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I decided to write some letters today, just because I liked writing the date: 21.1.21. Mind you, I thought 2020 was going to be a great year just because of the dates you could write like 02022020. How wrong I was! 2020 will definitely be a year to remember but not for necessarily good reasons! It’s rather sad that letter writing has gone out of fashion. Receiving an email isn’t quite the same as a hand written letter plopping through your letterbox. R and I are receiving our mail in a very 21st century fashion, only possible because our son is so media savvy. He’s opening our post and then scanning it into a Google drive folder which we have access to. We just have to remember to check the folder, if we can remember where to find it! There is only a certain number of times I can get G to explain the system to me without him thinking I am a total numpty!

Our walk today was the muddiest yet even though the day itself was dry and relatively warm and sunny, although at times there was a keen wind. We went to find the address of one of our  friends from home who lived here many years ago and had told us that he had built the garden wall of his house. We took a picture so he could see it was still in good nick, infact it was very decorative and I was most impressed! Walking on from there we found ourselves in an extensive wood which although was lovely to see, proved incredibly tricky to walk through. There was an area marked out as a bluebell wood so we headed in that direction. The bluebells obviously were not out but it was encouraging to see lots of green shoots peeping through the ground. The downside to all this was the mudbath situated throughout the pathways on the top of a hill.  I kid you not, at one stage we were over our ankles in mud and puddles of water.  A very unpleasant sensation! Good for the thigh muscles as we had to really keep a grip on how we were walking so as not to slip on our behinds. I didn’t fancy a pile of muddy clothes in the boat and the challenge of cleaning them.

Eventually we found our way out of the woods, fairly near to the canal. It was a pleasant couple of miles walk back to our boat but I was shocked by the extent of flooding on our left as we walked along the towpath.  No doubt it will disappear quickly enough once the rains stop. But it was rather sad to see a children’s play area totally awash.

Started watching The Queens Gambit on Netflix which has been well recommended and was gripping enough for us to watch two episodes. That followed a physics lecture given by a friend from church who is also a scientist. I was never any good at physics at school. The only concept I ever understood was conduction and I think that’s because I have an Aga so am interested! However APs lecture was well received tonight by those attending. I love his enthusiasm for the subject but I don’t think I’ll ever be a physicist!

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The promised rain held off in the morning enough for us to have a fairly dry walk around town and for R to collect some chunky bits of wood he had seen abandoned the day before but had had no means of carrying them back to the boat. They look thicker than his usual logs so I think sawing them up will take quite a bit of effort. That’s his keep fit. Mine has gone out of the window recently.  When we can do long walks and  have locks to operate I feel like I am getting some exercise. However it’s easy to let it slip, especially the prevention of bingo flaps! Part of the problem is the lack of space to move around much. During lockdown 1 I got hooked on an online walking program and ‘Jo Wicks 10mins for seniors’ which I adapted to make harder as I didn’t think I was quite senior enough! I have been making excuses every day not to do them and it’s just enertia. Timing is an issue. If I  do them first thing, before getting dressed, I have to brave the cold. But if I leave them until later I have so many layers of clothing on I can’t be bothered to take enough off to exercise! However today I felt motivated.  I moved a chair and table to create space, R retired to the other end of the boat, I set a timer and found some inspirational music and really quite enjoyed myself. Enough to think I must do the same tomorrow and the day after.  I always feel so much better when I have expended some energy and feeing less like a couch potato I then usually feel ready to tackle some other tasks that need doing. Being self disciplined is quite an issue without deadlines and although I don’t want to be unnecessarily stressed, neither do I want to become lazy. There’s the Martha and Mary issue too – how much is it OK just ‘to be’ like Mary, balanced against what needs ‘doing’ like Martha. I am conscious that I am missing being creative, such as with a sewing or knitting project, and realise I have only recently started to feel this way. It may partly be due to the fact we are not moving much at the moment so there is comparitively little to do, but I think it is also that I have had little inclination to do anything other than that on my ‘to do’ list. I am happy to know my motivation is rising as it might inspire me. Every Friday when I zoom with my isolated friend in Ireland I am inspired (and a little envious truth be told!) by all the wonderful knitting she is producing.  Some of it may be frivolous (I seem to remember knitted hats for Ferraro Rocher chocolates at Christmas!) but at the end of lockdown she will have something tangible to see for what she did with her time. At this rate, I  will just have thoughts!

