Boat Life Episodes

This episode was inspired by a sentence in Beth Kempton's Wabi Sabi and explores how calendars can connect us more closely to the world around us. Join us tonight as we explore the year through the eyes of some Japanese poets and celebrate the unfolding of the summer. Journal entry : 25th June, Tuesday “First day this summer Of real heat. All day, my shirt has stuck To my back. This evening The clover field Hums with The work of bees.” Episode Information: The fire of purple loosetrife flaring a...

Sometimes episodes have a mind of their own and take you to unplanned places they think you need to go. This is one of those episodes. One ‘soft’ Sunday morning in May in John Clare country. Journal entry : 31st May, Friday “Standing looking south-west Across the vale. Four ducks circle above the water. Then swoop down and land in unison. The fields and hills in the distance Fade into soft light.” Episode Information: Grand and unapologetic: Giant Hogweed standing tall. This is the time for 'ser...

In tonight’s episode we meet a couple of beautiful spring flowers with some fearsome reputations and go about spring cleaning a very messy and cluttered boat with the help of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows . Journal entry : 8th May, Wednesday. “A May evening of golden haze And drifting willow down And the busy day winds down. Nearby, lambs call as mothers graze and nuzzle Beyond them, chiff-chaff, robin, and bluetit. Further distant, the sound of children playing. Beyond that a dog ba...

In tonight’s episode we meet a couple of beautiful spring flowers with some fearsome reputations and go about spring cleaning a very messy and cluttered boat with the help of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows . Journal entry : 20th April, Saturday “A ring of coltsfoot heads has been placed In the crevice of an oak-beam used as a picnic table. They lie bleached and desiccated Shrouded in fine cobweb and dust. They look just like the vestige Of some prehistoric ritual. Perhaps some child p...

As the slow march of Spring travels along the canal and towpaths, tonight I answer two more questions: How do we keep the boat from freezing when we have to leave it unattended, and how long does it normally take to buy a narrowboat? Journal entry : 7th March, Thursday. “A grey wind blows From a grey sky Troubling the surface Of the canal. Damson blossom Torn from branch Spun snow-like With each gust. Sweet smell of woodsmoke And the throat-catch of coal Crosses my path, head high, And is lost a...

You have seen the Instagram photographs/videos of happy boat-dogs gambolling along summer towpaths, dense with colour and sunshine, or happily curled up in front of cosy fires, but what is the reality of sharing a boat with a dog really like, especially in the winter? Journal entry : 15th December, Friday. “All night, The owls echoed Along the valley In the long tunnel Of the night. This morning, A magpie scratched Her jagged song Across the metalled dome Of first light.” Episode Information: Ma...

I've always felt that there is something rather singular about the month of November. Tonight I try to find out what it is and end up recounting the time when Guy Fawkes wore my old dressing gown (which might or might not have anything to do with it!). Journal entry : 8th November, Wednesday. “Look down for the healing. A reluctant dawn this morning, South wind plays with stray raindrops And birch leaves. Scars of grey paving slabs lined with green. Willowherb, spurge, dandelion. Green healing t...

It’s a foul November night, so why not come and join me tonight by the glow of fire light. I have with me a lovely little book, that I found last year in a second-hand bookshop, and think that it might be perfect for a night like this. Journal entry : 1 st November, Wednesday. “November is born brave This morning. The dark water is alive With movement And a scatter Of light. The walk from the boat To car Is under a starfield and A bold moon.” Episode Information: Nights by fire light. In autumn,...

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the global events of the last couple of weeks. Following the battering of Storm Babet, this week’s episode offers a space for us to reflect on a world that can be often violent and far from perfect. Journal entry : 13th October, Friday “Battered by the winds of the world I stop to watch the free-flight of rooks Diving from an oak into the full force Of a westerly gale. Gothic wings outspread, They surf the blast Hanging on its back In a rage of ecstatic life. I ...

The temperature outside is dipping down towards zero, so join us for a cosy night by the glow of a hot stove, as we chat about two subjects close to my heart and the surprising way that living on a boat has altered my attitude to them. Journal entry : 13th October, Friday “Battered by the winds of the world I stop to watch the free-flight of rooks Diving from an oak into the full force Of a westerly gale. Gothic wings outspread, They surf the blast Hanging on its back In a rage of ecstatic life....

There's an old and trustworthy adage on the canals: when two or more boaters meet up it is only a matter of time before the conversation will turn to the subject of toilets. So guess what the topic of this week's episode is?! Journal entry : 3rd October, Tuesday “Light fades. Dew Falls. Maggie follows a rabbit’s scent-trail Through the long, wet grass. Two rooks head east into darkness. I struggle in the half-light With the padlock on the gate So we head upwards over the hill Then down to the li...

A week of serious problems with our internet has meant that I have been unable to record the episode answering listeners’ questions. However, join us tonight to enjoy a special meeting under the ‘ghost’ of a harvest moon. Journal entry : 29 th September, Friday “Early this morning, We met the swan slipping Light upon the night-time mists. Behind us, Cows stood knee deep in milk- white meadows. This is the stillness that falls After the storm.” Episode Information: In this episode I read a sectio...

