Anne and Ruby, Stewponey Lock

We've had our boat for about five years. It's the third narrowboat we've owned - I think the canals are in my husband's blood now.

We bought our first boat when our children were little, and then they got to that age when they didn't want come with us so much, so we sold it. As we've been through the different stages in our life, we've always felt we wanted to get back out boating again.

This is our best stage in our boating lives now I would say. We don't have toddlers to watch and we can do anything we choose to do. It's so easy to enjoy the calm, peace and nature of the canals. And we love the community of boaters too. For instance, this morning the canal was blocked with branches from a tree after a Storm Doris hit in the night and we all just mucked in to help clear the debris from the water.

We're only out for a couple of days boating this week. We definitely don't use our boat as often as we should! We live in Kingswinford, which isn't far from here and the boat is moored at Hinksford. This trip is with our niece Ruby who has come from Wales to come out on the boat with us. In the stormy weather yesterday we decided we couldn't cruise, so we moored up safely in Kinver and we played board games in the boat all day. It was fun. The storm showed it's not just peace and quiet on the canals, it's adventures as well!

Anne & Ruby, Stewponey Lock, Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal