Note: the following lovely article is from Suzanne Charlton. Suzanne and her husband, Rob, live on a narrowboat on the river Thames. Many readers probably know about Great Britain's canal system and the narrowboats, and in this article Suzanne writes about what it's like to live aboard a narrowboat. Suzanne also writes on her own blog, Narrowboat: The Green Man
Living in tune with nature is rather easy to do when living on a river. The good ship
The Green Man is moored on the Thames near Oxford, England. ‘Ship’ is not really a good way to describe the vessel.
It is a 55ft narrowboat. It is only 6ft wide. If I stand inside I can reach out and touch both sides. To be honest, it is like living in a corridor, but a beautiful corridor made seemingly smaller by sharing it with 2 cats and a Morris dancing husband.
Every morning I awaken to see a heron fishing in the shallows of the river bank. I share my breakfast on a regular occasion with a friendly mallard duck and out of the corner of my eyes I often see the flash of iridescent blue as a kingfisher or two pass in a flurry. I have been known to shoo curious wildfowl out of the boat when their inquisitiveness becomes too much and they let themselves in via the cat flap.
Every season is more pronounced than when living in a house. In summer the sun heats the steel shell of the boat and we spend most of our time outside on the riverbank, walking the fields. In autumn, the river rises from the incessant November rain. I like to cultivate my little piece of river bank. I grow fruit and vegetables throughout the summer, but come autumn the threat of flooding means the land will lie fallow until spring. In winter the pools and streams freeze, the river too, in parts. We have skated on the water before. The icy chill is kept at bay inside The Green Man and we are kept warm by our multi-fuel burning stove. And then, as the ice melts the river inevitably bursts its banks again. We can only reach dry land by wearing waders or rowing through the flood waters. Spring sees life return to the banks and water. Carp bathe in the shallows and river mammals play in the waters.
My living quarters may be small, but how many people can say they are rocked off to a gentle sleep every night by the ebb and flow of water beneath them?
Remember me and the Wine Circle - if you ever read this!!!! are you and Rob still able to make our March 2010 meeting - we hope you can.
Regards - kathy
PS. I lost your details when my computer crashed I no longer have your email address