Back again

We're back at Hampton Court again and this is the view from the hatch of Hampton Court bridge.

Hampton Court

This is a sketch of the view from the mooring at Hampton Court. It was done on a lovely tranquil sunny evening, I don't think we're going to get many more of those now!

Chores

Living on the boat means now weekends are full of boat-related chores. Yesterday we had to go to the laundrette, collect our mail from friends, get the weeks' shopping, take the boat up to and through Molesey lock to fill up with water and empty the toilets, bring it back though the lock again and then hastily try and find somewhere to moor before it got too dark.

Molly

Kingston Bridge

A quick sketch of Kingston Bridge while we're moored beside it.

A Corner of the boat

Sunbury

We spent the weekend in Sunbury, near the weir, catching up with some friends at The Phoenix pub.

Manor Park

We are at this lovely mooring by the side of Manor Park, in Shepperton. It is very tranquil and beautiful. We would like to stay longer but we're moving to Sunbury this evening.

Door

A view from the front door at our mooring near Chertsey. The flowers were sent to me by my brother and his wife because of Chester.

Kitten

I've just finished this pic of a kitten for part of my pet portrait course. It's in coloured pencil on Wallis paper.

Flowers

Flowers by the window.

Tonal drawing

Maidenhair fern near the window. I think I should practice my tonal drawings a bit more - I tend to draw in line most of the time.
We are now at a mooring near Dumsey Meadows in Chertsey. Apparently this is the only meadow remaining of it's type by the Thames now. A herd of cows are left to graze the meadow without it being interfered with in any way. This means certain wildflowers are able grow here that are not found anywhere else.

Walton

Last night we had trouble finding a place to moor. We wanted to stay in Shepperton but all the moorings were full as there is a festival on at the weekend. In the end we stayed at Walton on Thames, outside two nice pubs. This is the garden of The Swan.

View

Another view at Shepperton from the hatch.

Shepperton

This is the view from the boat window today. We are in Shepperton, on the Thames, opposite Pharoah Island. It's very quiet and peaceful here, but we've slightly outstayed our welcome, as it's only a 24 hour mooring, so tomorrow we have to move on.

A New Start

My life seems to consist of lots of little new starts, times whem I feel inspired again. This one's quite a biggy though. I haven't blogged or sketched or painted for at least two months - I kept saying to myself 'I'll do it when we move to the boat'. Lots of things have been happening, sad things like the loss of my lovely Chester dog, who died four weeks ago aged 14, and having to take the little rabbit Binky to a rescue centre, big things like emptying my house completely, decluttering to the max, putting stuff in storage and fitting all the necessary stuff on the boat. Now we have handed the keys to the house over - we have no mooring - we are rootless for the first time - total water-gypsies! This is the start of our new life as continuous cruisers, and hopefully the start of a lot more sketching! The one above was of the view from our boat moored at Weybridge visitor moorings.