There’s a chill in the air tonight and there will be mist on the water in the morning. Join me tonight as I answer some hard questions about how viability is a long term in the Erica on the canals? Journal entry : 21st September, Thursday “For a short while this evening The crescent moon and the setting sun Shared the same length of skyline. A fiery bronze heart and the ghost of bone. Then a robin sings as rain drops fall. Here is tranquillity and peace. The horned moon And evensong among the pa...

On a dark night that is damp with an autumnal chill, join us as tonight I answer some of the questions posed by the listeners of this podcast which range from the decisions and motivations behind our choice to live afloat to canal etiquette. Journal entry : 14th September, Thursday “Thin drizzle. The jackdaws sound like Monosyllabic gulls this evening. Woundwort heals the breach between The canal and me. Red berries. Some days that is all you need: Rain and red berries.” Episode Information: Rea...

Tonight, we celebrate and enjoy a special August evening at the moorings, filled with golden light, gentle chatter, a rolling wind, duck call and church bells. A rare ‘August-coloured’ evening. Journal entry : 15th August, Tuesday “Chasing clouds and sunshine. The ground still wet from yesterday's rain We walk the loop, Maggie reacquainting herself With familiar places. Me too. It seems a while. It's good to be out again. The air smells green and fresh." Episode Information: Snatching moments of...

Life afloat can throw up some rather singular challenges from being frozen in to sinking, running aground, being attacked by wild kittens and the dangers of runaway working boats!! Join us tonight as we ride out Storm Antoni (apologies for some background rain patter) for the concluding reading of The Kathy Chronicles , where the decision is made to leave life on the canal and embrace new adventures. Episode Information: The Five of Us: Me, Mick, Erica, Kismus (puss), Wendy Photograph taken behi...

What was it like to give birth on small 30 ft boat in the 1960s? Mum continues her account of her life afloat on the Kathy in this week’s instalment of ‘The Kathy Chronicles’. We hear about the some of the challenges and joys of bringing up two very small children on a boat as well as Dad’s battle with the Pithers stove and a strange event that remains a mystery. Episode Information: Mum holding me in the entrance to the Kathy's galley. Dad, Mum, me, and Wendy on the Kathy On the moorings - me s...

What was it really like to live on board a 30ft canal boat in the late 1950s before there were such things as service points and fully equipped marinas? This week we continue with ‘The Kathy Chronicles’ where Mum describes how they began to settle into life afloat, whilst making extensive alterations, as well their plans for the arrival of a new baby. She provides a fascinating picture of the realities of what it was like to live-aboard a canal boat in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Episode Inf...

This has been rather an unexpected and eventful week. This is a special episode where we welcome a board a new fellow traveller (along the canals and through life). Journal entry : 30th June, Friday “Endless motorways. Endless traffic. Red lights all the way. A frightened face and soulful eyes. I sit on the stairs out of sight; out of the way. A short drizzle of rain. The smell of hay in fields. Sitting as darkness falls, My arm is licked by a new friend." Episode Information: Welcome to Maggie....

Travel back in time to the scorching summer of 1959. Although the canals were still mainly used by working boats, leisure cruising was growing in popularity and so too the idea of living on a canal boat. Tonight, I take us back to that world as I read Mum’s reminiscences of the decision to live on a boat with a young baby, eventually finding their future home, the Kathy, and their nail-biting journey taking her to their home mooring. Some of which could sound all too familiar to modern canal use...

There’s something almost indefinably special about canal and river locks. Tonight, I relate my struggle to outwit the ghost of Odd Lock as well as take time to celebrate the lock-keepers of old and their newer iteration – the volunteer lockie (I’m guessing at the spelling!) Journal entry : 2nd June, Friday “North easterly winds Grey skies. But there are five ducklings Braving the bluster And a swallow scissors low over A meadow of buttercups. This light makes the yellow Irises blaze." Episode In...

Curl up with us tonight as we enjoy the warmth of a cosy cabin as snow gives way to sweeping rain and our stove glows brightly in the gathering darkness. Journal entry : 10th March, Friday “The convocation of oaks rises to my view From a swirling mist of snow and blown spindrift. Their trunks wrapped white. Icicles hang from their branches. I want to say, “Don’t worry, Spring is on its way.” But they know that. They have known that before I was born They have known that for centuries. What can y...

All along the canal side, the wintery tees and hedgerows are filling with spring song and life. Subtle shifts and changes, the play of light through the trees, the shimmering reflection of an old oak, auger new seasons awaiting us. It might still be winter and cold weather is on the way, but why not join me tonight in a ‘secret’ spot, canal-side, where we can listen together to February dawning? Journal entry : 1st February, Wednesday. "The conclave of oaks at the top of the hill Bask in this go...

Rain and mud are all around us at the moment, but there is wonder there too. The ancient myth of ‘The Voyage of Bran’ helps us to find the extraordinary within the ordinary and (with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel) the beauty of Tuesday Morning, 5.30am. Journal entry : 13th January, Friday “Boggy ground, although I am high on the hill. Standing in the cluster of four oaks waiting. Waiting for I don’t know what. I turn, and behind me, the sunrises in red and gold Through the dense brush of wood...