With Christmas parties and things, it’s been a while since I have blogged- and I have so much to tell you! But one thing at a time- I can’t tell you everything in one go, you’ll just have to wait!
Christmas has come to The Big Blue Boat. We gave our tree to a charity shop because there was nowhere to put it! But that hasn’t stopped the boat looking festive! As always, we just had to be a bit more creative! I have attacked the windows with tinsel and baubles.
Younger Mr Blue Boat has been making lights with LEDs and insulation foam! We have a range of festive ducks and small trees running along the gunnel.
We have stuck the Christmas cards up with blue tack- lots of pretty snow scenes, which is generally the nearest this area ever gets to snow near Christmas!
Apart from this year! We generally get a few flakes of snow in February- we think there is a lot if there is enough to make a snowman. This year, about 2 weeks before Christmas we awoke to a beautiful snow scene!
I love snow. I like making footprints in it, I love hearing it creak as I step on it, I love watching it. I don’t much enjoy snowball fights, but I like watching them with a mug of something mulled in my hands!
But this is the first time I have experienced snow on a boat. I had no idea how it would be! Rain is noisy on the boat, a bit like on a caravan roof, but snow is silent. So it surprised us. Inside the boat, we were lovely and warm. Even the canopy area was not bitterly cold. We donned our gloves and hats and ventured outside to see how the boat was looking. The ropes were still tied securely and the canopies were holding up with the weight of the snow. We had plenty of coal, and the fire was puffing along well, so all seemed good.
Having established that the boat was fine, we decided to venture into town. Maybe find a hot sausage roll and later a pint or two. Great idea. Then I looked at the ramp… We were moored at the Priory Centre in St Neots, which is a great mooring. There is a water tap and the pontoon rises with the water, which makes it much safer than mooring with our mooring pins. But, it has a slope to get off the pontoon, a slope of, I guess, around 50 degrees. This is normally fine… But not in the snow! One step forward, one slide back down. There is a handrail, and eventually I hauled myself up, knowing it would seem harder on the way back down! Especially after a drink…
I needn’t have worried though. I think the alcohol helped! I didn’t slip, not even once!
Then we got to Christmas.
We decided to have Christmas Pizza for dinner on Christmas Day.
We had pizzas with the crusts stuffed with sausage meat stuffing, a gravy sauce (rather than tomato) and turkey and sausages on top. They were delicious!
While I was making the dough a couple moored up in front of us. Yr Mr BBB went over to wish them a Merry Christmas and invited them over for a mug of mulled cider, which was mulling on the coal stove. It was like a scene from a Christmas film! It turned out that the couple, Megan and James, were taking their family out for a cruise, on Christmas Day!
Our first Christmas on the BBB was an overwhelming success! And we even had snow! Roll on the new year!