Hello fellow #Vegans
An #introduction as I have just joined here (if you recognise my avatar, that's because I was previously on climatejustice.social)
I have been #vegan since #Veganuary 2019 and currently live aboard a #narrowboat touring England's canals. We are #carfree and mostly #offgrid. I love living out in #nature, foraging - especially for #tea leaves - and living a slow, as-calm-as-possible life.
My hobbies include #cooking and I share my #WFPB#VeganRecipe creations on my ko-fi page - the food is good, the photography not so great!
I am also a keen reader and post two vegan #BookReviews each week - one fiction and one nonfiction. (If you're a #VeganAuthor please feel welcome to tell me about your books.) You can see my most recently posted reviewed books in my header image.
You know how Mastodon/Fediverse has Everything? Truly you can hear about any old thing that previously existed but you didn't know existed, and lo and behold there's a hashtag for it. Last night's insomnia offered me #NarrowBoat videos and there is, indeed, a hashtag for it!
(If you didn't know, it's just the type of boat people used to and still use to traverse the massive system of canals criss-crossing the UK. And you live on them, either all year or some of the year, depending. Look up photos, they're kind of amazing from the inside!)
It's nonstop birds and hawthorns in bloom, out here in the middle of nowhere, clear of the industrial outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent.
Spring on the Caldon canal seems to be a few weeks behind the rest of the midlands, judging by what's blooming and the size of moorhen chicks and goose goslings.
I’d like to put this out there to #narrowboat owners:
I’d love to swap a week or two cruising aboard your narrowboat for a week or two cruising aboard my Ranger Tug on the US #GreatLoop. I’ll be doing the historic #ErieCanal next summer and will be on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway #ICW from this October through next May. I don’t mind sleeping on a sofa if you don’t mind sleeping in a small lower private berth.
Let’s each get a taste of a different #boating experience!
Does anyone have experience with Hyperoptic please? Looking at their 1gb fibre internet in the marina for the narrowboat, but their pre-sales 'support' is shockingly bad so far 🙄 #hyperoptic#broadband#internet#narrowboat
We are well beyond the urban bustle, now, and the canal has returned to a green and peaceful state.
After heading northwest through some heavy industrial terrain, we made a sharp eastward turn and then northeast past the HS2 construction. As we left #Birmingham, each lock had less graffiti, less litter, and less floating debris than the one before it.
Living on a boat with a refillable water tank, I've learned to conserve water.
I wash daily but only shower once a week, because:
It's a waste to run lots of water over your body and then pump it overboard.
Human skin is great at keeping clean and oil-free without any help from Proctor & Gamble IF you let it recover from the chemical abuse of "body wash" etc.
Well-argued article in the discrimination against boaters without home moorings. Like Braverman saying make tents for the homeless illegal rather than providing affordable homes, CRT’s intention is to price ‘homeless’ boaters off the canal. The itinerant boaters who are perceived as a problem are those unable to afford any other home—and why is that?—but the impact is felt also by those who happily choose a life exploring the country. https://www.narrowboatworld.com/14940-boat-licence-discrimination #BoatLife#Canal#Narrowboat
It’s #Caturday and we’ve brought Ajay to stay on our #narrowboat for the first time. We’re not going anywhere, just staying on the marina overnight so she can get the hang of the boat. She’s settled down pretty quickly despite what it looks like in the photo. We’re hoping she’ll understand that not all trips in the cat carrier have to end up at the vets!
I've just found out that the Derwent Mouth lock is closed until further notice due to lack of water on the Trent & Mersey canal. It's only the beginning of June and the water levels are already that low 😯
We're now a bit relieved (pun not intended, but I'm leaving it in) that our toilet broke last week leaving us waiting in Willington longer than we intended for a replacement part. Otherwise we'd now be stuck on the other side of that lock with no way to get back where we need to be for July.
Waiting for a boat in a lock, I see a child playing in the active area, so I ask the woman holding a windlass, "Is he with you?"
"Yes."
Making smalltalk, I mention Canal River Trust's census: 5% of live-aboard boaters have children with them.
"We homeschool," she responds in a defensive tone. "He doesn't need to learn all that stuff, like how to multiply by 10,000. He knows how to buy a can of beans."
I’ve decided to add blog content to my morning read. That said, I am actively looking for RSS-compatible #blogs with content related to #boating, personal (not cruise ship) #cruising, and the #GreatLoop. I prefer reading about #powerboat and #narrowboat travels instead of sailing travels. (I am admittedly too lazy to sail.) If you blog about your travels on the water, send me a link to your blog.
Going through a flight of double locks, traditionally boats would be tied together to move more easily between locks.
You don't see it often because newer boaters don't know how, and —oh no— they'd have to talk about something other than the weather. It takes experience, trust and collaboration.
In the photo, one boat is crewed. It is steering both, using only one engine. The other boat crew is operating locks.
With the help of two Collins Nicholson "Waterways Guide" mapbooks, a £5 dataplan and a search engine, my husband just worked out our boating route for the next two or three weeks.
Me, I don't care where we go, as long as we boat there together. I was dancing around, all "Yay, we have a route!" and he said when I'm done being a disco monkey, I can put the mapbooks away.
🐒
A warm dry week has ended in chasing clouds and showers. It looks like a dampish Bank Holiday weekend here. Therefore it might be a good time to think about the special quality that rain has for touching us both physically and emotionally. Join me tonight as we listen to the wisdom of 2 very different writers on the language of rain: Thomas Merton & Tristan Gooley.
Episode: 'As long as the rain talks (I will listen)'
Not as "prise it out of my cold dead hands" as I expected, so I won't be grappling with the dilemma of paying Elon more than £1k/year. Phew!
It's impressively easy to set up and use and works on the roof of my #narrowboat. The 45W consumption has some downside but the fact is I really can do 99% of what I want using a 4G mobile at £240/year. So it's not worth the money to me.
My friend, also on a boat, uses it for endless video conferences. #offgrid
At day's end, I tied up the boat near a Canal & River Trust service shack: water, elsan, toilets and shower.
A shower! 🚿
I hurried from the boat to the CRT building in only my shorts, T-shirt and shoes, towel and soap in hand. (These places lack clothes hooks, so fewer items is better.) They did have a wooden bench, and a disabled grab handle that I used as a towel rack.