginary friend Mick Jagger.

11) Promote my blog. I did pretty well at this and now have about 2000 page views a month. I’m not promoting it any more though – no time! And I’ve had about 24,000 page views in total. Amazin! Although I heard on BritMums that it’s not cool to count.

12) Get a job related to writing. So, I’m doing a bit of feature writing and a bit of business blogging and I’m really enjoying it. I’m also doing some medical audio-transcription, being a virtual assistant and starting a temp job as a part time library assistant. I know I sound busy but I do actually need more clients. Please visit my website to see how I can help your business.

13) Long term goal – make writing my career. I have definitely made some good steps towards this.

Overall Score: 7/13

I’m really happy with that, and quite surprised! But I heard it’s not cool to count.

Next week: The Best Goal is No Goal

#silentsunday

2012-01-01T08:24:00.004Z

A trip to the boatyard for diesel

2011-12-30T10:00:00.000Z

I put the kettle on, start the engine and put more laundry in the machine, followed by a kettle full of hot water. I put the little one into her cot for a nap and begin to move the boat towards the boat yard. The water level's down, it's very shallow so I have to reverse the stern out just so that I can get away from the bank. It's hard to manoeuvre as it's so windy, now that we're out of the Tring cutting. For this short journey Big Sister is my ship-mate on the roof.

As I turn the boat in towards Cowroast boatyard she begins to sing the Erie Canal song and I smile.

“Low bridge, everybody down! Low bridge, we're coming to the town.”

Our bow travels under the towpath footbridge and enters the basin full of moored boats. It's so windy that I know I can't turn this 70 footer around such a tight corner without bashing in to moored boats, so I pull it around the corner using the ropes; it seemed to take at least half an hour to do that and get tied up. My four year old is 'helping' by holding the end of the rope that I've got.
“Mum, we are doing good team work!” she grins.
“I know we can do it because we've done it before!” she adds.

By 2.20pm we are finally moored beside the diesel pump, even though we are actually only about five minutes walk from the field-side mooring that we have just set off from. We leave baby sister sleeping in her cot and head off to the shop to meet the new owner.

The new owner is smiley and friendly and offers us home-baked cup cakes from a plastic box on the counter in the chandlery.
“My neighbour made them.” He gives me a key to the diesel pump and a token for the sewage pump-out machine. Sorting out the diesel and pump-out is a filthy business. Big Sister plays quietly beside the boat with her invisible 'Wish Friends'.

We return to the shop to pay the man. I give him my freelance secretary advert for the boaters' noticeboard and offer to help him with the bookkeeping.

It's easier to steer the boat out of the boat yard than it was to pull the boat in. Big Sister has opted to stay indoors and the little one is now on the roof. Luckily there is a mooring space almost as soon as we come out of the boat yard.

One of my least favourite boating moments is battling to bash a mooring pin into a hard piece of ground whilst my youngest is whining on the roof,
“Down now!”
I am of small build, it takes me so much longer than my husband to get the pegs in. She whines,
“Mummy...Mummy... Mummy,” repeatedly while I bang the peg with a mallet.
She wants to get off the boat. My temper snaps.
“Will you stop shouting at me? I'm mooring up the boat!”
A pang of guilt passes through me. Getting diesel and a pump-out is not a fun day out for the children. I promise myself that I will take them to the park tomorrow.

By 4.10pm we are moored up and the children are safe and warm indoors. It's dusk now. I move the pushchair from the front deck to the back deck, my boots squidging down a damp autumnal towpath, under woodland branches. The amber glowing rectangle of the kitchen window shines comfortably onto the muddy towpath as I return, walking alongside this length of green-painted steel I think to myself once again,
“This, is my dream home.”

Getting Afloat on New Years Eve

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000Z

www.citycruises.com

Why not take a canal boat down the Thames and get a fantastic view of the New Year’s Eve fireworks on the London Eye? Sadly, bravely cruising into the night without a place to moor is not as safe as it sounds. Moorings are usually passenger piers or pontoons dedicated to authorised cruises, and I’m of the belief that taking a small boat on the Thames is something that requires a little planning and plenty of daylight!

So what are the options for those who’d like to be on the water when Big Ben strikes midnight and the fireworks begin?

City Cruises are providing a selection of passenger cruises, some including a buffet or dinner and dancing, but these are all but sold out already. At the time of writing there were gala dinners or champagne cruises still available at Thames Boat Cruises and with London Party Boats passengers can embark on a “fun, spectacular and mind-blowing voyage” on the MV Pride of London.

But why stray so far from the Cut when you could be tucked into a cosy canal-side pub with a tankard of real ale? What you need is the Canal and Riverside Pubs website. Browse your own local stretch of waterway to find each pub’s contact details listed, sometimes with a map, web address, food and facilities included. You can locate a pub by its road address or by the nearest lock, bridge or place. Where ever possible it is indicated whether there is a garden, children’s play area, WiFi and whether it is dog friendly.

It’s a hard job attempting to keep the guide up to date however, by continually visiting pubs and sampling the refreshments. If you visit one of the pubs listed on the site this new year’s eve, or know of a pub that they have yet to include in the guide, then please help the team by getting in touch. They’d love to hear of any updates to the information.

When you've read the guide you will want to buy a narrowboat to visit all the pubs!

Happy New Year!

The Rising Sun, Berkhamsted

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.

For business blogging, virtual assistance and other affordable business services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Image Credits:
Fireworks on the Thames from the City Cruises website www.citycruises.com/newyear.htm

The Rising Sun Pub, George Street, Berkhamsted, HP4 2EG on the Grand Union Canal
© Copyright http://www.canalandriversidepubs.co.uk/ and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Waterways chaplains to help boaters!

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000Z

About once a month I take our boat to a marina to top up on diesel and empty the toilet. For her own safety my toddler daughter is sat on the hatch cover and secured to the roof with a safety harness while we cruise.

As we pass under a bridge we see the first of the moored boats that line the waterway up to Cowroast lock and I steer towards the bank. Two gentlemen in matching black jackets are on the towpath smiling at the sight of my daughter on the roof. As we approach I can see that they want to help me moor up so I throw them a rope. One of them is carrying a windlass and their jackets are labelled, 'Waterways Chaplain.' I've lived on the Cut for eleven years and I've never heard of a Waterways Chaplain! These jolly gentlemen are from the Salvation Army and roam the towpath helping people in whatever way they can.
“There are people with problems on the canal; drugs and alcohol. We can provide a listening ear or help with practical things like access to healthcare.”
One holds the mid-rope, another helps me to bash a peg in to the ground.

The waterways ministry was stopped in the 1960s but is being revived as part of a Workplace Ministries project in the Diocese of St Albans. They offer pastoral and practical support for live-aboard boaters in need, providing food, clothing, water, benefits advice or just a listening ear. They have even been known to provide water when taps are frozen in winter, a new chimney, a new battery or comfort to a lonely live-aboard widow.

The Salvation Army waterways ministry first began in 1908 around Fenny Stratford, praying with and talking to working boatmen and their families in their narrow boat cabins. In 2012 more volunteers will be needed as they ultimately aim to cover the Grand Union from Braunston down to Rickmansworth and also the rivers Lee and the Stort.

There is also the Boaters Christian Fellowship who have several mission boats on the canal and hold services at boat festivals. BCF encourages fellowship through chance and planned meetings whilst on the waterways.

I tell them we're headed to Cowroast boat yard and they say that it's under new management. My little one presents one chaplain with her huge cuddly Peppa Pig, and then gives the other one her used tissue.

They wander on up the towpath and we head in to the warmth of the boat for a spaghetti lunch.

If the build up to Christmas has re-ignited your community spirit perhaps you could help?

Volunteers are provided with advice and training, a jacket identifying them as a waterways chaplain and a windlass. If you'd like to to adopt a stretch of towpath or river and commit to walking at least once a week contact Captain Jenny Dibsdall jenny.dibsdall@salvationarmy.org.uk Twitter: @Waterchaplain

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union

For business blogging, virtual assistant and other business services please visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

How do you steer a narrowboat whilst also looking after the children?

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000Z

Once a month I take the boat to Cowroast boatyard for diesel, and a sewage pump out.
“Don't go out on the front deck, and you know where I am if you need anything don't you my love?” Big Sister nods.
I leave her dancing to The Wiggles in the living room while I put toddler reins on my youngest and secure her safely to the sturdy brass mushroom vent on the roof. She then requests a blanket, a pillow, Peppa Pig, Gaston the cuddly ladybird and the doll known only as 'Big Baby'. We are ready to go.
“Mummy, don't want it, move boat,” she says with a sad face and big brown eyes, tugging at my heart strings.
I stride off down the muddy towpath and bash the mooring pegs from side to side with a mallet to loosen them, before heaving them up out of the ground. It's now 10.15 am and we're off. My little one puts in another request.
“Mummy, Little Baby.”
“I can't get more toys now my love, I'm steering the boat,” I explain apologetically.
“Mummy, hold hands.”
“In a minute. I'm just steering around this corner,” I say, pushing the tiller across.
I breathe in Tring's steep wooded cutting in Autumn and look up into a mild grey November sky. The little one smiles like sunshine at me. Yellow, green and brown trees are reflected in the canal water. Leaves are floating like confetti on a puddle and trees on either bank lean softly towards each other to whisper winter somethings.
“Hello Mummy,” whispers my fluffy hooded baby, watching me. Two ducks pass us quietly in the opposite direction.
“Mummy! Baby ducks.”
“Did you see a baby one?”
“Yeah,” she smiles and pauses.
“Mummy, pancake.”
“I can't get a pancake, I'm driving the boat,” I explain.
A small black sign on the towpath tells me we're 56 miles from Braunston.
“Mummy, tired,” she says mournfully, but then her mood picks up as we travel under an arched bridge.
“Ah, ah!” she says, experimenting with the sound of her voice echoing.
As we come out of the other side of the bridge she begins to sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', gently rocking from side to side. I smile warmly and start to join in.
“No, MINE!” she says angrily and is quiet for a while. Then she looks at the notepad and paper beside me.
“Mummy, draw mouse.”
“I can't, I'm steering the boat,” I reply. Around the corner I spy The Peg Boat, which is fondly familiar to me. It is a red narrowboat on board which lives a lovely man who paints roses and castles and his wife who makes dolls out of old fashioned wooden pegs. I like seeing the same boats pootling around the same area; you can get to know people, it's like a village community.
My daughter begins to cry.
“Mummy, huggle.”
“I can't huggle at the moment because I'm steering the boat. I can hold hands,” I offer and lean forwards to clutch her tiny hand, my other hand still holding the tiller. We're near Tring station and hear a train rushing to London.
“Choo choo!” she says, smiling. I join in.
“Choo choo!”
“No! MY choo choo,” she starts to cry again and asks for a huggle. Sunshine breaks through the trees.
“Mummy, wee toilet.”
“I'm sorry darling, I'm steering the boat.” I have pre-empted this eventuality. She is wearing disposable pull-up pants. She lies down and holds my hand again. A smile lights up her face, she looks contented. It is quiet except for the chugging of the engine.
After the next bridge we see the first of the moored boats that line the waterway up to Cowroast lock and I steer towards the bank. We moor up in time for lunch and I take the happy girls into a huge green field for a run about.

Boating With Kids - in Waterways World

2011-12-16T10:00:00.000Z

I live aboard a 70ft traditional narrowboat with my husband and two little girls. In January's Waterways World I explain how I do it and answer some frequently asked questions.

What jobs do you do?

Have you got a mooring?

Isn't it a bit small?

Are you afraid the children will fall in?

Also in the January 2012 issue of Waterways World: The complete guide to Scotland's canals including The Lowlands, Caledonian, Falkirk Wheel and Crinan; On test - 62ft Narrowboat, traditional styling with modern comforts; Boating with kids; New series! The history of British Waterways; An interview with Mikron, the towpath troubadours; Advice - Lock technique and making a boat stool; Boating in 1914; Lost tunnels; plus a FREE 2012 wallplanner.

£3.75 from newsagents. On sale now!

For writing commissions, business blogging and guest posts visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Santa Cruise

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000Z

Santa at The National Waterways Museum

Ah Christmas time. Time to winterise your canal boat and lock yourself safely into a warm house. Or is it? There are lots of festive events planned on the waterways this December.

Whilst the elves and reindeer prepare for their big night, Santa Claus is going on several waterways cruises to find out exactly what all the good children want for Christmas this year. Over the weekend of the 17th and 18th December he will be appearing on Santa cruises at the Anderton Boat Lift (Cheshire), Grebe Canal Cruises, (Pitstone, Bucks), Santa's grotto in the Dudley Caverns (West Midlands), on the Muddy Waters Santa Cruises (Thrupp, Oxfordshire) and on Santa's Special boat trips in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. He's also planning a few boat trips in Worksop and Gloucester plus a visit to the Falkirk Wheel. Cruises often include hot drinks and mince pies for the grown-ups. The events are usually popular, so it's best to book in advance.

