Goodbye, dearest Lewsey.

Lewsey.

28.02.2008 - 07.09.2010
You will always be loved and will never be forgotten. Just, please, dear girl, promise not to pick any more fights with cars in the next world.

We miss you terribly, already.

We love you.

For DJ and Zhoen

are-you-my-mother
Originally uploaded by valonia2006

When I was a young girl one of my favourite books was "Are You My Mother?" by P. D. Eastman.

It tells the adventurous story of a baby bird who, after falling out of his nest, wanders in search of his mother. Every creature (or object) he meets he asks "are you my mother?" and meets with negative responses. Finally, he asks a mechanical crane whether it is his mother and in response the crane picks him up and puts him back in his nest, thus reuniting him with his mother.

It is a gorgeous book and reminds me a little of Giblet's tale!

giblet

giblet
Originally uploaded by valonia2006

The baby coot has been lovingly named Giblet and today my friend George filled his dingy with river water so Giblet could have a swim in safety. Whilst Giblet was swimming, his mother returned, and together they conversed in coot language. George kindly reunited mother and baby and they swam happily away. I am no longer a coot mother. At least I managed to keep it alive and happy overnight. My goldfish mothering skills are slightly less advanced as my previous record shows... Anyway, a happy ending it would seem to this coot related tale.

I Am A Mother...

14052010407
Originally uploaded by valonia2006

...to a lost baby coot. He was abandoned and drowning. He is very much alive now and has taken to running up and down the boat... and shouting at me when I get in his way.

Progress Update.

I am happy to announce that today we passed our BSS. This means that all we have to do now is finish decorating the boat and then we can put it up for sale.

We love our boat very, very much. I hope the next owners will adore it as much as we do.

So much time has passed...

...since my last post. Spring is here, we have had our first thunderstorm of the year... and the mooring manager has evicted our cats.

We are saddened by this (one was a naughty little beggar) and they are currently in kitty borstal (or, to be more precise, they are being spoilt rotten whilst staying with my parents).

In lieu of this we have decided to sell The Green Man and try our luck on land. We probably won't last long before the river calls us home but it is time for a change and to move on.

We need t0 schedule work for the BSS and finish a little bit of decoration, but soon, very soon, our lovely floating home will be ready to put onto the market. I'll post details here when it is.

xx

Did Someone Mention Snow?

Here are a few photographs taken on my phone this morning (and the snow pig I made last night… it looks more like Winne the Pooh)

Walking home from work.

It’s still snowing. 7inches so far!

  A driver had a lucky escape. Tyre prints leading across a junction and into the crash barrier beside the river.

Luckily the snow hasn’t diminished my reading skills so I could still find my way home in all the whiteness!

The marina

  

And the road leading to it.

Glad I didn’t cycle to work.

My garden.

The boat.

The view from my boat.

Thankfully not my boat. I wouldn’t like to fight my way into that!

I like the bouys…

This is beginning to make me feel cold…

Cats not too sure about this…

The “snowpig”

Winter Photos Taken This Morning

It’s fair to say that it is a little cold. It was –5C this morning. The ice isn’t quite thick enough around the boat to walk on… not that we would even consider doing such a thing as irresponsible as that…