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Walking out from the boat we discovered a lovely park on the opposite side of the canal, reachable now the flooding is reduced and we can walk across the nearest bridge. The paths were still a mudbath but my tactic of lining my wellies with plastic bags is working well and even though I waded through a few puddles, my feet remained reasonably dry! Occasionally the sun came out which reflected beautifully on the sizeable lakep and there were lots of ducks and swans meandering around. Plenty of toddlers enjoying the puddles and people taking their daily exercise.

Returning to the boat, each of us with a large foraged tree branch, we decided to move further into town. Fortified by coffee and after a great chat on my mobile with a longstanding friend, I took to the helm with instructions from R as to how to steer with a strong wind coming across your path. Of course it went in one ear and out the other, so I just prayed all would be well as R wasn’t on the boat with me. He decided to walk the path and spy out the mooring. The rain started and we passed a few boaters who suggested we hadn’t exactly chosen a good time to move but I wanted hot water to wash my hair so that was generated by the engine – killing two birds with one stone! An interesting mooring, just before a bend (our nice new neighbour W, said sometimes boats moored where we are get a bit of a banging if a widebeam or 70ft boat comes hairing around the bend!) but the upside is we are close to both the waterpoint and the Elsan, situated on our side of the towpath. And as there are no moorings available between us and the facilities we should be able to pull our boat back to our mooring rather than relying on our reversing skills.

The rain persisted throughout the afternoon and evening so we stayed on the boat, enjoying a catch up with friends for an hour and then R got the stove going and chopped some wood, one bit rather thick, so quite an effort. A couple of people stopped to chat at length to him so he got some respite. I honestly don’t know where my afternoon went as I don’t feel I achieved much excepting a WhatsApp call with a friend who moved to Chichester just before Christmas. It was lovely to have a virtual tour of the downstairs of her house as obviously it is likely be a while before any of us are actually allowed inside someone else’s house! I try not to dwell on thoughts like that because I find it is in the thinking of the banal things that we used to do without a second thought that it hits home what strange times we are living in and then I feel sad.

Obviously R and I by not being at home would be missing the popping in to see our friends anyway. I had hoped though that we would have been able to have friends visit us on the boat and experience a bit of canal life together. It is just so different and I can see why so many boaters once they experience living aboard decide to do it full time. It’s not for everyone though – take my water saving exploits today (and now I’ve remembered what I did with some of my afternoon!). Having washed my hair in a bowl leaning over the bath, I decided rather than throw the last couple of bowlfuls of rinsing water, I would use them to hand-wash some dirty clothes and before the remaining hot water in the tank had cooled down. So much easier to have a washing machine!

As I write this, with R gently snoring beside me, the rain is pattering down on the cabin roof and the boat is beautifully warm from the heat of the stove. There is something incredibly cosy about it all, perhaps because I’m in a 4ft 6″ bed!! Its likely to be raining for most of tomorrow and instead of that depressing me I look forward to having a day when I haven’t got to achieve anything. I can just be. I realise that’s a luxury – there are many people, whatever the weather, have got to be out and about with plenty to do, but for those of us who have no agenda, if we can stop and appreciate the space, then that’s something to be thankful for.

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You may wonder at the snowdrops? We spied them when walking through the churchyard of All Saints,  Leighton Buzzard and they brought to mind a previous rector of our church who had a love of snowdrops. Every year he would have a whip round so more could be planted in the churchyard and come January pockets of snowdrops would be dotted around. These were the first I had seen in 2021 and somehow they gave a spark of the hope that often accompanies new birth. As the church was locked we explored the fairly extensive churchyard, well maintained by one of the gardeners we stopped to chat to. He told us that in one corner they have beehives and in the summer they sell the honey in the church cafe. I thought that a lovely enterprise. He told us there were a couple of resident pheasant who have taken refuge from a nearby shooting estate and that a muntjac has also made himself at home in the graveyard, rather usefully eating the ivy!

R saw an oak tree with a plaque beneath it. Planted nearly 20 years ago it commemorated a local man who had died on 9/11, in the Twin towers terrorist attack in New York. There was something very poignant about the simplicity of the plaque and the oak tree steadily growing.

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Moving on into the town centre it appears to have a mixture of independent shops and four of the big supermarket chains, a Morrisons competing in size with a Tesco, two Aldi’s and a Waitrose. So plenty of choice. I was surprised to see Iceland, Peacocks, Wilko and Millets, high street names that are rapidly disappearing closer to home.

I had seen a challenge on my Premier Radio email today – pledge to phone five people, with whom you are not in regular contact, to find out how they are and help combat loneliness. I decided to do just that and was so glad that I did. Those I rang genuinely seemed pleased to have a call out of the blue just asking how they were doing and I had some lovely conversations, reconnecting with friends I hadn’t spoken to in a few months. It reminded me that often it is in the simple things of life that we get the most satisfaction and a phone call may help make someone’s day that bit brighter. It just takes our time and for some of us we have more than enough to spare at the moment.