No one knows how Santa manages to be in so many places at the same time but the North American Aerospace Defense Command have come up with a theory:

“NORAD intelligence reports indicate that Santa does not experience time the way we do. His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa it might last days, weeks or even months. Santa would not want to rush the important job of delivering presents to children and spreading joy to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.”

On Christmas Eve NORAD will be using radar to track his journey and will update Santa's progress here.

If you've been very good perhaps someone special in your life will pick up on your hints about buying a narrowboat or canal boat, so that you can really enjoy the waterways in 2012.

However, if you've been naughty this year, and are actively trying to avoid Santa on the waterways, you might just choose a roses and castles canal art course in Cradley (West Midlands) on 17th and 18th December. There are carols by the canal on the Shropshire Union and illuminated boats and carols in Stoke Bruerne, plus hot soup and roasted chestnuts, and Christmas shopping in the museum.

A final festive alternative could be an afternoon Wildlife Watch. On New Years Eve you could join the volunteers in Stanstead Abbots who will be waiting in the hides at Rye Meads Nature Reserve to point out wildlife and answer your questions from 2 until 4pm.

A full waterways events calendar including details of the above Santa cruises can be found at the Waterscape Website.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union

For business blogging and other services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Stoke Bruerne

Chesterfield Canal Trust

I have linked this post up to the BritMums Christmas blog hop!

5 Things You Should Know Before Investing in a Canal Boat

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000Z

Recently I've been battling with some of the financial anxieties that come with an unpredictable freelance life. Jenna White offered to write me a guest post with some financial tips related to buying your first boat.

5 Things You Should Know Before Investing in a Canal Boat

There are a lot of things you should consider before making a large investment like buying a canal boat. You need to make sure you are financially stable and that you will be able to afford the costs that come with owning a boat, but there are many other things you should do as well. While you may think you can afford to make this investment now, it may not be the right time for you. Make sure you consider all of these tips before you go make a rash decision and invest in this expensive undertaking.

Know Your Current Financial State

The first thing you should consider when you are thinking about buying a canal boat is your current financial situation. Have you incurred a lot of debt over the years and you are now struggling to pay it back? Do you have a problem with overspending or using your credit card to live beyond your means? These are signs that you need help getting control of your finances, and you may need to seek outside advice from a financial advisor or some other type of counsellor.

Set Priorities

In some cases, there will be more important things to save for than a boat. If you are in debt due to personal loans, student loans, or credit card spending, you should set those as your priority before you think about investing in a boat. Set a budget and use a specific amount to put toward paying off any debt.

Once you have paid off your debt, you should use that money to start an emergency fund if you have not made one already. You should have at least six months’ worth of expenses in this fund, if not more, so that you can live with that money for a significant amount of time should an emergency arise (such as an accident or the loss of a job). Always live within your means and save as much as you can so that when you are able to buy your boat, you can still stay above water (with your boat and with your finances).

Educate Yourself

When you have saved enough money to be comfortable, and when you have saved enough to at least make a significant dent in the total cost of the boat, it will be time to research your options. You probably already know a lot about the type of boat you want and any other special features you want it to have, but you should still educate yourself as much as possible. Never invest in something you don’t completely understand, and never buy something that you haven’t thoroughly checked out first. Even if you are buying the boat from your best friend, you should still take all of the necessary precautions to make sure that you are getting the best product for the money you will be spending.

Consider Your Timing

Is this truly the best time for you to buy a boat? As I said before, if you have credit card debt or owe the bank a lot of money due to loans, than this is probably not the best time for you to buy. You also never know if the price of the boat you want will go down in the future. This is where you will need to make a gamble. Buy the boat now and you may lose out on some money you could have saved, or wait a while and risk losing the boat to another buyer. Never fall in love with a boat you can’t afford, and be willing to walk away from an unfair offer.

Know the Total Cost of Your Investment

Whether you decide to make payments on a loan for your boat or save the money to buy it in full, you still need to consider the total cost of your investment. The total cost isn’t just going to be the purchase price, but it will also include the operating costs, maintenance costs, and other expenses that will come with the upkeep of your boat. Will you be able to afford all of these expenses over time? To answer this question, put all of these costs into your budget (leaning on the higher side to avoid miscalculation). This should help you make sure that you don’t take on an investment you can’t afford.

Jenna White is an author who writes guest posts on the topics of business, marketing, credit cards, and personal finance. Additionally, she works for a website that focuses on educating readers about secured credit cards.

Narrowboat or Narrow Boat?

2011-12-07T13:32:00.001Z

How does the old song go? You say potato, I say tomato? A narrow boat was traditionally a cargo carrying boat found on the British inland waterways from the 18th century onwards. On the UK navigable waterways locks and bridge holes are a minimum of 7 feet wide. The phrase “narrow boat” often refers to the original style of working canal boat, or a modern replica of this type of boat. The first narrow boats were horse drawn wooden boats. Today on the canal there are many replicas of the traditional type of boats, painted with ornate designs of roses and castles. Some enthusiasts are dedicated to restoring the remaining original boats and The Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club was formed in 1966. It is a not-for-profit club dedicated to preserving the working heritage of the canals.

However, the modern meaning of the term “narrow boat” in The Concise Oxford Dictionary simply reads, “A narrow boat is a canal boat, esp. one less than 7 ft. wide”. British Waterways and magazines like Waterways World have adopted the term “narrowboat” to refer to pleasure boats and live-aboard canal boats that are built with the similar style and dimensions to the old cargo carrying narrow boats. Living on a canal boat is now becoming more and more popular and so used boats for sale, barges for sale and houseboats for sale are just some of the options available to people with an interest in living aboard narrowboats and canal boats. Narrowboats are usually built of steel, although some modern ones are now aluminium. Their size, design and history are completely different to that of long-boats or barges.

Although a narrowboat is defined as being no wider than 7 feet, in practice canal boats are usually 6 feet 10 inches wide to allow them to comfortably cruise the canal system and pass through locks and bridges. Most locks can accommodate narrowboats of up to 70 feet in length. However, a shorter boat will allow a boater the freedom to explore more of the network because some locks on a few isolated waterways can be as short as 40 feet. Anything wider than 7 feet is known as a wide-beam or broad-beam, but can often be similar in style and design to a narrowboat. Although they will have an open front deck, this can be enclosed with a removable water-proof covering called a cratch cover. A traditional narrowboat stern is so short that the helmsman actually stands on the back step, inside the hatch. In a semi-trad boat there is no roof over the engine space and there may be bench seats against the side walls. A cruiser stern provides a larger, open back deck, sometimes with a railing around it.

So from their gritty beginnings as an integral part of the Industrial Revolution narrow boats and canal boats have evolved and diversified. Interest in the leisure boating industry was ignited after the second world war thanks to the enthusiasm of L.T.C Rolt and the IWA, living aboard a narrowboat is still growing in popularity and cargo carrying continues to be a practical use of the inland waterways.

Useful Links
The Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club

Choosing a Boat – Part 1

Boatshed Grand Union canal and narrowboats for sale

Old Working Boat Image Credit: R.P Marks

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.

For business blogging, virtual assistance and other services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

The Grand Junction Arms

2011-12-05T10:00:00.000Z

I've promised myself to blog twice a week and sometimes it's hard to find the time when I'm starting a business, being a mum and being a narrowboater. A little voice inside me (and Fanciful Alice) says that I should hurry up and finish my book. It's kind of nearly finished; this is an extract that I'm working on at the moment.

In late August 2011 I finally moored my own seventy foot boat at The Grand Junction Arms in Bulbourne. This is the Tring Summit level of what was The Grand Junction Canal and it marks the beginning of a long leafy cutting that leads down towards Cowroast marina. The way that I remembered it, The Junction Arms was a good old fashioned boaters' pub, built in the mid nineteenth century and still home to old roll-up smoking boaters in waistcoats having impromptu music jams with an accordion in the corner. Bulbourne is a hamlet, consisting of two rows of cottages: one row of cottages along the road, and a row of canal-side cottages at the top of the Marsworth flight. This second row of cottages can only be reached via the towpath, which has been tarmacked in order to allow for the unusual site of the occasional car trundling carefully down the towpath outside the window of our moored boat. The first time I ever came to the Grand Junction Arms it was bustling with boaters after the Wendover 2000 canal festival. Myself and my new-found boating friends sat in the beer garden admiring the BW canal workshops opposite, which in those days were still working and had been making lock gates since 1810.

“I'd like to make a lock gate one day,” said Rufty Tufty Biker Boater, with a cheeky grin. He was a carpenter by trade.
“It would be good to work there for a bit and say you'd made a lock gate wouldn't it?”
I nodded in admiration. I thought it would. But he never did, because in 2004 the yard closed down forever.

At least the pub is still open, I thought to myself. I left the girls on board with The Doctor and popped in for old times sake and to see if they had a copy of Towpath Talk.

As I walked down the towpath I noticed that there was a lovely old painted boat moored in front of us, called 'Cressy' which reminded me fondly of days gone by. Once, this place would have been a welcome stop for the horse-drawn boatman, providing stabling and refreshments when the horse and crew grew tired. When the invention of motor boats allowed for longer working days many traditional canal-side inn's went out of business; without the need to rest a tired horse the boats carried on cruising far into the night. They needed to work hard just to make ends meet.

To be continued.

The story continues when I actually go into the pub and meet a mysterious olde worlde gentleman at the bar.

Barge For Sale

2011-11-30T10:00:00.000Z

Most people who know me, know that I live on a narrowboat.
“Peggy lives on a barge,” they say, assuming that they are one and the same. I usually smile and nod. But a barge is “a long flat bottomed boat for carrying freight on canals, rivers, etc.” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary.) A bargee is “a person in charge of or working on a barge.” The word barga, of Latin origin, referred to any small boat and the modern meaning of a larger boat dates back to around 1480. Interestingly the phrase "I wouldn't touch that with a (whatever length) pole" has been around for longer than barge poles so, “I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole” is a fairly modern expression.

Most waterways folk know that a narrowboat and a barge are completely different things, even though some narrowboats were built to a design based on river barges. A barge is always going to be more than 7 feet wide. Some canal barges are without engines and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats. The dictionary tells me that “A narrow boat is a canal boat, esp. one less than 7 ft. wide” and so on the canal system the term barge is often used to describe anything wider than a narrowboat.

Barges continue to be used on England's waterways to move freight and carry out maintenance, but they can also be a very comfortable home afloat due to the extra width. Purpose built replicas of the Dutch barge style are a popular live-aboard choice, like this Replica Dutch Barge 50ft ft Live-aboard, with mooring but I'm particularly fond of the 1930's Aak Style Dutch Barge. There's something beautifully quirky about them, and yet some are still narrow enough to share a lock.

Aak style Dutch Barge

There's a high demand for Dutch barges for sale at the moment because they make such lovely live-aboard homes. If you're thinking of living on a boat on the Grand Union Canal then you could use different search terms like “narrowboat sales grand union”, “houseboat for sale” and “barge for sale”, because there are so many different types of boat available.

If you still don't know your barge from your elbow Phil wrote a great article about different boat types available. Choosing a Boat – Part 1

Of course some people don't even mention barges to me. They say,
“Do you know Peggy actually lives on a longboat?”
Don't get me started! Although this name was sometimes used in the Midlands in working-boat days nobody calls them longboats now!

If you have a Dutch Barge or similar for sale, call Phil on 07794 005741. We have qualified buyers waiting.

Viking longboat for sale.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.

For business blogging services visit: http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Narrowboat Living Top Ten

2011-11-28T10:00:00.000Z

A while ago I discovered another (blogging) narrowboat family who live aboard while refurbishing their boat! Mamma Earthly is a “creative, earth mother, vegetarian, food lover, tree hugger, yogi, off-gridding and travelling through life's many varied possibilities.” She has kindly given me permission to use a blog post of hers that I love, as a guest post here on Narrowboat Wife.

Narrowboat Living Top Ten

Inspired by Boat Wife's Motherboard Top Ten, I've wanted to write a post about boat living for a while. Recently I've been really struggling on board and have on more than one occasion expostulated "I want to live in a house!" along with a tirade on the myriad problems our water-borne home poses to any kind of sane living. So I thought I should write a "positive" top ten, but then realised that that may not give you much of a real idea about our day to day experiences - so here's a compromise, a well-balanced top ten: five good, five bad!

