The New Baby Arrives (The 'Kathy' Chronicles - pt 3)

WELCOME

And tonight the air is washed with the whispered song of birch and ash leaves and meadowsweet dimly glows ghostly pale on the opposite bank. The wind has dropped with the sun but there is still enough to set the tall poplars dreamily sighing, susurrating echoes of Asherah from long, long, ago. Perhaps, only the herons, high in their ramshackle roosts on the other side of the canal, remember as they look down upon us. This is the place of herons with their tearing cry. It moves to a slightly different time here. It is good to be moored under the sheltering wing of a heron.

This is the narrowboat Erica narrowcasting into the darkness of a heron-watched night, to you wherever you are.

It’s time once again to continue our summer readings – and this year it is something much more personal to me.

I am so glad you could come. The kettle is on the boil, the biscuits are waiting. Come inside and rest your feet, and welcome aboard.

INTRODUCTION TO THE KATHY CHRONICLES - PT 3

 Tonight, we continue Mum’s account of our life onboard the Kathy, a 30ft wooden ex-ship’s lifeboat that had been converted into a holiday cruiser and was now undergoing further conversion to become the home for a family of three (plus a cat) and which very shortly would be a family of four.

In parts One and Two of the ‘Kathy Chronicles’ we heard about their adventures as they brought the Kathy up to their mooring, settle into life on the canal, and make preparations for the new addition to the family. Their home mooring was at Hampton Hall Farm, near Batchworth lock in Rickmansworth. The farm was owned and run by the Chapmans; Frank and his wife Helen, with their daughter Maureen (who was also expecting), and their two sons, Colin and Hugh.    

One of the things that strikes me when reading this account again are the close parallels and enormous differences between life afloat on the canals in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and now. There are lots of details that I can instantly recognise, but also many things that leave me thinking, ‘how on earth did they do it?’ Speaking to Dad yesterday, he remarked how Mum was constantly washing nappies. One of the challenges when doing any laundry on a boat is not so much the actual washing (though that must have been hard enough), but the drying. Dad said they had a Valour heater in the galley with a coat hanger suspended above it. Mum would air them until they scorched. Apparently, my nappies were always scorched brown! 

But I think what really struck home was the number of young families (or those with growing children still living at home) that had also adopted this way of life. It’s easy to get the impression from media coverage that people opting to live aboard is a relatively new trend that has emerged since the housing and cost of living crises. Whilst, there may be some parallels here with the post-war years and austerity (first time around), the demographic does appear to be a little different. Although I am aware of a number of young families on the canals today, in my experience, by far the greater majority of those living aboard seem to be much older (around my age or have retired).

Before I begin the next instalment, there are a couple of quick things I want to say. I am purposely keeping these episodes quite stripped down to give as much time to Mum’s book as possible, but I do want to send condolences to loyal listeners Jason and Karen Politte and to say I am so sorry for your loss and you are both in my thoughts. And I also want to say a big thank you and welcome to our most recent supporter, Anna V. Thank you so much.

Finally, if you want to see some of the old family photographs relating to this time in our life, I have been uploading them onto the noswpod.com website. Just click on the individual episodes and you can view them there, or click on the ‘The Start of it All’ tab in the menu.

So, I left last week’s reading at rather a cliff-hanger. All the preparations for my arrival into the world had been made and eventually my due date had arrived. However, I appear to have been late – something for which I can only apologise for and which I generally hate. However, one week later, the time for a new life to become part of this little family in their small boat had at long last come.

We now take up Mum’s story….       

[READING]

SIGNING OFF

Next week, in our final instalment, we hear about life on the moorings as a young family and the eventual and difficult decision to move off the boat and back on to land.

Until then, this is the narrowboat Erica singing off for the night and wishing you a very peaceful, restful night. Good night.