A busy start to the day trying to beat the queue to the washing machine and succeeding! Meant I was up in time to catch the Radio 4 morning worship at 0810, which I always enjoy when awake in time! Imagine my surprise to hear that it was a broadcast from Leighton Buzzard parish church, the very church pictured on my blog yesterday.  Small world. They may have been asked because, I think I heard right, the choirister of the year is part of their choir. There certainly was some very uplifting music, a reminder that so many people reach God through collective  singing and what a hardship it has been not to be allowed to sing together or in our churches for so long. Mum’s cremation service last September was uplifted by our family being able to sing together, though apart, by the clever use of technology,  layering voices so they came together as a choir. Leighton Buzzard church had done the same this morning and it was a joyful start to the day.

Interspersed with Zoom prayers and Zoom church followed by chat  we managed to get all our chores completed including a satisfying pile of clean, dry laundry. The boat was vacuumed, cleaned, tidied and all ready for the off by midday. Having said our goodbyes to a very cheery group of narrowboaters (quite a few meandering outside because of the sunny, dry morning) R went to fill the lock as I started the engine and contemplated how I was going to exit the marina without damaging any of the smart boats surrounding me. S, our neighbour,  gave me helpful tips and a push in the right direction but at the same time a widebeam passed by and I realised he would be the happy beneficiary of R’s filled lock! Our good deed for the day! As we were in no hurry it really didn’t matter although I had quite a job keeping the boat in a straight line whilst waiting for the lock to refill. Eventually I managed to moor it along the towpath and hold it by  the midrope. There’s always a danger when waiting for a lock to fill, with the water pulling you in the direction of the gates, that you might end up straddling across the canal or gently banging in to another moored boat if one is nearby. The scenario playing out in my head this morning! Fortunately all went smoothly,  we entered and left the lock and found a mooring within sight of an Aldi! Not quite as upmarket as our Waitrose moorings but Aldi do supply some good gin!

Many more people to chat to. As the rain has eased over the past day the towpath already is drier so lots of Sunday walkers.  Opposite us, reachable by a bridge if the flooding has gone down, looks to be a lovely wooded Park. Again well enjoyed by the local walkers, especially with dogs in tow.

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The water is piping hot after the boat has moved, with the engine running for a couple of hours, so before it had chance to cool I had a relaxing bath just after lunch and then looked for my glasses – found after an half hour search and an irate husband, in the plastic bowl housing veg which lives in the bath when I’m not in it! The glasses had fallen between the veg – I knew I’d put them somewhere safe – the one thing you know about losing something on the boat – it has to be somewhere pretty close by!!

Last day in the marina today. It’s been a treat waking up to instant heat from the electric blow heater although I have missed the stove in the evening. R has had a week off from the laying and lighting of fires, cleaning out the ash and chopping up the foraged wood. The downside is that you don’t get the same cosy feel in the evenings. We also have struggled with the Internet. Very poor WiFi so no advantage having WiFi included in the marina fees. Still, the shower block has enabled us to get very clean and the Elsan hasn’t had to be used so often! Am planning to use the washing machine before we leave tomorrow but that means being in the office by 0830 when it opens – there could be a bit of a queue. Then we will fill the water tank and might even make use of the electricity to vacuum the floors and charge all the electronic devices. The other plus of being here has been the recycling facilities. I am afraid our rubbish usually has to go in a general bin as the CRT does not provide much in the way of recycling.

We only plan to go through one lock tomorrow and then moor up nearby. Our idea of mooring near to Aldi is a bit pointless whilst the wasteland between Aldi and the canal is flooded. Still we were able to walk to Aldi today via the towpath which had dried out considerably – it was just a longer way round. I spied an M&S food so went there instead thinking it might be less crowded. Whilst at the checkout I made conversation by asking the cashier how her day was going and she told me she had a bit of a dry cough. Now here’s the thing. In the past I would have sympathised and thought no more of it. Today however my mind went into overdrive and when I returned to the boat I wiped down everything I had purchased with Zoflora. Over reaction or just how we have to be in a pandemic? Alert and cautious. I do hope she is OK and it must be a bit of a nightmare for the supermarkets if their staff get a covid outbreak.

R had a Zoom meeting with the church all morning so I took the opportunity to finish my P D James novel, ‘Original Sin’. The title did not become obvious until very near the end of the book but it was a great read and I shall look out for more of her novels for a bit of escapism. The sun came out at lunchtime so we had a very pleasant, warm walk until the sun retreated and the sky turned grey. By then we were laden down with rucksacks so the walk home generated its own heat!