Cons
1. There's not much privacy on a narrowboat (especially on our mooring which is part of a World Heritage Site!). And people are pretty darned nosy sometimes!!
2. We have no garden or land of our own (other than the bit of towpath we're moored to, unofficially, where we can store wood and bikes, and have a few plants etc. So nowhere to decant the kids to easily on a good day unless really well supervised (which is pretty exhausting with a toddler). And nowhere for me to read a good book in the sun in peace :)
3. More than other boaters, we struggle for services as we have none installed yet. So we fill up several 5 litre water bottles every day from the BW water point and empty our cassette loo and have showers at a BW service block about 20mins drive away. We take our own rubbish and recycling to our nearest recycling centre, also about 20 mins drive.
4. Every space is multi-purpose, particularly at the moment whilst we're building, so our bedroom is also the playroom and "lounge" once the bed has been turned into a sofa; the dining area is also our "office" and everything else just has to fit in where it can! As you can imagine, this can be pretty chaotic...
5. Life is pretty physical and exhausting sometimes and as yet we have no "haven" like a permanent bedroom to retreat to when we feel ill or knackered or just need to mentally and physically shut the door on things for half an hour.

Pros
1. We own our house (though we are paying off a small loan for it) and so are (a) not tied to a mortgage for the next 30 years and (b) don't have to put up with "inspections" and other hassles from rental agencies.
2. We don't get post, which I see as a bonus as we needn't put up with tonnes of junkmail, bills and nasty letters from your electricity supplier threatening to cut you off. We simply get any important mail delivered to a c/o address.
3. On that point, we have no service bills, just our licence and mooring fees to think about. We buy our own gas and generate our own electricity.
4. Having to create/look after/buy/collect/dispose of our own services and used items really makes us much more aware and frugal as consumers. On average we use about 20-30 litres of water a day, have a shower 2-3 times a week and try to keep our washing to a minimum (which is easier said than done with kids and our lifestyle). We get a vegbox delivered to our boat and try to make trips to the supermarket as rare as possible (particularly as we can get a lot of what we need locally).
5. We can move our house! We have plans to travel much of the South West network and would love to go to the Fens, but we do need to find a few spare weeks or months!

Visit
Give an Earthly
http://giveanearthly.blogspot.com/
A little dell of sanity and positivity.

Where the Working Boats Went

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000Z

Imagine effortlessly absorbing the history of the canals by relaxing in a canal-side pub, listening to a couple of folk-singing boaters, complete with waistcoats and flat-caps. This is against a backdrop of projected historical photographs and you are provided with a song sheet so that everyone can sing along with each chorus.

Last Saturday I went to see Life & Times perform their 250-years-of-the-canals show 'Where the Working Boats Went'. The performance was in Cheddington village hall, and I could definitely imagine it being a bit more raucous at a folk festival or a 'spit and sawdust' pub where the audience might sing along more heartily. I think we all enjoyed the broom dance though; a quirky boater's tradition that I'd not heard of! From the Duke of Bridgewater to roses and castles, the 'iced-in' winter of '47 and the revival of the cut as a place for pleasure boating; Barry Goodman and Graeme Meek have got a song for everything.

The canal age began when the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater commissioned his canal in 1759. The waterways became popular for transporting everything from fruit and cheese to turpentine. When the advent of the railways caused the demise of the canals, they were re-invented and rescued as a leisure resource, which is more popular than ever today.

The show is in two 45 minute parts with an interval. Part 1 is set in the early 1870s. Two No.1s meet beside the canal and discuss life on the cut for themselves and their predecessors. Part 2 is set in the late 1950s, about 10 years after the Nationalisation of the waterways. Two boatmen in a canal-side pub consider how life on the canals has changed since their fathers’ day and how it might be in the future.

The music from this show won the FATEA Tradition 09 Award which…“…is presented to the act that have traditional folk at the root of their sound and use it to inspire new songs, tunes and arrangements.”

Graeme Meek and Barry Goodman travel England from Birmingham to Banbury and beyond with their songs and next year their bookings already include Hitchin, Pulloxhill, Beds. Duton Hill Folk Club, Essex, Chadwell Heath, Essex and The Woburn Sands Folk Festival, Bucks.

A full gig list of upcoming shows can be found on their website here http://www.lifeandtimes.me.uk/Lt_Gig_List.htm

If you can't make it to any of these shows there's a CD available by mail order for £11.
http://www.lifeandtimes.me.uk/Recordings.htm

There are still traditional narrowboats working on the waterways to this day, selling fuel to live-aboard boats. A more modern way to work afloat these days is to run a trip boat. Check out this 70ft trip boat as part of a business for sale at Boatshed Grand Union.
Alternatively if you don't want to work afloat you may like to live afloat on a 70ft Cruiser Stern Narrowboat with large accommodation.

More boats to browse at http://grandunion.boatshed.com/index.php

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.

For business blogging services visit: http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Moon Dreams

2011-11-21T10:00:00.000Z

Losing a Dream - by Plagued by Images

There was once a girl who wanted the moon on a stick. She spent her days weaving her tangled ideas into dream blankets that described some sort of patchwork, freelancing, free-wheeling, literary dream-cake career. The kind with a steady income and a predictable accounting spreadsheet: A day when she woke up and knew exactly what to focus on. But she was constantly distracted from these serious dreams by newspaper adverts and email job alerts, an inbox full of possibilities and application forms for steady jobs that every-girl wants. So she competes with every-girl and has a go and treads carefully over her patchwork dreams while they toss in their sleep. She reaches and grabs for safe secretarial work, tiny transcription teases and ordinary admin alerts. Then, like a firefly her attention is suddenly diverted, inspired by stories of mighty mumpreneurs who are having it all and doing it all and somehow they know what to focus on, and they build great towers of financial stability from their humble kitchen tables, whilst probably baking sugar-spun biscuits with their home-made gingerbread children. The girl with the moon-wish peers in at these golden lit kitchen windows in awe, wondering how her feet got so tangled in her dreams, so that now she can hardly put one foot in front of the other. She tip-toes away from the golden window of opportunity and back into the twig-snapping, safe darkness of a forest of dreams.

Yesterday's girl was a real writer and wrote every day about the poetic paradoxes of narrowboat family life; the good, the bad and the lovely. But everything changes and lately she finds there is not even time to write about the real life of a narrowboat wife.

Losing a Dream

Many thanks to the very talented Louis Dyer who allowed me to use the image 'Losing a Dream'.
Visit his Deviant Art page Plagued by Images where fine art prints are available.
Louis says, "Most of my art revolves around my inability to sleep, or sometimes awake from... lucid dreams, astral projection,sleep apnea/paralysis,interest in mental illness and spirituality etc."

Louis Dyer - artwork inspired by dreams

Winter Boating

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000Z

Canal frozen, Angel Islington, London.

As part of my Living Aboard series of blog posts I wrote an article titled Is it Cold in Winter? The past two winters have been exceptionally cold and more of the same is forecast for the end of this year. British Waterways, with assistance from the Residential Boat Owners Association has recently produced a guidance document explaining what services will and will not be provided in extreme weather conditions. British Waterways will arrange for contractors to visit mooring sites to repair emergency plumbing problems, electric faults and frozen locks, (if there is no other access to the site.) They will organise follow-up calls if refuse collections are missed and will arrange grit delivery to sites with grit bins, (the grit is to be distributed on site by boaters).

BW will not organise emergency call-outs for frozen water pipes or pump outs, as these cannot be repaired until they thaw. They will not arrange for the removal of sewage from a boat where there are working alternative facilities on site. BW recommend that boaters stock-pile water supplies in advance of a forecast freeze, as they will not supply on-site water bowsers (trailer mounted water tanks). BW offices will be closed from 2pm on 23rd December until 3rd January, but customers can report any faults by calling the Freephone Canals number 0800 47 999 47. Cruising in winter can be a challenge. You will need to be aware of the dangers of ice and snow on towpaths, bridges and lock-sides. Keep well back from the edge and use handrails on lock gates. Hold on to something sturdy when getting on and off your boat. Clear snow from the gunwales and use grit when you can. De-icer and spray grease are useful for locks and padlocks on your own boat and on the boating facilities. Try to keep ropes out of the water as frozen ropes are difficult to work with! It may be an idea to keep spare, dry ropes indoors.

Winter can actually be a good time to buy a narrowboat, barge or canal boat as you can really get a feel for what the boat will be like during the colder months, and go into it with your eyes open. At Boatshed Grand Union you can see a great selection of photos of each boat before arranging a viewing.

Finally, I am going to re-iterate my previous advice for boating in the winter: Put a casserole in the oven and some mulled wine on top of the stove!

Image Credits
'Mulled Wine for the Party' by fieldtripp
'Frozen Canal' by D Melmoth
Creative Commons License

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#FlashbackFriday 11/11/11

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000Z

Stocker's Lock, Rickmansworth

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Midsummer Night's Dream. William Shakespeare.

Twenty one years ago I fancied a boy at school. The school play was A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was Lysander, I was Head of Props. We drank cider and kissed at the cast party on the last night of the play. But we left school and we lost touch. Twelve years later he contacted me through Friends Reunited. We found out we'd both just been travelling in India at the same time. We found out that his new job as a research scientist was around the corner from my new job, at Friends of the Earth in Islington. We became friends and then more. He thought it was a good idea that I lived on a narrowboat, so he bought his own boat and we travelled together. Eventually I sold my boat and moved onto his boat.

“Please be my ramblin' woman
And I'll be your ramblin' man
And together we will travel
Holding each other's hands...”

Rory McLeod

Stocker's Lock at Rickmansworth was our favourite mooring in 2006. We had a picnic beside the lake and he proposed. We got married on the 11th November, so that makes today our fifth wedding anniversary: 11/11/11.

Flashback again to a girl who lived alone on a little red narrowboat called 'Emily Rose'. She was waiting for true love. She wrote a list in her notebook of the qualities that she was looking for. Someone passionate, creative, spontaneous, musical. Someone who writes.

Be careful what you wish for, because wishes come true.

No words can describe what it feels like to be in my kind of true love. But if I had to describe it I would say that wherever I travel, he is my home.

**************

I wanted to link this post up to Flashback Friday at Cafe Bebe, but I'm actually scheduling it to get posted while we're driving down to Plymouth to celebrate our anniversary. Visit Karin's Cafe Bebe to see other bloggers sharing old photos. Karin says, "Just take us back in time. Share some words to take us there and we can all get nostalgic and smiley remembering “when”.

Woodland wedding cake

Boats Without a Home Mooring

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000Z

Boat 'parked' on double yellow lines.

Following my previous blog post outlining some basic information about living aboard and continuous cruising, British Waterways has since updated their guidelines for boats without a home mooring. The previous guidance was first published in 2004. However, Bristol County Court recently decided that in the case of British Waterways v Davies, moving up and down within a 10 mile stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal without a home mooring could not be described as 'bona fide navigation' (a phrase from the 1995 BW Act, meaning in good faith.)

The new guidelines were created after consultation with waterways user groups such as the National Association of Boat Owners. They were published on 12th October 2011 and define more clearly what is meant by bona fide navigation and seek to ensure that enough temporary moorings are readily available for all cruising boats.

The new guidance states that,

“Subject to stops of permitted duration, those using a boat licensed for continuous cruising must genuinely be moving, in passage or in transit throughout the period of the licence...

Importantly, short trips within the same neighbourhood, and shuttling backwards and forwards along a small part of the network do NOT meet the legal requirement for navigation throughout the period of the licence.”

Complying with these guidelines is one of the terms and conditions of purchasing a licence to continuously cruise.

BW has also clarified that “Place in this context means a neighbourhood or locality, NOT simply a particular mooring site or position.” Circumstances where it is reasonable to stay in one neighbourhood for longer than 14 days are where further movement is prevented by events such as temporary mechanical breakdown, emergency navigation stoppage, impassable ice or serious illness.

Critics of the new guidelines have voiced concerns about whether the regulations will be adequately policed and enforced by BW officers. While some boaters believe that the same boats appear to repeatedly occupy the same visitor moorings, some live-aboard boaters feel that their way of life is being persecuted and that there are not enough visitor moorings available in some areas, even when one is genuinely cruising (moving every fourteen days). Some boaters do wish to find a permanent residential mooring but BW admits that these are currently in short supply. BW has welcomed the announcement in August by the Housing Minister Grant Shapps which provided an incentive to local authorities to grant more consents for residential moorings.

If you're looking for a second-hand narrowboat or barge to buy in London, Hertfordshire or the surrounding areas Boatshed Grand Union has plenty of boats for sale that are ideally suited to continuous cruising.

If you do require a mooring BW moorings can be found at http://www.bwmooringvacancies.com/

There is further information on mooring and continuous cruising at http://www.waterscape.com/things-to-do/boating/moorings

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union blog.

For business blogging services contact me at http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Living Aboard - Part 10: Children on Board

2011-11-02T10:00:00.002Z

I live aboard a narrowboat with my husband and two young children. The first questions that people often ask us are about safety. Our children were born on board and have had the risks stressed to them every day. If you are planning to move a family on to a second-hand narrowboat or barge then there will be several potential hazards to become aware of.

