Visitors from another planet, no, not really, just the next mooring

It’s wonderful when friends from the next mooring along come down for a visit. Boaters are such lovely smiley people! It always takes much longer as well, life definitely moves at a slower pace on a boat!
A quick text in the morning - ‘are you still up for a visit?’
‘Yes, but give us half an hour, just getting up’
‘and more easily’
– twenty minutes later, ‘we’re ready’
‘I’m not!’
Ok , so I’ll bake that cake! Ooh and what a cake! I even impressed myself! I made a chocolate date cake. It was moist and crumbly and not too sweet and was gobbled down in two swift gulpings ~ with only a few crumbs left as a reminder ~ I love it when that happens!

Our friends arrived just as I was frying the polenta fritter dish I’d made using polenta, a corn dish similar to quinoa or couscous, the Italians have it like potato, but it’s only the second time I’ve cooked with it and the first time wasn’t very successful. My fabulous friend, the poet Salena Godden got me onto it, she’s vegan and says she lives on it! So I tried it this time with garlic, onions, chick peas, herbs and spices and baked it after boiling it up and then fried it lightly and served it on a bed of rocket with crème fraiche and it was quite special, we all had a little nibble of that with lots of mmm’s and then hit the tea and cake and started catching up, for the last time we saw them was the day we conceived and we were still living on the other boat! Jupiter and Mars and their Neighbour with a Celebrity Boyfriend, let’s call him Neptune, had helped us make our fabulous Halloween costumes (dressing up link in case you missed the pictures and posting before) and obviously played some part in helping us conceive, because surely if your friends make you happy and positive it helps somehow! Jupiter was hoping that this visit will help him make Mars have a baby, we all seemed sure of it and so we’ll just have to wait and see!

They were all quite impressed with our new abode, saying how big and spacious it is and Jupiter had bought his table saw over for Jam to be able to use for the rest of the boxing-in. What a star! He also gave us a saucepan that he’d been given from someone having a clear out and it was great because we had just got rid of one that kept sticking and it was the perfect size. Somehow, things just work out right don’t they! It was so lovely to be able to sit around and chat and laugh and catch up! We talked about everything, troubles on the moorings, knitting, the gardening plan for the Edible Islington project coming up, and they were keen to be involved, more detail on that coming soon.

We played some music and Mars was saying she wants guitar lessons. Neptune is a fabulous jazz singer, apparently, we didn’t get a chance to listen because they had to head back to go to see his boyfriend in a theatre show, but we shall be catching up again and making music to be sure! I feel a boat jam in the brewing... can’t wait for that post, the last jam on the other boat was incredible – 16 people all on a narrow-boat playing whatever they could get their hands on! Spoons down the blinds, bouncing and squeaking on an exercise ball! You have to see this one to believe it! Here’s a recording of it! (Hmmm, coming soon in another Boat Jam post, when I work out how to get it on here...! ;) )