We have been small house dwellers for most of our married life, from buses to trucks, caravans to vans. We had never lived in a boat before, though.

As blessed as we are, a friend had a friend with a boat on the Kennett Avon Canal, at Bradford on Avon, near Bath. She's been living on the water for 11 years, since we lived in trucks with her at a travellers site. We see each other whenever we come over, and love her to bits. Setting us up with her mates boat has been an absolute lifeline for us when we needed it the most.

The boat is a Dutch barge that made it to the UK as a cargo boat in the 1920s. Back then it sailed here, but now it has a submarine engine in it. The boats on the canal can only stay for two weeks without having to move up river, else pay huge mooring fees. Given that most people choose this life for community and the cheaper alternative to mortgages, council taxes, rent and so on, move they do - not just for that reason but to refill with diesel and water and offload waste.

The boat is quite unusual against all the narrow boats in the area, like the ones pictured below.

It's wider inside than most, but on one end you have to actually crawl through on your hands and knees to the bedroom, which used to be a cargo hold. There's a wood burner, a simple kitchen, a sink, a toilet closet, and a shower hidden under the stairs, which I will have to explain when I'm brave enough to use it. Until then, a kettle of warm water, a bucket and cloth it is.

The Kennett and Avon canal was dug in the 1880s and runs for 140 kilometres alongside the River Avon and empties out in the Bristol Channel. It's a beautiful stretch of waterway usually crowded at this time of year with daytrippers, tour boats and the like. Now, it's quite because of the virus, which we are grateful for. There's many sorts on the river from rag tag sinking gypsy boats to hugely expensive, beautifully kitted out crafts, to ones being built, restored or simply being lived in.

Everyone on the river seems to know each other, and we quickly meet some people who are friends of the people who own the boat, and they lend us a paddle board to go up the Avon on, which I swim in happily on the warmer days, because as you know I'm a water baby and am happier on the water.

We manage to pick up a couple of bikes from random canal folk who give us a couple of wrecks for Jamie to fix. We can ride all the way to Bath from here.

I apologise to anyone on HIVE who has commented on my last post or contacted me on Discord. There's no reception on the boat and to send or receive messages I have to walk quite a way. As it is I drafted this and sat in a park to upload a few photos whilst Jamie patiently waited. It's nice to just read and drink a whiskey or few, cook dinner, do yoga, chat, make love, stare at the river and just exist like we used to. I miss HIVE but this life is like a blissful retreat from everything. It's nice to see people and chat to them at physical distances, but not heart distances.

Boris has eased a few restrictions this week, so we will be travelling into Dorset and Devon for day trips, but still, we will be using the boat as a home base, and that's great. We are slowing down and BE - ing, which is what we needed, after all.