Just as you would do in a house, we keep our doors bolted shut. For summer days outside there are playpen barriers enclosing the front deck, but children must still never be left unsupervised while outside on a canal boat. Life jackets can be purchased from your nearest large chandlery and these may be of use to you if you have a mooring with a garden where the children can play, but we find them unnecessary for the daily walk to the shops or the car.

Victorian working boat families secured their children to the roof of the boat by tying them on whilst travelling. Some families create a modern version of this arrangement using toddler reins to secure the child. In this situation they must still never be left unattended. The adult crew must also remain aware of the dangers of overhanging tree branches, low bridges and mooring ropes being thrown about. I have occasionally seen hire boaters allow their children to stand and walk on the roof of a moving boat, but ours have strict instructions to remain seated! I would not recommend allowing young children to be on deck unsupervised while cruising.

Locks are particularly dangerous places because of the depth of the water and the strong currents below. I recommend repeating a set of simple rules to your children, which depending on their age could include 'stay close to a grown up' and 'hold hands when told to'. All children should be told to keep away from the edge and to never run beside a lock.

If your boat does not have a home mooring the website of your local borough council will help you to find children’s playgrounds while you are cruising. The home page should have a link to leisure facilities and playgrounds; parks and gardens can usually be found in this section.

For family life on board you may be looking for a boat to buy with two bedroom cabins. The Boatshed Grand Union website has a search facility to help you find second-hand canal boats for sale within your budget.

When you move aboard your boat your children will face the same challenges as you will, such as a lack of storage space, and limited electricity and water. But they will also enjoy the benefits of a way of life that is much closer to nature. My baby daughter's first word was, “Quack!”
I told her not to use fowl language.

This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law, who worries about the grandchildren on the water.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website.

Living Aboard - Part 9 Pets on Board

2011-10-26T10:00:00.001+01:00

Lyra the intrepid boat cat

I was recently asked how practical it would be to keep a pet if you are a living aboard a canal boat?

Dogs seem a popular choice of pet amongst live-aboard boaters. Canal boat cruising is something that most dogs really enjoy, with lots opportunities for exercise and new dogs and people to meet on towpath walks. As always it's important to be responsible about clearing up after your dog, so that the towpath remains pleasant for all to enjoy. It is a traffic free area for walking your dog, although you must remain aware of road bridges. It may be difficult to keep an eye on your dog while working through a lock, so you will have to decide whether your dog would be happiest confined to the boat, or alternatively tied up somewhere safely near the lock, until he (or she) gets used to boat life and you are confident that he is aware of the dangers of the water. While some dogs are happy to swim anywhere, a lock is very deep and has strong under currents. If you move on board to somewhere rural and your dog isn't used to the country life, then make sure that you keep him away from livestock and water fowl.

Cats are more than happy to walk along the gunwales and peer into the windows of your boating neighbours. They can get on and off a boat more easily than dogs. I have met several boaters who keep cats on board. Cats do get used to it, but if they are out exploring and you need to move the boat you may just have to wait for them to come home; bear in mind this could take a couple of hours. When you first move home, as most cat owners will know, you should keep them indoors for two weeks to get them used to their new environment. One cat lover I know has trained her cats to recognise the sound of treats rattled in a plastic box. She rattles this box as a signal for them to come back to the boat when it's time to go off cruising. Her other word of advice is that whenever it is possible avoid mooring too close to busy roads.

As for other pets, you will have to judge for yourself whether your main cabin has enough room for a bird cage, hamster cage, goldfish bowl or fish tank. Have a look at the variety of boats for sale at Boatshed Grand Union to get an idea of what live-aboard canal boats are available. Some deck spaces are large enough for a rabbit hutch, but if you don't have a mooring there may not be much scope to let the rabbits run around. Having said that, I have seen two boats that kept chickens before. The first was a 50 ft live-aboard narrowboat; the couple on board had set up a small chicken coop on the grassy towpath. I also used to know a couple who sold solid fuel from their pair of working boats. They actually had enough room in one of the holds for a reasonably sized chicken run!

Ben the boat dog - from the Bert and Betty stories (http://www.thebraunstonboaters.co.uk/)

More about Lyra the Boat Cat: http://nbluckyduck.blogspot.com/

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website.
Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, audio transcription, copywriting, business blogging or freelance writing commissions.

How to Change Your Life - in four lines.

2011-10-24T10:00:00.005+01:00

Leo Babauta

I've been reading the Zen Habits blog for some time, nodding along in agreement with Leo Babauta's ideas on how to find simplicity in the chaos of our daily lives.

“It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.”

Zen Habits is one of the Top 25 blogs and Top 50 websites in the world, with about 225,000 readers, and it is uncopyrighted. The blog is 'reader supported', which means it's advert and affiliate free. Leo sells books and ebooks through his blog.

While I love and agree with Leo's ideas I have yet to put any of them into action. But a recent blog post of his summed up his methods into a manageable nutshell.

The Zen Habits Method

1. Start very small.

2. Do only one change at a time.

3. Be present and enjoy the activity (don’t focus on results).

4. Be grateful for every step you take.

The full article is here
Leo then clarified the 'single change' method here Make one change

I am a wife and mother, a writer, and a freelance secretary. I have anxiety habits and feel overwhelmed by the amount of things that somewhere in my past I decided I should achieve. My email inbox needs more than de-cluttering – I have simply subscribed to too many blogs, newsletters and job alerts from freelancing websites. I'm a narrowboater so I have extra chores like filling the water tank, moving the boat and getting rid of domestic waste. I'm also a student of the online course Become a Mumpreneur (Affiliate link) I work very hard but lack focus. My new business is not bringing in enough money.

I'm going to start very small. I'm going to make one change. I will be present and enjoy the activity. I will be grateful for the step that I take.

My Zen Habit this week is to begin to transcribe medical letters for an online dictation company. It's not glamorous or creative. But it's a step towards building up a work-at-home business.

I have written it down. That means it will happen.

Living Aboard Part 8 Where's My Nearest...?

2011-10-19T10:00:00.011+01:00

If you're thinking of buying a boat to live-aboard and go on an extended cruise you may well like to know how far would it be between Elsan points and water taps, shops, pubs, visitor moorings and winding holes.

The Nicholsons Waterways guide for your local area (published by Collins) shows sewage or 'Elsan' disposal points and water points. They also show boatyards, refuse disposal points and recycling points. They are written with boaters, walkers and cyclists in mind and contain coloured Ordnance Survey maps marked out with locks, towpaths and boating facilities. The informative text contains navigational notes, places of interest, waterways wildlife, pubs, restaurants, walks and cycle rides. Many places are listed with their postcode which is very handy for locating yourself using the internet, sat-nav or a smart phone.

Every lock, aqueduct and bridge is marked so that you can plan your journey accordingly, and calculate your likely journey time. Add the number of miles to the number of locks on your planned cruise and then divide that figure by three. This will give you roughly the number of hours that your journey may take, but with narrowboating prepare to be relaxed about punctuality!

The introduction to each guide always contains some useful information for waterways users including boating basics, safety guidelines, mooring advice, and how to use a lock.

For grocery shops, GPs, cash points and the other bare necessities of life you will need the local First Mate's guide by Carole Sampson.

These focus on facilities within walking distance of the canal and include telephone boxes, internet cafes, dentists, vets, hospitals with A&E, chemists, travel links, launderettes, takeaways, churches and more: Everything you might need for a life on the move. Carole's friendly, informal introduction includes advice on using Poste Restante, and other tips on using the guide books. The layout is very different to the Nicholson's guide, focussing instead on the centre of each local town, it's facilities and good places to moor. I like her added suggestions of a “nip-to” now and then, which is something useful nearby, a very short walk from the canal. These are very helpful books containing essential information but without the descriptive narrative that is characteristic of the Nicholson's guide.

Pearson's Canal Companions cover much of the network, with a homespun feel and a chatty and lively narrative.

Richlow guides are "written by people who go there". Christine Richardson and John Lower set up Richlow to publish books of the canals and rivers adjacent to the tidal river Trent. But the area has widened, with the whole of the South Pennine Ring, and the North Yorkshire Waterways added. Modern short-run production methods mean that they are kept up to date and very accurate.

On the internet you can find http://canalplan.eu/ which is a very good route planner with itineraries and virtual cruises. Water-Way http://eureauweb.com/Water-Way/ is based on the Nicholson's Guides plus much more.

So when looking for a boat to buy you can also enjoy planning the journeys ahead and how long it might take you to get to where you want to be.

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Lewis Carroll

If your boat is quite long, (ours is 70ft) you may have to factor in plenty of time to turn around at the next winding hole. How far apart the shops are depends on how far apart the towns are where you are cruising. But I can guarantee that you are never far from a canal side pub. http://www.canalsidepubguide.co.uk/

If you want to buy a canal boat to live-aboard, have a look at the boats for sale on Boatshed Grand Union. Search terms like "narrowboat", "broad beam" or "Dutch barge" will help you to find the second hand boat you are looking for.

Thanks to John Warner for the idea for this article.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union. It was my choice to republish it here.
This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.

How to Start a Freelance Writing Career in 24 Hours or Less

2011-10-17T10:00:00.001+01:00

I found this article ages ago and I really liked it. But does it work? I promised myself I would publish this as a guest post when I had completed the steps below.

How to Start a Freelance Writing Career in 24 Hours or Less for $0

If you want to start a freelance writing career, it’s as simple as sitting down and taking the steps listed below. You can literally do everything in 24 hours or less – and it won’t cost you a cent. The only thing it costs is time – sweat equity.

If you want to start a freelance writing career, following is a three-step plan of action to get you there. By tomorrow, you can officially say, "I’m a freelance writer."

Steps to Starting a Work-from-Home Freelance Writing Career

1. Put Up a Blog: You need a web presence as a freelance writer. So, instead of putting up a website (which has hosting fees and may require skills beyond your level), simply throw up a blog. A blog and a website are both web presences. They’re just used differently. For now, what you need is a web presence, and a blog will do just fine.

Start with a free one you can get from blogger (dot com) or wordpress (dot com). By putting up a blog, you can’t use the, "I don’t have the time, knowledge, money or skill to build a website" excuse. Once you get an official website, you can move everything over later.

What to Put On Your Freelance Writing Blog

On your freelance writing blog, list three things: your writing samples (which we’ll discuss below); your professional profile/bio (make it short and relevant); and your rates. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Cost: $0; Estimated Time to Complete: Up to an hour (keep things simple).

2. Writing Samples: This the one thing that stops most wannabe freelancers dead in their tracks. Don’t let it.

If you don’t have writing samples – simply sit down and write a few articles for each niche you plan to target. I recommend three to five to start. All potential clients want to see is evidence of your writing ability. Whether you’ve been published before is irrelevant to 90-95% of clients.

Cost: $0; Estimated Time to Complete: 3-5 hours, depending on how many samples you plan to write. Figure on average one article (400-600 words) per hour.

3. Marketing List: Once you have your writing samples and your web presence ready to go, it’s now time to start prospecting/marketing for clients. This is perhaps the most difficult part of starting your freelance writing career.

Hit the web, the best way to find contact information. Target anyone and everyone you think can use your writing services – web design firms, internet marketing firms, ezines, magazines (although these take forever), advertising agencies, etc.

Compile a list of 20-25 prospects you can contact each day. Marketing for writing jobs is simply a numbers game. Before long, you will land a client – I practically guarantee it.

Cost: $0; Estimated Time to Complete: 2-5 hours.

If you spend a full day of 10-12 hours doing everything listed here, you will have pulled together everything you need to start a freelance writing career. Market religiously every day to 20-25 prospects and before long, will have a successful, work-from-home career that you can do from anywhere.

Freelance writing is not brain surgery. Don’t over think it – just do it!

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of www.InkwellEditorial.com: The Authority Site on How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career. Site features first-account freelance success stories, e-courses, ebooks, marketing advice and more! Want to make money today as a freelance writer? The e-report How to Make $100/Day or More as a Freelance Writer! tells you how.

So, How Did I Do?

1) Blog http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com
2) Writing samples http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/writing
3) Marketing list

I must say, it took me more than 24 hours, but I have actually been paid for writing, which officially makes me a freelance writer. My marketing list is an ongoing project and is not particularly long at the moment, but at least I have an idea where I am headed.
I've also been really inspired by a writer called Antonia Chitty from Become a Mumpreneur (Affiliate link). Visit her websites for free ecourses and lots of advice and info on becoming a freelance writer and mumpreneur.

Now go ahead and start your own writing career. Let me know how you do! Leave a link to your new writers website as a comment below.

The Narrowboat Wife Shop is Open!

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

A selection of lovely things from my narrowboat life.

Emily's shop Image Credit

Emily's shop was rather an unusual shop because it didn't sell anything. You see, everything in that shop window was a thing that somebody had once lost, and Emily had found, and brought home to Bagpuss.

