Now we’ve got the flat sorted out we are finding ourselves at a bit of a loose end on dry land. This wouldn’t have been the case if our social activity wasn’t being restricted as we would have filled much of our time looking after grandchildren. At least it gives me a chance to bring the blog up to date with our final few days before we returned to the UK and include a few other things like our plans for returning to France on Thursday 9th July now that the pleasure cruising ban has been lifted.
Just before we
left for the UK, the River Marne water level was so low that there was hardly any water
flowing through the barrage in town…
...compared with March when the water level was over the top of the barrage
Taking
advantage of the low water level to carry out some maintenance just before we left:
As we had been
in lockdown, we hadn’t been able to go out and find more lavoirs to add to our collection,
but our daughter Catherine made us smile one day. She lives in Spain and, on one of her first
walks after their lockdown was eased, she found a lavoir and sent us this picture 😊
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| Catherine’s lavoir in Tavertet |
We said in an earlier update that people are now able to cruise in France so all the people who were stuck in the port with us in Châlons en Champagne have now set off on their travels. The girls on Puddleduck had headed westwards on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin but had to turn around because the weed was too thick due to a warm spring and lack of traffic – very few commercials use the western end between Châlons and Nancy. Since then we have heard from Alistair on his narrowboat, Vector, saying he is attempting the same journey. Being a narrowboat, he has a shallower draught than Puddleduck but has still had difficulty getting through as you can see from his pictures.
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| Troublesome cruising on the Marne au Rhin |
Alistair has had help from several quarters including being towed by a VNF van, local residents and even a péniche which is a rare sight on the western end of that canal.
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| The péniche that helped narrowboat Vector on part of its journey |
After the girls turned around, they went back through Châlons and stopped for a couple of nights. We were back in the UK by then, so they tried to make us feel jealous by taking a picture sitting by our boat.
Our flat in Caversham is not far from the River Thames so we are able to go for a walk along the river most days, usually accompanied by daughter Lauren & grandson Ellis of course. We quickly realised that we had forgotten what a menace the Canada geese are in England with their mess all over the paths and terrorising young children and dogs that walk past. I know it’s the fault of humans as they feed them which encourage the birds to become relatively tame. There was a particularly large family opposite the mooring where we had to stay on our first boat for a while when the Thames was in flood one winter:
At the beginning of this blog entry, when I mentioned that we’re currently on dry land, it brought to mind the differences we have noticed between living on a boat and in bricks and mortar. The main thing we have both noticed is that it’s a much simpler way of life on a boat but that it’s not so easy to pinpoint objectively why that should be. What is very obvious is that boat living lends itself to being ‘green’ whereas it takes a conscious effort to do this on land. I know that many people consider themselves green and have been naturally like it for years, but we have to admit that when we last lived in bricks and mortar six years ago we were nowhere near as green as we are now.
With a finite
sized tank on the boat and working out when and where we can top up, we are used to being extremely frugal with water. This has become second nature such that our
habits have continued in the flat, e.g. in the morning, overnight water glasses are emptied
into the kettle rather than down the sink.
Similar comparisons can be made when considering the use of electricity
and gas.
Of course,
there are other physical differences that make flat living different:
- Mains drainage: not having to find somewhere to empty the storage tank, although in France it goes straight into the water ☹
- Mains electricity: no solar panels on a block of flats and generator not required
- Conversation: we can’t always hear each other like we can in the confines of a boat, whichever rooms we are in
- Side hatches: cleaner to tip dirty saucepan waste into the water rather than down a sink
- Food storage: not worrying about how to keep food fresh as there’s space for a decent sized fridge and freezer in a house
If you asked
Buddy about the differences, he would tell you that he’s ecstatic because he
loves the flat because of its carpets; rolling around on a wooden floor of the boat isn’t quite the same for him 😊
There hasn’t
been much to report on the butterfly front I’m afraid, just the usual suspects
on the local dog walks from the brown, white and vanessid families. We did look for purple emperors in Pamber
Forest with Sophie & Yanos one day but didn’t spot any; we saw some
silver washed fritillaries though, one of my favourite butterflies.
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| Male silver washed fritillary |
Paul & Sue are currently cruising in France and heading to meet up with us when we return. The same day we went to Pamber Forest they had a butterfly visit their boat and they sent me a picture for identification. Coincidentally it was also a silver washed fritillary. The underside depicted in their picture shows the sliver washes after which the butterfly is named.
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| Paul & Sue’s silver washed fritillary |
How have we felt being back in England under the lockdown? Well, we have to admit that we felt a lot safer in France but then the two countries approached things quite differently. France took an authoritarian stance once they realised, after the first weekend, that not everyone was taking it seriously. Whereas, over here, it seems a very soft approach has been taken almost to the point that it feels like the rules are mere suggestions.
To finish, here’s a pyramid orchid we found just around the corner from our flat:
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