Bordergirl

Our boat has spray foam insulation, a deep draught, portholes and a cream roof and is fine for the dogs in the summer. Living aboard full time with heating and good ventilation helps with mould, we get very little.

Hi Quaysider after 11 years living aboard some of this sounds a tiny bit rose coloured spectacles BUT it's definitely still like playing dens :-) enjoy!

Having been chosen by a career which means I'm mad busy all summer I find I'm really looking forward to getting out and about on the boat in the winter now. Also I do love fiddling around with the fire.

All the very best John we'll miss seeing you up here on the L & L Sam & Nick

You could possibly use the"walkie scorchie" building in London - the one with the scooped glass front that fried a car.

The really sad thing is that the area was previously "regenerated" - in the nineties there were gardens, moorings, boater facilities, museums and cafes. Bill Bryson praises it as great example of regeneration in his Notes on a Small Island. The whole area has gone back to being derelict and is now in need of regenerating again! Hope the proposals work out, and last a bit longer this time

We gave up our rental TV in 2003, as we were redecorating our house to sell to fund our boat. We found we just weren't really watching it so why pay rental and licence. Watched in 2004 living at my Mother in Law's waiting for the boat to be finished. However we've never had a telly on board since we moved on in 2005, just the occasional i-player download. No radio?? NO WAY couldn't imagine life without it Being on line is essential for us for organising leisure, business and work activities so I don't thinks its really comparable to TV and radio which are just entertainment. Would be a peaceful but boring life off line - but I don't think I could actually earn any money without email or internet.

I thin Crewe would probably be a great location to combine CC with a job and stay within the rules, great variety of waterways in that area - Cheshire Ring, Four Counties Ring, Llangollen. Good luck!

I'm not really seeing the point unless you do actually use the desiccated poo for compost. Sounds far more complex and expensive than a cassette, our cassette takes up no electricity except the flushing water which isn't essential. United Utilities treat the contents for us for no extra charge, apart arguably driving to the elsan disposal. Burying the poo sounds like being more inconvenient and unpleasant, even if it is not as bad for the environment as fresh poo I suspect it may have some impact.

Best ever bird / cut experience, nightingale singing all night in the woods near Woolhampton - on my birthday too! I often see kingfishers near our moorings, other flying highlights locally are Daubenton's bats and banded demoiselles. Good luck with the otters in Scotland!

I think Dutton Lock must be one of my favouratist places:)

Smells of pineapple when you crush it It tends to grow bare earth on paths and tracks. I've not heard about it being used to make a cordial - does it have any medicinal use?

We stayed on board no problem last September (apart from carrying 3 border terriers up and down ladders!) - think it was a case of "advise you not to but don't stop you". There are no C&RT employees around at night anyway, the security on the next door offices were fine about it, but you have may have to ask to get a vehicle in and out at certain times of night once the gates to the offices are shut.

I'm lucky enough not to suffer from arachnophobia and love having spiders on my boat. Not only do they eat flies which is wonderful but they are quite fascinating - I've just bought a spider identification leaflet, and watching them weave massive webs last summer was just amazing. By switching on and off certain lights one night I managed to guide a load of flies into a web.

There have been works to the railway bridge over the canal there for a few weeks- and a compound set up next to the river, close to the canal, but I don't remember seeing any large ponds, mind you with all this rain...

I think simply walking can achieve results , especially if your initial fitness is not great. Ideally it should be reasonably brisk but I think the real key is keeping it up very regularly, ideally every day, rather than going fast or doing big distances. Its also something you can do on your own or with others, depending on which you prefer. Its kind on the body too - less strain and risk of injury. However I think the most important thing is finding what works for the individual person. Some people like a challenge, others want to relax. some like the time out whereas others are motivated by working out with other people. On yoga, I've done it on and off for years and found it fantastic for relaxing and also for flexibility. However it can be a bit static. I just tried Tai Chi for the first time recently - it seems to be much more about movement, so may be better for those who get frustrated just "sitting around"

Quite often, just "boat". I also find "canal boat" quite helpful when talking to non boaters. Don't really mind people calling it a barge, as I think narrowboats are a type of barge?

Some pubs that are dog friendly do ask you to keep to certain areas within the pub, that seems fair enough to me, I do appreciate some people would rather avoid them. Also in the summer if the weather's good we'd prefer to sit outside in the beer garden anyway. On a summers evening its lovely to walk a mile or so along the tow path with them to the pub, have a beer then walk back for our evening meal. I'm not sure it's necessarily an issue having dogs around where food is being served and eaten, so long as everyone is happy with the arrangement, we've certainly dined in pubs with ours sleeping quietly under the table and no one has objected.

Just finished doing the 4 counties from Wigan with 3 border terriers, and pubs have been great - Swan with Two Nicks at Little Bollington - we've visited it many times and its always been very dog friendly, lots of dogs there, biscuits provided. Bluebell at Kidsgrove, fantastic real ale pub, happy for us to take our dogs in, as was the Boat Inn at Gnosall. At Lord Combermere in Audlem the staff made fuss of our dogs and provided biscuits. Generally we've found a good number of dog friendly pubs on our cruises, only real disappointment was the Black Lion at Nantwich 5 years ago which was recommended in glowing terms by another dog owner. Sadly when we turned up there had been a change of management and they refused to even let us in the beer garden. Think it may have been because we weren't wearing suits as much as having dogs.

That's encouraging to hear - thanks. I'd never really looked into it any depth, just assumed it couldn't be done. I'll have to get planning

Yes I don't think summer stoppages would quite work with the tourist industry. Shame, I'm just changing careers to one that involves working summers, so a work summer cruise winter pattern would be ideal, bad planning on my part

Only room for loads of books (kindle isn't great for all books) and lots of room to do yoga, that's about it after 7 years.

We only have portholes and the signal isn't great at our moorimgs, however we keep ours outside on the roof in a tupperware and it works well. Sam

St Mary's at Rufford have facilities at the Marina for blacking / painting.

Interesting point but personally I would consider the sentence too lenient even for the case of someone who panicked and later gave themselves up.