Everything in Peggy's shop window was either something she'd made, or something she'd found, and liked, and brought home to her narrowboat. She didn't have a shop window. Just a page. You will see it's quite a random selection of things, with prices ranging from absolutely free to £35.00 It's only just opened so browsing around will take just a few moments. I'll let you know when I find more lovely things to put in the shop.

Uxbridge Lock: Watercolour

An 8" x 6" canvas print of this painting is small enough to hang in any narrowboat, or could fill a niche in the house of someone who just loves the waterways.

Painted in watercolour by Peggy.

Uxbridge Lock: Canvas Print £35.00


Have you ever wondered what it is like to live on a narrowboat with children? Is it cold in winter? What if the children fall in the water? All of your questions answered! Free ebook!


Massage For Your Mind: Hypnosis MP3 £8.99

This hypnotherapy MP3 download offers help to improve mental calmness, physical relaxation, confidence, competence, and better quality sleep. Suggestions spoken by clinical hypnotherapist Peggy Melmoth.

Relax and imagine you're drifting along England's waterways.

Narrow Margins by Marie Browne

I was looking for memoirs of families living aboard (and there aren't that many about!) when I discovered this one. I have great respect for any family that attempts to refurbish a boat while living aboard. Marie’s boat is called ‘Happy Go Lucky’ and at the beginning of the story Marie is anything but that. But I loved the way that as the story progresses the couple become more relaxed and dishevelled, the waterways begin to change them, and they find out that sometimes less is more.

Have you read any good narrowboat books? Let me know!

Living Aboard - Part 7 Computers and Internet

2011-10-12T10:00:00.001+01:00

When I first started living on a narrowboat in the year 2000 my computer connected to the internet very slowly via a blue tooth connection to my mobile phone, but technology has improved a lot since then.
If you're looking for a used boat to buy as a live-aboard home then you're probably already using the internet to browse sites like Boatshed Grand Union, where there are up to eighty photos of each second-hand boat, barge and narrowboat for sale.

When you're using a computer on board, a laptop or net-book is a good space saving idea and can be run off a 150 watt inverter, (although you may have a much bigger inverter depending on your personal domestic requirements aboard.) A good sized domestic battery bank is important if you wish to use your computer a lot. However, if you have a mooring with a mains electric supply you could choose a full sized desktop computer, perhaps selecting a flat screen monitor to save space. When you're on the move a desktop PC runs best from a pure sine wave inverter. A small uninterruptable power supply (UPS) maybe be a good investment if you are depending on an unpredictable electric supply for a desktop PC.

A printer will work off your usual mains supply or from an inverter if you are cruising, but make sure that you store your paper reams in a completely dry place. A laser printer has particular power requirements, so check this when you are buying one.

If your boat has a permanent residential mooring with electric shoreline and a standard telephone line then your internet connection can be arranged the same way as it would be in a house. This could be perfectly adequate for you if you feel that you won't require internet access when the boat is out and about cruising.

Mobile broadband is provided by mobile phone companies, who will also sell you an internet dongle as part of the package. This is a small piece of hardware which is inserted into a USB port on your computer. Price packages offer a variety of data usage allowances which you will select depending on whether you want to just send an occasional email, or, at the other end of the scale live stream TV and music. Your mobile broadband connection speed will depend on network capability, modem capability, signal strength, and the number of other users on the network at that time. There are booster antennas available for all types of dongle, but a cheaper solution is to first try using a 3 meter length of USB extension cable, male one end, female the other, and mount your dongle in a different place, away from your computer, perhaps in the window or in the cratch of the boat.

Alternatively, you may be happy to simply access the internet via a smart phone, such as an iPhone. It is now even possible to create a mobile WiFi hot spot on your boat, where your phone, computer and other devices can connect wirelessly to the internet with something like the Three Mifi device.
You might also consider the T-Mobile Wireless Pointer. This does the same thing, but can also accept an external antenna, which is useful in poor signal areas. The Boaters Phone Company can supply a suitable aerial.

Technology and the internet has improved so much since I was first looking for a boat to buy.

The Boatshed formula of traditional brokerage using local knowledge and world beating technology has proved very successful on all of the Grand Union, including the London Canals, as well as the River Lee Navigation.

The Boatshed Grand Union website offers a search facility to make it easy to browse live-aboard boats for sale within your price range, and you can contact James or Phil directly if you have any questions about a particular boat. Use search terms such as "narrowboat", "broad beam" or "Dutch barge" and register on the website to see the full range of photographs of each boat.

Thanks to Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons blog for recommending the T-Mobile Wireless Pointer.

You may also like this post: MiFi changed my life!

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to you.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, business blogging or freelance writing commissions.

I can paint Roses and Castles!

2011-10-10T10:00:00.001+01:00

The sound of sirens and beeping horns, the stench of bus fumes and cigarettes jostle for attention through rude rucksacks and grumpy faces as I walk through Kings Cross. So as I enter the London Canal Museum, (which is secretly tucked up behind the Caledonian Road) my boots trip-trap conspicuously across the silent wooden floorboards. The train made me late for the roses and castles painting workshop and everybody else has started painting roses on paper plates. Tricia is friendly and relaxed though, as she welcomes me to the class, and I catch up quickly.

So, you start with three blobs, then a nose and a smile. Yes these are the technical terms that I can understand. On top of that, you paint three commas and then three swishy brush strokes.

“Comma, comma, comma, swish, swish, swish.” I can remember that!

The working boatmen didn't have much time to paint their livery, Tricia tells us. They had to snatch a moment here and there while waiting for orders. So this folk art is quick to do, and before lunch we have progressed on to painting plant pots. I am left feeling satisfied with how much I can achieve in such a short amount of time.

Tricia seems to have been somehow connected to England's canals for much of her life, as she drops into conversation her previous cruises and boats, her friendships with working boat people in the sixties, her current floating home in Little Venice, and fourteen years of experience painting roses and castles. Her theory is that this folk art may have originated in Persia.

I can paint roses now!

In the afternoon I feel confident enough to splash out a few roses on to the green tub that I wrote about last week on Magpie Monday. Next, we paint the time-honoured castles, bridges and mountains on to pieces of wooden board; this is a slower process but perhaps even more satisfying than the roses. I decided not to paint the large tray that I bought in a charity shop last week, but instead bought a piece of white-washed board from Tricia.

I resist the temptation to slightly stick out my tongue whilst I concentrate on building up the layers of paint, copying Tricia, step by step. We're using acrylics and she says we should varnish it later with something like Ronseal hard glaze.

It probably takes about two hours to paint the castles, but the time flies by as we giggle at our mistakes, and Tricia is patient, easy going and always encouraging. The class is small, there's just seven of us and we share a long table on the mezzanine with plenty of natural light flooding in from the canal basin.

I am quite proud of my first time effort

I haven't painted for years and my creativity has been reignited. I feel inspired to become a regular magpie, seizing bargains from charity shops and painting them in this traditional style. So watch out friends, family and foes, you are all getting home-made Christmas presents this year!

The next roses and castles painting workshop at The London Canal Museum is on 27th November and costs £25

Tricia Parrott runs evening and weekend classes in Roses and Castles, narrowboat livery and lettering, and international styles of folk-painting. She is a professional signwriter who learned the craft in Braunston boatyard in the early 1970's.

For more information contact Tricia directly on 0207 2896323

I am linking this post up to Magpie Monday, to update the other magpies on what happened to my little green tub!

You may also like my article about Learning Opportunities at the London Canal Museum and my watercolour painting of Uxbridge Lock.

#SilentSunday

2011-10-09T10:28:00.001+01:00

Living Aboard Part 6: Home Comforts

2011-10-05T10:00:00.006+01:00

Living aboard a narrowboat

I am sometimes asked, have you got a TV, shower or toilet on a live-aboard narrowboat? Most boats for sale have all of the above and depending on your budget you can have all mod-cons including a bath, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine! The complicated part is do you have a big enough water tank and an electric system that can cope with the demands of modern life? Running these modern luxuries is easier if you are on a mooring with 240 volt electric supply and your own water tap. If you are continuously cruising you will need to find out about generators and invertors and make sure that you have a good sized water tank. Chemical toilets can either be the pump-out type, which is emptied at a pump out point (pumped out by a machine), or an Elsan (sometimes called a ‘porta potty’) which can be emptied by hand into a sewage disposal point. An Elsan toilet will need emptying more often than a pump out, but may be supplied with a spare cassette (sewage container).

The cooking will be done on gas, and may be a mini hob and oven in a smaller boat, but will often be a full size cooker. It will sometimes run off butane, but more commonly the gas bottles installed on the boat will be propane. Fridges can be 12 volt electric or alternatively they might run off gas. 12 volt fridges may drain your power if your battery bank is inadequate, so you could add a large solar panel on the roof. A gas fridge has a pilot light which will go out when the gas runs out and will then require re-lighting. Most fridges will have a small freezer compartment but a full size freezer is uncommon on a boat because of the 240 volt power that it requires. If you are on a mooring with a permanent 240 volt supply this may not be a problem for you.

Domestic hot water may be heated by a number of means. A common solution is a tankless gas water heater such as a Paloma or a Morco which supply instant hot water. This requires a gas flu to be fitted above it, through the roof of the boat. Alternatively you may have a hot water tank, heated by a gas boiler and this could also heat a radiator system.

A calorifier is a hot water tank containing one or more coils of copper pipe, which heat the water. The heat in the coils may come from the engine cooling system, a solid fuel back boiler or both.

Water tap to fill the water tank

If you don't have a big enough water tank and an electric system that can cope with the demands of modern life this can be more easily rectified than major alterations in a house. If you see a boat for sale that you like, remember that electric systems can be improved, domestic boat batteries can be added, a generator can be bought and water tanks can be expanded. There are live-aboard boats to suit all budgets for sale at http://grandunion.boatshed.com Boatshed Grand Union has second hand narrowboats, wide-beams and barges for sale on the Southern Grand Union Canal and London inland waterways.

Wind generator on a narrowboat roof

Disclosure: I was commissioned to write this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to some of my readers.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Magpie Monday

2011-10-03T10:00:00.003+01:00

I'm so excited that on 9th October I'm going to learn how to paint roses and castles at the London Canal Museum.

I went to a couple of charity shops and bought this green metal tub to paint roses on, and a big tea tray to paint a castle on. I need to white-wash over those birds on the tea tray.

The folk art of roses and castles was traditionally painted on the narrow boats themselves and their fixtures and fittings such as the water cans. They were traditionally on the cabin doors and the side of the boat next to the name of the boat owner or carrying company.

Although at one time it was thought the painting style came from gypsies, that was later found to be untrue, and the origins of the art remain unclear.

I'll be posting up new pictures of my artistically transformed objects when they're done.

I'm linking this post up to Miss Lizzie at Me and My Shadow blog, where other bloggers have written about cool second hand stuff they have found.

Living Aboard - Part 5: Is it Cold in Winter?

2011-09-28T10:00:00.001+01:00

The short answer is no. It is a bit of a running joke amongst live-aboard boaters that this is the most common question that people will ask. However, it may well be a question that you need to ask when you are looking for a boat to buy on the Grand Union canal in London or Hertfordshire. The longer answer is that it depends on your heating. Many boats and narrowboats for sale on the inland waterways are heated with a solid fuel stove. This burns coal or wood and a narrow steel boat can get very hot when the home fire is burning – enough to need opening the window in mid-winter! The advantages of burning solid fuel include a choice of coal or logs as fuel, and the romance of cosy nights in front of the amber glow of real flames. I've had casseroles and mulled wine simmering away on top of mine. The downside to solid fuel is that the fire can sometimes die down to an ember overnight making the mornings a little chilly. You will need to re-black the stove from time to time and sweep the flue regularly.

Solid fuel stove

When I was pregnant with our first child we invested in a diesel stove. It runs off red diesel from the engine tank and maintains a constant heat. It may not seem as cosy and romantic as a real burning fire but some models have an imitation coal flame effect. You can leave the stove safely burning all night while you sleep, and all day when you're out at work. They can, however be a bit of a pain to clean.

Narrowboats can also have a variety of panel or fin radiators which circulate hot water. Alternatively they may be heated with warm air ducting. They either run on diesel, or run off the existing diesel stove or from propane gas bottles. Some systems are electrically controlled so you will need to make sure your batteries are in good condition and regularly charged. Some central heating systems take up very little space but the diesel systems sometimes have noisy exhausts, or electric pumps which can be disturbing at night.

On 1^st November 2008 The EU Energy Products Directive stipulated that the full rate of duty should be applied to fuel used for “the purposes of navigation” of private pleasure craft. However, boaters can declare at the time of purchase what percentage of the fuel will be used for domestic heating, and this fuel will be sold to the boater tax free.

Diesel can be purchased at marinas and boat yards, and also from working boats who travel the waterways selling a variety of fuels. Working boats will often sell coal, smokeless fuel, diesel, propane gas bottles and other useful products such as kindling or chemical fluid for the toilet.

