We love our boating life and the 'Jottings' is our attempt to capture the changing seasons and describe the warmth of the community that we belong to. It all started in September 2006 when Carl and I set off from Wigrams Turn on our first narrowboat holiday. Carl had done a week-end course, learning the basics, but I didn't think we both needed to do it, so I didn't bother. If I had, then I might have learned how to be of some use as crew. Instead, I spent the first four days sitting in the bows, with my hands over my eyes, as we tacked haphazardly along the South Oxford Canal. That holiday changed our lives forever and we fell completely and utterly in love with boating. Eighteen months later, we'd given up work and set off to explore the waterways of England and Wales in the Lady Aberlour – our very own 57' narrow boat.I found the transition from working wife to boating life harder than Carl. I missed my family, friends and work colleagues dreadfully and so I began writing long letters as a way of filling the space where they used to be. 'Hedgerow Jottings' started life as a weekly letter to the lovely ladies (and a few hardy gentlemen) of the 'Knit and Natter' group here in our winter quarters. In 2015, I started posting those weekly letters on the internet and Hedgerow Jottings was born.
Good Morning. This is an unusual request! I wonder if you would be willing and kind enough to put me in touch with your friends on the Naga Queen please? Pat and Malc? I owned the boat in the early 90s and gave her her new name. The ceremony was conducted at Ellesmere by the Naga Queen's daughter Trina (who lives in Delhi).
ReplyDeleteHer mother was Ursula Graham Bower and in my capacity as a BBC Radio 4 producer I made a programme about her. More recently I wrote and produced a play about her (Ursula Queen of the Jungle) which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival and then in India, in the Naga Villages she knew in the war.
The actress who played her on stage, Joanna Purslow, is also a boater. Her boat is called Temaule, which is the Zemi Naga word for Dove. The two boats passed each other recently on the Trent and Mersey ... but sadly Jo couldn't react fast enough to flag them down.
Anyway it would be great to get in touch with them. There is quite a bit to talk about if they are interested! Many thanks, Chris Eldon Lee (in Shrewsbury) 07 885 467 499