What's in a name.

Well, the title of this blog was going to be Narrow-boat Wits-End which is the same name as our family home. The house is located at the end of a cul-de-sac and so lends itself to the name. We thought long and hard over narrow-boat names going through the usual "Onion Bargee" which is a play on the Indian culinary dish "onion bargie". However, settling after a while to eventually at some point in the future renaming the boat to match the house. Maybe even renaming to "Wits-End II".

All this was long before we eventually found "our boat" on the Internet. Everyday we would both go trawling on the net looking at boats on Apollo Duck and other such on-line brokerage sites. We had a few visits to view various narrow-boats but could not find anything exactly to our liking.

I did come across some pictures one day of a boat which I sent by email to Mag's for her to have a look. Her swift reply was "I want that boat" but as far as we knew the boat in question was not for sale. The pictures had been done during the narrow-boat fit-out for advertisements. Fast forward several months and a minimum of 20 boat viewings later. I had a look on the ABNB brokerage web site. I could not believe my eyes when I found "our boat" from the Internet was actually up for sale.

There she was "Rose of Arden" a 50ft Narrow-boat and we knew that she was exactly what we wanted.

The name "Rose of Arden" also rang a bell with me, but I could not for the life of me remember why. Soon afterwards we had a boat viewing, which just confirmed what we already knew. She was a stunning boat, that looked better in real life that the pictures on ABNB. Rose of Arden had certainly been kept in first class order. After her survey not a single fault could be found. Ken and Lynda were looking to move to a river cruiser and so Rose of Arden was up for sale. 

During our conversations when viewing the boat, Lynda mentioned going to Henley on Thames and I got the feeling again about the boats name! So much so that I did a trawl of the Internet when we got home. Bingo! Arden Rose is an artist who paints scenes from around the world in the French impressionist style. I love art, I love the French impressionist style, more than any other form. So much so that I went to Rome just to see three Monet's a few years ago. I timed it by chance (April 2005) to fit-in exactly with the late pope's funeral. (but that's another story for another posting)  One of Arden Rose's pictures is titled Henley and the subject matter is the River Thames at Henley. I remember admiring it in the past. What is it they say about Elephants....

To see some of Arden Rose's works click here.

Cutting a long story short, we have had a change of mind! No, we don't want to sell the boat, we want to keep the name. "Rosie" as she has already become known to us, will continue to sail under the name chosen by Ken and Lynda. So at some point in the future I suppose, I will have to re-name the blog!

I know that it might seem to be fate had eventually drawn us together. Personally I don't go for that myself. I just think it was a series of pleasant coincidences and that we were lucky to acquire "Rosie" from Ken and Lynda.

Our thanks also go to ABNB and especially Barry number III for making the experience as professional as possible.

ABNB provided a First Class service, one that some other brokerages that we visited could learn a great deal from.

We are (as my mother would have said) beginning to look like a right pair of grinning Wally's - Does anyone have a recipe for a potion that will remove the smiles from our faces.







Running Total 65 miles, 9 locks and 8 swing bridges.

Later....