Both diesel and solid fuel stoves can be adapted to include a back boiler which may heat the radiators and the domestic hot water. On a live-aboard boat you may like to have more than one heating system, for example a solid fuel stove and a radiator system. However, when you're looking at boats for sale remember that most boats can be adapted to suit your requirements.

Have a look at Boatshed Grand Union to see several different types of heating on the boats for sale that are suitable for living aboard. There are up to 80 photos of each boat so you can get a good look at the options available. The real answer is that it is cosy on board in winter, and perhaps this winter it will be you snuggled up on board eating casserole with mulled wine warming on the stove!

Casserole image credit

Already have a narrowboat? Are you often being asked, Is it Cold in Winter? Contact Boat-Wife for a free postcard sized magnet to display on your boat. It is a small advert for this blog.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Back to School

2011-09-26T10:00:00.001+01:00

Learning Opportunities at the London Canal Museum

How do your children or grandchildren feel about their history lessons? You can support their education and ignite their enthusiasm for history with a visit to the London Canal Museum. They offer an exciting programme of walks, talks, boat trips and family days. The exhibits tell the tale of London’s canals from their beginnings as essential trade routes to today’s use as a leisure resource. Visitors can learn about the boatmen, their families and lifestyle and the horses that pulled the boats. The current temporary exhibition ‘London's Other River’ is running until 2nd October. This features the history of the River Lea navigation in East London.

On Sunday 4^th September visitors can join a guided walk down the towpath to Camden. The canal walks are aimed at adults but a teenager who enjoyed history at school would be most welcome and would probably enjoy the experience. The commentary is not recommended for younger children. However, the education team do occasionally organise guided walks aimed at groups of younger children with a commentary tailored to their needs.

On Sunday 18^th September and Sunday 25^th September there are boat trips through the Islington canal tunnel. Early advance booking (on line) is recommended for these. The ticket price of £8 for adults and £6 for children includes entry to the museum.

On October 25^th there is a children’s activity day including roses and castles painting, ice-cream making and a short boat trip to the nearest lock. (£4 child, £2 accompanying adult). The dates of activity days are planned with the school holidays and half term in mind.

Martin Sach, the chairman says,

“We've added more activities for kids to the museum in recent years so now they can build a

bridge and stand on it, work a boat through the model lock, and follow the Children's Trail

around the museum, as well as exploring the boat cabin and seeing our tug boat. Museums

combine entertainment with education so they learn without really knowing they have done

something educational.”

For those who do not live near London The Learning Zone on the museum’s website is packed full of fun educational resources, including drawings to paint and colour and a Regents Canal Quiz. There are also brief illustrated notes that can teach historical facts in an entertaining way.

Rebecca Mills, a teacher of Year 5 students says,

“The Learning Zone contains a series of enquiries with key questions and bite size chunks of information, excellent for developing independent learners in upper key stage 2 and key stage 3 (ages 10 – 14).

There are also great lesson plans for key stages 1 to 3 (ages 5 - 14) in the Teacher zone, the activities are fun and varied with clear cross curricular links, learning objectives and differentiation. Also, in the Teacher Zone you can find outlines of workshops and gallery links as well as comprehensive teacher notes.

Too cool for school? The museum is housed in a former ice warehouse built around 1862 and features the history of the ice trade and ice cream as well as the canals.

The London Canal Museum

12-13 New Wharf Road,

Kings Cross

London N1 9RT.

Telephone: 020 7713 0836

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk

This article was published in the September issue of Towpath Talk.

Living Aboard Part 4: Finance and Insurance

2011-09-23T10:00:00.001+01:00

A home afloat

If you're looking for a boat for sale on the Grand Union Canal you will already be thinking about finance. Your budget will determine the sort of liveaboard boat that you are looking for. Whether you wish to buy a second hand narrowboat or a wide beam Dutch barge for sale there are two main choices for finance. You may have bought your house with a mortgage and your car with a personal loan. When you are buying a boat you can do either of these options. It is a good idea to confirm what funding you can secure before going to view your potential dream home.

Marine Mortgages

Some companies specialise in marine finance or boat loans for residential and pleasure craft. This could be secured against the value of the boat. For loans over a certain amount a deposit is often required, to the value of a certain percentage of the boat's value. (The deposit required is 20-30% depending on which finance house it is.) There will be different loan periods to choose from. You will not normally need a survey on a new boat but it is usual to have a second hand boat surveyed out of the water to check the condition of the hull. A surveyor will also give you the option of checking the electrics and overall condition of the boat if you require and may include a current market valuation of the vessel. Some lenders may stipulate that the vessel should have a permanent mooring.

Marine finance is a good solution for purchases from £15,000 upwards. You could also consider using a marine finance broker. They have access to a number of finance companies and can offer you advice on how to secure funding that suits your position.

Unsecured Loans

You can also raise finances through an ordinary bank or building society loan. The advantage of this is that no deposit is required so they can fund up to 100% of the cost of your boat. No security is necessary and they will not require any survey or valuation. However, this option is sometime more suitable for borrowing a smaller amount. A bank or building society may fund purchases up to £25,000 depending on your personal credit history. Of course, with an ordinary bank loan you sometimes are permitted to take a 'payment holiday' when times are hard!

Insurance

It is a condition of the British Waterways Licence that your boat holds a valid insurance certificate and a marine finance company will also require that you purchase valid insurance. If you are living aboard, marine insurance providers will often add on an extra contents insurance policy to cover your personal possessions, and may list separately the more expensive items such as jewellery, computers, bicycles and solar panels.

So if you are looking to buy your first liveaboard boat, shop around for finance and insurance, and then relax and enjoy browsing a selection of liveaboard boats for sale on line. After surviving the rather dry topic of marine finance you may like to look for your dream boat at Boatshed Grand Union where there are up to 80 photos of each boat for sale.

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to some of my readers.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Free eBook: Narrowboat Families

2011-09-21T10:00:00.004+01:00

It's finally here! The brand new ebook, Narrowboat Families. So what does everybody think of it so far? The following writers and media peeps have had a sneak preview.

"I love the way that you describe life on the waterways in such a perfectly poetic way - my favourite kind of Narrowboat Wife writing! I think this ebook gives a wonderful insight into boating life, perfect for any family (or individual) who is curious about what it's really like. The addition of interviews with other boaters gives an even broader understanding of life aboard."

Alice Griffin, author, columnist, travel writer. www.alicegriffin.co.uk

Tales from a Travelling Mum: Navigating Europe with a Babe-in-Arms

"May I say what a fascinating ebook! I read it through 'cause it was so interesting. I am not slightly boaty at all but you almost had me convinced to get on the cut!"

Star Khechara, author of The Holistic Beauty Book: Over 100 Natural Recipes for Gorgeous Healthy Skin

"Peggy's book is a great insight into life as a narrowboater with a no holds barred honest approach with not just the good bits but including two year olds on gangplanks, noisy geese, toilet troubles and all!"

Hulya Erdal Chef/Writer/PR www.madebythechef.com

"What a beautiful tale of your everyday life. None of the fantasy, just all of the nitty gritty but still romantically beautiful... I read it all in one sitting and my cup of tea went cold!"

Nickie O'Hara www.iamtypecast.com

Wikio Top 10 Parent Blogs

Cison/PeerIndex Top 10 Most Influential Parent Bloggers on Twitter

Tots100 Top Parent Blogger

To receive the brand new ebook by Narrowboat Wife, sign up to the monthly Narrowboat Wife newsletter. Each newsletter includes a round-up of the best of this month's blog posts, waterways news, other random thoughts from me, and a download link to the free ebook.

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What did you think? Leave me a comment below. What would you like to see in a bigger, better, extended version of this book? More interviews? More articles? More pictures? What questions were left unanswered?

Boat-Wife

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

No Child Born to Die

2011-09-20T11:05:00.001+01:00

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend Save the Children's blogging conference with sessions from leading bloggers, prominent You Tubers and special guests.

Although it was a child-friendly event mine are too young to sit through a whole day of grown-up talking. They enjoyed cake, fruit and a bit of cBeebies while I enjoyed Blogging 101: a roundtable discussion led by these expert bloggers:

Chris Mosler, http://christinemosler.wordpress.com Nickie O’Hara, www.iamtypecast.com Kate Gunn - representing Netmums, http://katetakes5.blogspot.com Jennifer Howze - http://www.britmums.com, www.jenography.net Elinor Shields, Mumsnet - http://www.mumsnet.com/ Sarah Blakemore, Save the Children http://bornto.savethechildren.org.uk

“Health workers are critical to saving lives: they are the single most important element of any health service. Without them, no vaccine can be administered, no life-saving drugs prescribed, no family planning advice provided and no woman can be given expert care during childbirth.”

What can you do?

Take Action!

Sign the petition

Share the petition with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and your blog if you have one.

That's it. Easy. Five minutes. Make a difference. Save the children.

Thanks

Peggy

Narrow Margins - Marie Browne

2011-09-19T09:15:00.002+01:00

"Rover has gone bust," Marie's husband told her. As the car manufacturer completely funded their rather nice lifestyle Marie and Geoff suddenly had to sell up and downsize considerably.
"I have a cunning plan," said Marie. "Let's live on a houseboat."
Marie, Geoff, the kids and their dog decide to buy an ex hotel boat in need of some serious TLC and set off for Cambridge with absolutely no boating experience and limited enthusiasm.

Marie begins her adventure by moaning a lot, very conscious of the comfortable lifestyle she has so suddenly lost. I’m grateful for the voice of reason, her friend Helen who tells her to get a grip and realise what an amazing opportunity she has.

“The sun is shining, you have no work to worry about, you’re off on a weird experience, you have money, you’re warm and safe and fed, you have no responsibilities and you only answer to yourself, yep, I can see why you are so fed up, it must be terrible to be you – oh poor you!”

I enjoyed the hilarity of the couple learning to steer a boat by taking an inland waterways helmsman’s course with ‘Dave’. Marie sees the funny side of learning to navigate canals and rivers on what she describes as a ‘floating coffin’. I have great respect for any family that attempts to refurbish a boat while living aboard (Zoe at her blog Give an Earthly is having a go at that right now!) The Doctor and I are rarely brave enough to attempt DIY. Marie’s boat is called ‘Happy Go Lucky’ and at the beginning of the story Marie is anything but that. But I loved the way that as the story progresses the couple become more relaxed and dishevelled, the waterways begin to change them, and they find out that sometimes less is more.

Although there are several travelogues about narrowboating out there, there are not so many memoirs about family life on board. I wanted to find out about other mothers who had experiences that are similar to mine. How is Marie’s life different to mine? What is it like living on board with older kids? How different is it having a mooring? What’s it like throwing a load of refurbishment work into the mix? I think this memoir is pretty unique.

Narrow Margins is available on Amazon right now. Why not grab a copy for yourself of this funny story about a family’s triumph over adversity?

Living Aboard Part 3: Continuous Cruising

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000+01:00

My last article on living aboard explored the mooring options that you have when deciding to live aboard. When you are looking for canal boats for sale you may be also be looking for a residential mooring. However, if you intend to become a continuous cruiser you could have some questions about the practicalities of being constantly on the move.

First, you will need to purchase a boat license for your boat or narrowboat. This is often a ‘continuous cruising’ license from British Waterways. This allows the boat to travel widely around British waterways without staying in any one place for more than fourteen days (or less where local BW signs indicate a shorter period). The Mooring Guidance for Continuous Cruisers state that you must be engaged in a genuine, progressive journey around the network or a significant part of it. In submitting your license application, you agree to comply with the guidelines. If you want to live on a navigable river you will need to purchase a license from the appropriate local navigation authority.

For healthcare on the move you can keep your existing GP and visit a local surgery as a temporary resident as and when needed. For administrative purposes the NHS often require a local address, whether you are visiting the GP as a permanent or a temporary resident. If you cannot use the address of a local friend you may be able to offer the name of your boat, accompanied by the postcode of a local business or canal side pub.

It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a boater is eligible to pay council tax. However the British Waterways license fee covers the cost of a number of utilities a continuous cruiser may use, such as water supply and waste disposal. Boats on fixed residential moorings are liable to pay council tax and this may or may not be included in the mooring fee. Council Tax is charged on a domestic property or ‘dwelling’. Whilst a boat can be a dwelling, it cannot in law be a property.

British Waterways pays the Government a composite levy in respect of Council Tax and Business Rates. So, anyone who pays a boat license fee to BW contributes to this composite levy. BW also pays the local suppliers of sewage disposal and water and pays private contractors for rubbish disposal provided for boaters. In this way, continuous cruisers indirectly contribute to council costs.

To use a local library you will need to prove your home address or have a mailing address of some sort but it does not have to be in the area where you currently live and you do not have to register to pay Council Tax locally.

You can register to vote if you make a declaration of local connection. Contact the electoral registration officer at the council where you wish to declare a local connection, and they will supply a form for you to complete.

