summer Renovations

Well it hasn't been all fun and no work on the boat, although progress has been slow we've made some big changes to the living space. By removing a bench, relocating and replacing the old fire and building a new tv cabinet we've acquired some new and much needed space. There's still a bit to do but its getting there!

And what better way to celebrate the hard work with a trip down the river with some good friends.

a proper summer

Its been a while since my last post but we have been busy working hard and enjoying the lovely weather. With our final fire in April we said good bye to the cold and hello to a uk summer at last!

As a result our roof garden is coming along nicely with fresh salad, herbs, tomatoes and chilies and with all this fantastic weather we've been dinning al fresco with a bbq nearly every evening. Supplemented of course by our very own tiny roof top allotment.

We've also had a few trips out from sunset cruises to weekend stays, including one very hot weekend trip to Shepperton. With a flotilla of three boats and a total crew of 16 we chugged up stream for a weekend of bbq's, river swimming, cricket and a little too much to drink. Marvelous!

burn baby burn

Our new wood burner is in at last! 

After months of deliberation of where it should go we finally took the plunge and put it in. With a week of preparations; ripping out, building frames and tiling and a weekend of hard graft and help from the in-laws we have officially started our boat renovations. 

cutting a new hole in the roof!

 the old fire; a little tired and dated

 our shinny new chiney

 its all in the detail!

a sunny day at last

Well the outlook on monday morning certainly made up for the slug invasion, a perfect way to start the week.  Shame it didn't last however and back to the grey and miserable before we knew it. 

Thought I would share the lovely picture anyway and hope there is more to follow.

freeloaders

We found a couple of cheeky freeloaders this weekend who had been happily consuming anything they could in our food cupboards. Luckily most items were in jars or tins but a couple of bags of flour and icing sugar seemed to have kept our intruders busy. 

Saturday was not all but wasted cleaning slug poo from the insides of our cupboards, I had some scotch bonnets which needed using and despite not having the correct ingredients for a chili chutney or a jelly I decided to experiment. Here is the '10 scotch bonnet chili jam chutney'. 

However as it was bubbling away I got carried away painting a card for my mum, and as a result instead of producing chilli jam or chilli chutney I have probably managed to produce one of the worlds hottest toffee's!