The winter has been a test of endurance, the amount of rain, not only affected the landscape, it also affected us; for the first time we experienced a seasonal low point within ourselves.  Nonetheless, we had to get on with it and that was our saving grace.  Driven by our inner strengths to live alongside and work with whatever nature lays before us, it turned out to be a very temporary glitch and from it we’ve grown a little more.

The Universe has been on our side tho, despite the hardships, wood foraging has been in abundance, we’ve got special places to moor and they’ve been available to us with each new cruise.  We’re getting more efficient at living off the land and we’ve managed that better through  winter.  Our new addition, Esme has found the winter very difficult, however with love, patience and consistency she has overcome mud, rain, wind and temperatures below freezing, all before she was 5 months; happily to report she is now enjoying the outdoors come all weathers.  Also with thanks to Universe, my dread appointments weren’t that busy, giving me the opportunity to prioritise on what we needed to stay warm and dry.

With the intense rain, strong winds and the worst towpath mud mire I’ve experienced to date, my truck then added to the situation and died.  Luckily, I have a fantastic mountain bike and we cruised to areas on the canal where I can get access to trains; we adapted as quickly as we could and daily life started to roll along peacefully.  Mid February, further storms were predicted, I thought it best for the few appointments later in February to be reschedule to March, it all worked out wonderfully.  The rescheduled appointments all understood and so weren’t put at any risk travelling to us nor anyone having to trudge through rain and mud to the boat.

I’m so proud of us all, the winter has been a huge challenge and we managed it amazingly well.  Spring is finally here, the dread diary is fully booked for March, almost fully booked for April and I’m already taking bookings for May.  We’ve replaced the truck with an old jalopy, which looks to be quite fun to get about in, Esme the new pup is soaking up the spring, jumping and running about as a happy care free pupster should do.  Life is good.