58 February 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk
LIVEABOARD
With a new year of destinations to plan up and down the network,
David Johns wrestles with his annual dilemma over moorings
Should I stay
or should I go?
I
f I’ve timed this correctly you’ll have
this article in your hands sometime
around early January. Christmas will
be just about over yet the turkey
sandwiches will still be going strong and
yes, there’s another tin of chocolates still
waiting to be eaten (save me the soft
centres please).
The new year is a time for
contemplation, reflection and, at least in
my case, a lot of napping. That’s brought
on by the cold, overcast gloomy January
days. You get sun up – if you can call it
that – by mid-morning and it’s straight
down again no sooner than you’ve
switched off the lunchtime news. Brrrr. No
wonder I’m curling up for a doze by the
narrowboat stove, the neighbour’s cat
doing exactly the same on the opposite
recliner. He does like to visit.
It’s one of the great joys of a narrowboat
of course, that traditional fire in the
corner of the saloon. Load it with coal,
nudge open the air vent at the bottom,
and watch as it heats the metal to such
extremes I sometimes wonder if I might
try a little light blacksmithing. Or, more
typically, I’ll use it to boil the kettle for a
cuppa and warm up some soup or beans
Standstill during the cold snapNew boating friends Theo and Bee