My Floating Studio

So, for the first blog in my ‘About Me‘ series (okay not the most original title, but I can’t think of anything else at the moment) I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my studio, it floats…

I live on a boat, it’s 6 foot 10 inches wide and isn’t very long at just 40 foot, it’s a tiny little traditional narrowboat. Narrowboats were originally built as working boats in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals. Even pulled by horses and donkeys before engines came along. Since then, the narrow boat has evolved and although you will still see a few narrowboats delivering coal in the winter, most of them are now used as homes and for holiday hire.

My boat is called ‘Corellia‘ named after the planet Corellia in the Star Wars universe, I’m somewhat a huge fan, but we will come back too in another post! Isn’t she beautiful? ♥️♥️

I chose to live a simpler way of life and one in nature back due to my health, she went into the water in Cambridgeshire on the 1st April 2019 after a long drive down the country from Liverpool.

I’d lived in London working as an actress and producer for some 20 years which I loved, but I was diagnosed with Pulmonary Sarcoidosis in 2018, which put a stopper in my acting career and something needed to change. I’ll revisit my health journey another day, but the choice to move onto a boat was driven by my need to be back in nature again and to live a simpler and less stress filled life.

The best bits of living on the boat are scenes like these, being woken by bird song, the warmth of the sun on the steel, the creak of the ropes when the wind is blowing, the incredible sound of rain on the roof, the sunrises and sunsets and the incredible dark nights when you can see every star in the sky. There is nothing like waking up early and sitting on the bow drinking coffee and watching the day start.

The worse bits… emptying my loo, yeah that’s no fun at all… oh and four chilly winters. When I bought my boat I got her as a ‘sailaway’, she was essentially a steel boat with just an engine, windows and doors. I’ve been building the inside. And because of one thing and another it’s taking a while and I’m only just now getting to the point where I’m ready for a multi fuel stove to go in, and so my fifth winter will finally have heat!

When the stove is installed, and my new little office is in place I’ll show you around the inside and my studio set-up! Until then, here’s an incredible sunset across the Marina for you to enjoy ♥️ ♥️