If you're looking for a boat to buy in London, Hertfordshire or the surrounding areas there are a number of boats for sale at Boatshed Grand Union that are ideally suited to living aboard and continuous cruising.

Disclosure: I was commissioned to write this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to some of my readers.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Cancer - my friend's story

2011-09-14T10:00:00.005+01:00

I have recently been enjoying a blog called Typecast. It is written by Nickie O'Hara - wife to one, Mum to three and Nana to two (yes, really!).

Because of her own family's experience with Cancer, and because Cancer is sometimes such a taboo subject, she has started a guest posting series about "your experiences with Cancer" - whether that be your own diagnosis, the struggle with coping with the diagnosis of a family member, the loss of someone to this cruel disease and also some experiences about survival of Cancer.

Nickie's website is a Wikio top 10 parent blog, the Tots 100 top parent blog and she is one of the most influential parent bloggers on Twitter. She is also on a panel at the Save The Children free blogging conference this weekend. I am honoured to be guest posting on her blog today as part of the Cancer series.

Thanks Nickie.

Read my guest post here.

I Wish...

2011-09-12T09:44:00.000+01:00


I wish I'd known John Lennon

I wish I was a writer. I have wished this since I was a little girl, for as long as I can remember. My mum taught me to read before I even started school. I remember learning to write my name at infant school. I can remember making up children's stories for my little brother on long car journeys in the seventies. I was so proud when a story that I wrote in junior school made it to the front page of the school magazine. When I was twelve I bought a typewriter at a car boot sale. I loved it; I treasured it. I wrote, typed and designed mini-magazines that were inspired by Bunty comics and Jacky magazines. I drew all the pictures too. I loved art, and chose that route into higher education. But a foundation course in Art and Design and a degree in Animation somehow lead me into a secretarial career. I am now a damn fine administrator, typist, PA, bookkeeper, receptionist and so on. These skills have introduced me to musicians and pop stars while managing a recording studio, made me a good Friend of the Earth, (I worked in their accounts department) and elevated me to administrative manager of a neurosurgical operating theatre in the NHS, (I wasn't exactly a brain surgeon but all of my colleagues were). Returning from maternity leave I accepted a lower grade role as a medical secretary so that I could reduce my hours to part time. Then a new government wanted the NHS to cut costs, so they offered me a voluntary resignation deal and here I am, a part time freelance secretary just beginning my freelance writing career.

I lost a friend to cancer earier this year; very suddenly. Loss makes you stop and realise that you may not have forever to realise your dreams.

"Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans".

(John Lennon)

I am a writer. I've been writing forever. "I'm a lover not a fighter"*. I'm a mother and a writer. Step by step I am turning my tip-tapping, typing fingers into a business. I know from my hypnotherapist career (- forgot to mention that one!) that whatever you believe about yourself becomes your reality. I don't have much spare time to pitch articles. I wish I had the time to contact agents about the wonderful book I have already written about my narrowboat life. I wish I had time.

But I wasn't given three wishes, not even two: If I had just one wish, I would just wish I was a writer.

Thanks to Josie for granting me one wish. I believe if it is written down it is now out there in the universe, just waiting to be answered.
Josie writes beautifully at http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk

She's created a fortnightly writing workshop and the prompt for this one was "I Wish."

You can read other people's wishes and writing by visiting her blog. I recommend popping over to read her wish post, which is an evocative, descriptive, poetical prose piece about her dream house by the sea.

In truth, I know that no magical elf or brownie is going to grant me a wish. It will be me that makes my dream come true. Watch this space.

"Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water, and there I saw myself!"
The Brownie Guide Handbook

*Quote from The Kinks.

For writing commissions, copy writing, business blogging etc see http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com

Silent Sunday

2011-09-11T07:15:00.001+01:00

Little Legacy: A small thing handed down by a predecessor.

2011-09-08T09:15:00.014+01:00

When I was seven years you were eleven years

Took my new bicycle for a ride

Stood in the park I watched you ride away

I didn’t want you to, and I cried.

(Part of a poem I wrote many years ago).

This summer the Doctor and I were invited to a wedding at a beautiful, ancient west-country church. I used to visit the churchyard now and then, on birthdays and Christmas to remember my step brother. I’d never heard of viral pneumonia, it happens to the young or the old and came very suddenly in the night. Time is a healer and losses become memories, but twenty years after his death I found myself re-living his funeral on a quiet sunny summer day. I remembered the black clothes that my skinny seventeen year-old self wore. I remembered which hymns were chosen. I remembered following the coffin out of the church and I watched it carried to the hearse. When I looked behind me the whole congregation had assembled silently behind me and stood on the steps in front of the church yard gate. This summer, twenty years on, I laid some fragile tangled flowers on to the memorial stone and for the first time ever I did not cry at the grave side.

Later that afternoon our friends were married. The church that has seemed so ominously stifling to my teenage self was alive with pride, joy and love; bustling with colours and happiness. The groom was stylish in a deep red suit and wore a permanent smile. The bride was breathtakingly beautiful in the dress of her dreams and their family and friends released wishes of strength and happiness into the stones and foundations of the ancient church so that every molecule resonated with glittering hopes for the future. Outside in the church yard the bells rang out with joy, and we threw confetti over the happy couple. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two young children in their best smart wedding guest clothes jumping and playing over my brother’s grave.

Little Legacy is a remembrance project, a positive and creative space, to celebrate small things handed down by predecessors. This is a concept created by Penny at the Alexander Residence blog. The idea is to share a scrap of wisdom that arises from the past, something that connects you to your past and drives you into the future. Little legacies can come from people living or dead and don’t have to be a memory from long ago.

At the beginning of their vibrant life together this bride and groom unwittingly gave me an intensely happy memory to re-frame my perception of a beautiful, ancient west-country church. Lives have seasons, everything changes, cycles and circles; a lovely lesson learned.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Living Aboard Part 2: Moorings

2011-09-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

If you've decided to live aboard a narrowboat your next decision may be where to live. Most boats are not sold with a mooring, so while looking at boats for sale you should also be considering your mooring options.

Residential Moorings

Most mooring sites are leisure moorings which means they are officially non-residential. However British Waterways do operate some residential moorings and a few are provided by boatyards and marinas.

If you register your details on http://www.bwmooringvacancies.com you can save a search for residential moorings and have vacancies sent to you by email as and when they are published by BW.

Residential moorings may or may not provide diesel sales, 240 volt electricity supply, waste disposal, parking, land line telephone, launderette, a postal address or a water point. Consider which services are important to you, and within your budget. You may also want to check the distance to local amenities such as grocery shops and the GP.

Continuous Cruising

If you would like to travel around without staying in any one place for more than fourteen days then the British Waterways Guidelines for Continuous Cruisers advise that boaters should be engaged in a genuine progressive journey around a significant part of the canal system. This is a requirement of purchasing a continuous cruising license and ensures that popular visitor moorings do not become overcrowded. This can be a varied and satisfying lifestyle for someone who is happy to be on the move; for example a retired couple, or someone who works from home. Make sure that you read the full guidelines before choosing continuous cruising. British Waterways are currently researching ways to 'rule out repetitive 'to-ing' and 'froing' within the same geographical area'. If you do not have a permanent mooring bear in mind that your boat will be moored on the towpath which could be less secure, especially in inner city areas.

Winter Moorings

British Waterways let out some of their visitor mooring spaces as ‘Winter Moorings’. These can be purchased through their mooring vacancies website at the beginning of October. Some marinas and private mooring providers also offer winter moorings. During the winter months the weather and stoppages for canal maintenance make cruising more difficult. Some boaters prefer to settle down for the winter and then continue to cruise in the summer months. Depending on your situation you could apply for a different winter mooring each year or keep returning to the same place if availability allows.

So whether you are choosing between a second hand narrowboat, a Dutch barge or a wide beam houseboat for sale there are also decisions to make about whether you wish to find a residential mooring. Use the boat search facility on Boatshed Grand Union to view a selection of boats suitable for living aboard.

Disclosure: I was commissioned to write this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to some of my readers.

Newsletter News Flash

2011-09-05T12:24:00.000+01:00

Draft book cover

Good afternoon. And here is the news. If you have signed up for the new narrowboat wife newsletter thank you! But it will be no news to you that there has been no news as of yet. The reasons for this are mainly,

1) The mailing list provider software website RSS feed thingy is more difficult to set up than I first thought.
2) I am concentrating on spending time looking for new clients for my secretarial business and new writing commissions.
3) I haven't finished creating the book cover for Narrowboat Families.

The good news is, the Narrowboat Families ebook is nearly ready, and I have recently had an article published in my favourite newspaper Towpath Talk. It's called 'Back to School' and takes a look at the learning opportunities available at the London Canal Museum (my favourite museum!).

Mumpreneur - Fun, Friendly and Achievable?

2011-09-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Click here for free eCourses

What do you think of when you hear the word “Mumpreneur”?
I’ve been doing the Become a Mumpreneur course for a few months and I’m loving it. It’s delivered in bite size chunks to my email inbox in a way that allows me to progress at my own pace without feeling overwhelmed. I already have sixteen ideas on how to create multiple income streams which will allow me to work flexibly from home.
I’ve always thought that having too many ideas buzzing around in your head indicates a lack of focus, but receiving structured tasks and challenges by email is like having your own personal business mentor to keep you on track. I now believe that all of the crazy ideas in my mind can be turned into incomes.
I am mother to a three year old and a one year old, and I am also a part time secretary, and yet somehow I do manage to fit little bits of entrepreneurship into my week.
I’ve read some recommended reading, and jotted down lots of ideas in to my Mumpreneur notebook. I sold second hand books outside my narrowboat and increased my blog traffic by joining in linkys. I set up a Facebook page for the blog and set up some affiliate marketing programs. I pitched a couple of freelance articles. I joined ebuzzing.com and Opinium the survey site. I also absorbed a huge amount of information about online marketing from attending the Cybermummy parent blogging conference in June. I was initially worried that the event was going to be full of career driven mega-mums, confident and possibly even power dressing. However, I actually had a lot of fun and found that even the most influential, charismatic, high profile bloggers were people, just like me, and not intimidating after all.
I’ve always shied away from any kind of marketing and business studies mistakenly thinking that it would be boring and that I would be no good at it. I had a belief that I don’t have a “business head” and the word “entrepreneur” makes me think of high flying Richard Branson types – certainly not me! But the word “Mumpreneur” sounds fun, friendly and achievable. It suggests that being a mum comes first and the ‘preneur comes a close second. That does sound like something I’d like to be. Becoming a businesswoman is a journey, but I was absolutely astounded to find out that it can also be fun.

This article was first published as a guest post on the Become a Mumpreneur website.

Find out for yourself how fun, friendly and achievable becoming a mumpreneur is and sign up for their free Mum to Mumpreneur in a Month e course.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, web copy and design, or freelance writing commissions.

This post contains affiliate links.

Living Aboard Part 1: Costs

2011-08-31T11:04:00.000+01:00

There is a great blog post on Boatshed Grand Union about how to choose a boat for living aboard. But after you've bought your boat what will living aboard cost?

When you are looking for a boat to buy you may wonder if living aboard is cheaper than living in a house. Your costs will depend on the particular house and boat that you are comparing. I started looking for boats for sale in London in the year 2000. I was renting a room in a shared flat and decided to buy a second hand narrowboat. Taking into consideration the BW licence fee, insurance, mooring fee, boat loan repayments to the bank, the cost of gas and coal etcetera I found that the lifestyle was similar in monthly costs to my lifestyle ‘on the bank’. However, a big motivating factor for me was to be able to own my home.

Liveaboard costs will largely depend on the size of your boat, how you have financed it, the luxuries or mod cons you have on board and the cost of your mooring. On a mooring you may pay for a shore-line of 240 volt metered electricity, yet while cruising you will generate your own 12 volt electricity. Heating may be gas, solid fuel or a diesel stove. A small space is economical to heat and diesel used for domestic purposes (as opposed to propulsion) is duty free. Your domestic water may be heated by gas, an engine calorifier or a back boiler from your main heating stove. So, the diverse number of options available means that it is difficult to calculate the typical running costs of a boat, per se. (This is of course also true of houses.)

If you don't own your boat outright you may be paying a marine mortgage or regular bank loan repayments. Mooring fees can vary across the country depending on the location and the facilities provided. The longer the boat the more expensive your insurance and BW licence will be. Engine maintenance is a sporadic and sometimes unpredicatable cost that you will have to budget for, unless you are a talented marine engineer and other systems on the boat, (e.g plumbing and electric) all require maintenance and repair from time to time.

Another regular cost is a boat safety certificate. A boat safety check must be undertaken every four years in order to validate your insurance. The boat safety examiner may make recommendations of changes you should make to your boat before he will renew your certificate, and these changes can incur costs.