A Zoom quiz this evening helped to pass the time and exercise the brain cells but I think we were probably the recipients of the wooden spoon yet again! We have a free subscription to Britbox for 6 months so we watched a bit of ‘Some mothers do have’em’ which still elicited a bit of a laugh and then R found a 1980s film to watch whilst I caught up with the blog.

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What a grump I woke up in! Not helped by being awake in the night, we get up for an 8am weekly prayer meeting with our Filling Station team every Friday. The boat hasn’t had much time to warm up – my usual way of coping with the cold mornings is to stay under the duvet as long as possible! Then our internet connection was poor, which was irritating but also made it difficult to hear. Following on from this we were trying to get to grips with a new app which further irked me so I took myself back to bed for an hour in the hopes I would emerge in a kinder frame of mind. Meanwhile R decided to go off foraging for wood and I lay in bed hoping he wasn’t thinking of crossing the lockgates with a great big boulder of wood under his arm! I needn’t have fretted as he had spied the wood on yesterday’s walk so it was on our side of the towpath!

Remembering that R had mentioned yesterday the freezer needed defrosting I started on that before his return, inwardly laughing at yet another task involving water and ice! Fortunately the freezer is small and I don’t think as icy as my home freezer because within a short space of time I had managed to ping off the internal ice with the aid of a wooden spatula. Additionally, I found enough food to defrost for supper and hopefully won’t need to get to a supermarket before Sunday.

We walked along the towpath, me with clingfilm around my feet to act as a water barrier to my wellies which have cracks near my bunions! (worked well incidentally – wanted to use plastic bags but didn’t have any the right size. Not a usual purchase – plastic bags accommodating the size of a size 6 foot!) It wasn’t long before we were squelching through puddles, although drier than yesterday, but when we reached the meadow we wanted to walk across to get to Aldi (a dry run before our Sunday expedition) we were dismayed to find it totally under water with no hope of reaching the supermarket via that route. A couple on the towpath suggested we walk to the next bridge and approached Aldi from there, along the main road. This we did, which was not a problem but walking on from Aldi along the dual carriageway with a narrow grass verge and then turning into the road leading to the entrance to the marina, was a bit hairy! Especially the last 100yds or so where the bendy road had no pavements or verges, just spiky bushes poking us into the oncoming traffic. Rest assured I won’t be collecting our shopping via that route!

The couple on the towpath were very chatty and as we were heading in the same direction I asked the lady how covid had impacted her life. It was a rather sad tale of elderly parents, the father in a care home with dementia and mother living locally. Yesterday they had a Zoom call with her dad clearly confused and distressed as to why he could not be with his wife of probably 60 years plus (he’s 92) and daughter. Both parents were in tears and their daughter helpless to improve the situation. Some people with dementia have no recognition of loved ones but this gentleman clearly does and it must be so upsetting and confusing for him feeling his wife and child have abandoned him. I am passing no judgement, just recounting a very sad story that is probably repeated all over the country whilst we are in a pandemic and locked down.

My regular Friday afternoon Zoom cheered me up as it’s just so lovely to see some friends, even if it has to be virtual.

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Talk about being marooned! I thought it rained a lot in the night and this morning I was quite happy having a duvet day but by lunchtime the rain had eased so we ventured along the towpath only to findvit flooded. To such an extent that it was hard to see where the towpath ended and the canal began! So we about turned and decided to try walking along the road outside the marina carpark, the one with no pavements. I found that not to be strictly true. Going left there was a narrow grass verge. However we wanted to turn right towards LB, yet within minutes we came across flooding on the road and a few cars in difficulties. We realised we were not going to get through so we walked in the opposite direction along the grass verge. After about half a mile we reached a left hand turning down a no through road. In want of exercise we walked along until we could go no further and then about turned. The road did lead us to Church lock, the one above Grove lock where we are moored, but the towpaths were impassable. On our return journey to the boat, retreading our steps, I realised that short of moving the boat along the canal, we cannot get to any food stores until the water levels recede. Reminds me of Noahs Ark!

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Arriving back at Grove lock we met a delightful couple walking three rescue dogs. Turns out they have been at this marina a few years although they do also own a home. They are hooked on canal life. She is an artist who started teaching locally, after being approached to do so, and now teaches pupils online and they number hundreds! They are in the process of buying a wide beam which means their 68ft narrowboat is going on the market soon…….can I persuade Richard?!