So, don't let the temptation of a cheaper lifestyle encourage you to live aboard. You will derive more value from living on the waterways if you have a keen interest in canal heritage and towpath nature walks!

Buy Curious? Visit Boatshed Grand Union to browse boats.

Galley with dinette

A cosy home

How to Make Money From Blogging

2011-08-30T10:00:00.002+01:00

eBuzzing

I wouldn't say that a blog can directly earn you money, but you can earn money through or with your blog. It takes a lot of time to build it up, and you need to increase your readership to about 100 visitors per day. However, once it's set up it can be a low maintenance passive income. My top 5 tips are,

1) Get more readers. Use Twitter and Facebook. Tara Cain (top mummy blogger) has written a great article for beginners, on how to use Twitter.

Comment on other people's blogs daily. Join a bloggers network like BritMums. http://www.britmums.com/

2) Join eBuzzing. eBuzzing is a platform for bringing advertisers and bloggers together. Bloggers can monetise their blog by blogging in support of campaigns initiated by advertisers.

3) Affiliate marketing. I am a member of Amazon Associates because I love to read and write about books. You can select books relevant to your blog's topic. Like this: Have you read Narrow Margins by Marie Browne? It's about a family who move onto a narrowboat and refurbish it while living aboard.

4) Join the Ace Blogger free eCourse. It's a step by step guide to growing and starting a blog including using Facebook, SEO, favicons, gravatars, slideshows and more. It might sound technical but I found it was fun! (And I'm technophobic!)

5) Write great content. Write something unique to you. Write about your passions. Write regularly.

Take action now! Leave a comment below with a brief description of yourself and your blog. Some of the other people reading Narrowboat Wife may be interested in reading yours!

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, web copy and design, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

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Reasons to be Cheerful - Working From Home

2011-08-26T08:23:00.000+01:00

I am really enjoying working from home.

I am doing some freelance secretarial work for Boatshed Grand Union. I wrote my first blog post for them here. It's a brief biog of me and my boat life, and my varied career so far. Working for myself is a big wake-up call. I have to work quite hard as I charge by the hour. If I took long extended lunch breaks I wouldn't earn much! But it's great to work in a job that has everything to do with narrowboats.

So my reasons to be cheerful this week are;

1) Spending more time on our lovely boat (bought through Boatshed Grand Union brokerage).

2) Part of my job is ~~drooling over~~ looking at all the lovely boats on their website.

3) Flexible working. Mums: you know what I am sayin'.

To read why other bloggers are feeling cheerful click on Michelle's R2BC linky badge below.

If you think flexible working from home sounds too good to be true try a free eCourse with Become a Mumpreneur. That's how I started! (Affiliate link). Now I'm on their BaM course, developing my freelance secretary, writer and blogging business ideas!

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, web copy and design, or freelance writing commissions.

The office/Boatman's cabin/Girls' bedroom

Stuck on You

2011-08-23T10:00:00.002+01:00

Sticky the Fairy

When I got back to the boat there was a parcel with my name on it on the front deck.

Royal Mail don’t deliver to people of no fixed abode so how on earth did this get here? I thought.
“I hope you like it,” said a little voice. I looked up and saw a tiny pink fairy fluttering beside the front door.
“I’m Sticky,” she said. “I mean my name is Sticky. It’s nearly Back To School time. I visit all the good mummy bloggers and give them sticky labels and other personalised products.”
“Really?” I said suspiciously. “My children aren’t at school.”
“You’d be surprised how many things get lost at nursery,” said the fairy. “If your children’s things are labelled you have a much better chance of them being returned, or identifying them in the lost property box!”
I sat down on the side-bench in the well-deck and began to open the parcel: A pink backpack with my daughter’s name on it!
“It seems quite strong and sturdy,” I said.
“Child proof!” grinned Sticky.

There are packets of sticky labels in fun shapes with both of my daughters’ names on them; cupcakes, fairies, unicorns, mermaids and butterflies. There’s also the cutest pack of clothing labels that read, ‘Melmoth Girls’.
“I remember my mum having to painstakingly sew our name labels into our school uniforms each year,” I mused.
“Not anymore,” said Sticky. “These just iron on!”
“How cool is that?” I replied, smiling. “These are all much more cute and funky than I remember name labels being when I was a kid.”
“Well it’s not just about the labels,” said Sticky. “There’s drink bottles, learning books, canvases, height charts, backpacks, lunchboxes, library bags, personalised clothing and more.”
“Where?” I asked, looking around the front deck for more.
“On the website!” laughed the fairy, her voice fading as she fluttered up towards the sky.
“Is there anything for mums?” I asked cheekily. The fairy rolled her eyes and then waved her magic wand. A small packet of business cards appeared at my feet. I picked them up and opened the packet. They’re so much better than my old business cards. They’re blue translucent ovals of plastic with a squiggly flower drawn onto each one. A few days later I gave some to my friend who works in publishing.
“In case you’re ever telling someone about my blog,” I said. “It has my blog address and everything on it.”
“These are cool,” she smiled. “Where did you get them from?”
“Well, because of that blogging conference, Cybermummy, you know? I got to review some products from a company called Stuck on You. I just loved the little Bloggers Survival Kit bag that they gave us; and a cool little notebook full of tick boxes that says ‘Things To Blog About’ on the cover. I even used that bag as my handbag for a bit.
Am I weird?”
“You’re weird if you believe there is really a little fairy called Sticky,” said my friend.

Disclosure: I received some free samples from Stuck On You. I was not told what to write. I was not bewitched by a fairy. I genuinely love their products. Carrie Felton is a mumpreneur who first began at home creating labels for her son, and now has a global business.

http://www.stuckonyou.biz/ - Labels for every Tom, Dick or Harriet

Back to School Super Special - they deliver within 7 - 10 days!

Become a Mumpreneur – Affiliate Link

Silent Sunday

2011-08-21T06:30:00.001+01:00

The Boatgirl From a Parallel Universe

2011-08-19T10:00:00.001+01:00

Lyra: Intrepid Boat Cat

I met a girl on the Grand Union Canal who had travelled here from another dimension. Amy comes from a universe like ours, but different in many ways. We first met in cyberspace, a dimension that connects our two universes. In Amy’s world, on the River Cam, continuous cruisers must move every forty-eight hours! So Amy and James travelled like 'gyptians' for some time, until they found a mooring in Cambridge. This summer they left that mooring and headed for London, in our universe; the place where they first dreamed of a narrowboat life.

Unlike us, they travel fast. Amy and James cruised from Cambridge to London in 10 days, doing more than 185 miles and 136 locks along the way. As our ships passed in the night Amy, her daemon and I took shelter in a nearby tavern and, although we'd never met in real life before, we talked about boating and blogging incessantly before happily wandering home up the towpath. Amy's daemon's name is Lyra and she has taken the form of a cat.

"You don't have daemons in your universe?" hissed Lyra through the darkness.

"We kind of do," I said. Philip Pullman wrote books about them; daemons and other things."

"His dark materials," mused Lyra. She had heard of the books.

"But some of it is based on truth don't you think?" said Amy.

"You mean, there could have once been travelling narrowboat people with their own kind of dialect: People that had their own community and didn't have much to do with those on the bank? Working boatmen who people mistakenly thought were like gypsies because of the coloured painted designs on their boats?"

"It's possible," said Amy.

"Well I think Philip Pullman made it all up," I said.

Click each image to see Philip Pullman's legendary best selling books about Lyra on Amazon.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is true. Except I did once meet a travelling boating girl called Amy and we did go to a pub. She writes about her true adventures living on board a narrowboat with James and Lyra at http://nbluckyduck.blogspot.com Catch up with them now (they’re fast!) and read the archives to follow the journey they made to London and back to Cambridge again.

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.

Sign up to the mailing list to get the free eBook Narrowboat Families.

nb Lucky Duck

Writers Wanted

2011-08-17T10:00:00.001+01:00

Canal Activities For Kids - eBook

I am currently creating an eBook called ‘Canal Activities For Kids’. It is a collection of articles contributed by narrowboaters who live or work on the waterways.

Topics covered include; narrowboating, a boat themed recipe, arts and crafts, days out, waterways museums, cycling with kids, fishing with kids, history, foraging, reading waterways stories, wildlife walks and camping. The book is packed full of ideas for low cost family fun.

I am actively seeking writers with a waterways connection who would like to contribute to the book.

Please contact me by email to indicate which topic you are interested in writing about, or if you have a suggestion for an activity not listed above. Articles can be between 400 and 600 words with one or two pictures. Your article should include details of any equipment required, where to obtain that equipment and what ages the activity is suitable for. You may also recommend suitable books for further reading. (Topics already allocated to writers are: narrowboating, cycling, fishing and foraging.)

As this is a small scale project there is unfortunately no budget for the book. However, I can include a short biography of you and/or your business and a link to your blog or business website. You will also receive a complimentary copy of the eBook, upon publication.

Coming Soon: Narrowboat Families eBook!

2011-08-15T09:36:00.000+01:00

Have you ever wondered what it is like to live on a narrowboat with children? Is it cold in winter? What if the children fall in the water? All of your questions answered!

Features

Narrowboat Wife - how and why I became a narrowboater
Narrowboat Life - answers to frequently asked questions
Meet the Boaters - interviews with families who live aboard and those who left the water after having children
Parenting on Board - how is it different to living in a house?
Beautiful colour photographs of narrowboat family life

Free eBook

To receive the brand new eBook by Narrowboat Wife, as soon as it is published sign up to the monthly Narrowboat Wife newsletter. There are a lot of exciting developments planned for the Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife website. The monthly newsletter includes a round-up of the best of this month's blog posts.

Boat-Wife
xx

Silent Sunday

2011-08-14T07:00:00.001+01:00

On a Break

2011-07-29T09:00:00.003+01:00

BWO

I am taking a brief blogging break to write an eBook and to concentrate on starting my new freelance writer/freelance secretary business.

The eBook is called Narrowboat Families and will be available for free on the blog. In the meantime you may like to read some of my favourite posts from the archives:

My first ever blog post
Living beside a wild flower meadow
My imaginary friends: Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood
My imaginary friend Charles Lamb: Essayist and Poet
Ten things that are different about mothering on board
FAQs about living on a narrowboat

You can also browse other cool blogs on the latest BritMums blogging carnival, hosted at Mari's World.
Or have a nosy around the inside of our narrowboat in my guest post at The Alexander Residence.
You can get in touch with me on

Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

Contact me by email regarding PR, advertising and writing commissions.

See you soon!

Boat-Wife

A Million Moments of Closeness

2011-07-27T08:00:00.003+01:00

This morning I read a blog post that made me ponder whether blogging can be a kind of self help? The writer had found blogging when depressed to be a cathartic and therapeutic experience. She said that writing about her feelings instead of internalising them was liberating. Readers’ comments said that her post was heart-warming. Another comment explored the possibility that blogging is the new praying, and that if you write for what you wish for then it sometimes comes true. I am a big fan of blog therapy. I have just blogged myself through a year of depression, anti-depressants and bereavement. I managed to still turn that into something cheerful by singing ‘Mothers Little Helper’ to myself and writing about Mick Jagger being my imaginary friend. Getting positive feedback on my writing has given me the confidence to try freelancing. I recently went to a huge parent blogging conference and so I would say that blogging has changed my life!
Research shows that the relative anonymity of writing and networking online allows us to feel safe sharing our feelings. Because of this, new online friendships can sometimes develop faster than friendships in real life. Skype, Facebook, Twitter, texts, emails and instant messages allow us to communicate quickly and frequently making it easier to maintain relationships, both old and new, therefore increasing intimacy.
Sharing your thoughts, feelings and life experiences by using words and pictures on line can make us feel more connected to our social circles and peers. Blog sites and websites like Facebook give us the opportunity to comment on and discuss shared photos and receiving responses in this way is another closeness essential. Discussions sparked in this way can feel like an online version of a banter in the local pub, catching up with friends and building intimacy without even leaving your home.

NIVEA are celebrating the closeness that 21^st century technology provides with their A Million Moments of Closeness campaign. You can upload a photo of you sharing a cosy moment with a friend, colleague, sibling, partner, parent or child at facebook.com/niveauk, or look out for the road shows, throughout the UK, where the two of you can jump into a photo booth and have your picture instantly uploaded. Whether you share your photos on Facebook or at the road show, you’re in with the chance to win - every day, a picture of the day will be selected by psychologist Professor Geoff Beattie The winner will receive one of 100 prizes worth £100.
Do you agree that technology has made us closer than ever? Share your views and join the Feel Closer debate at facebook.com/niveauk. Have you ever revealed something in an email, a text or a blog post that you never would have done in person? Is the internet a good way of staying close to loved ones, or does it simply give us an excuse not to actually meet up in person? Is sending a brief text thoughtful and intimate, or a way of evading real-life interaction? Have your say - and let’s find out how intimate we can really be on Facebook! Check out a million moments of closeness.

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