BOB for a short while

After nearly eight months living ashore and almost a year since we last cruised any canal, we are Back On Board Gecko. Malcolm & Annie late of nb Xillion Rose, brought her up from Aylesbury for us and we drove down to complete the journey to Anderton where Gecko will sleep for a while.
So what has been happening over the past year?
We came into Aylesbury Circus Field at the end of August, rather early for the winter. This was because we had so many commitments including an organized walk along the Wendover Arm. We had already decided that this would be our last winter aboard Gecko and that we would look for a land base. Relative property prices drew us north and with six grandchildren in Lancashire (all under 7)  that side of the Pennines rose to the top of the list. To accomplish this we needed to sell the house we had in Bath which we had been letting for holidays. Completion of the sale is next week. In the meantime we moved most of our stuff into storage and the remainder into a rented flat in Preston. 
This flat is one of 180 in a converted cotton mill and is a wonderful place to live but not suitable for our land base.
In October I had a fall in the car park at Aylesbury and my 22 year old prosthetic hip broke through the polythene cup. Thus we had to move off Gecko and take up  residence in Bath whilst trying to sell the house. Later that month four American friends came over to walk the Cotswold  Way. This we organized, taking them out each day from our base camp in Chipping Campden and picking them up about 16 miles later. This was supplemented by a few days walking in The Lakes, guided by our son Douglas, and followed by some tourism in Oxford and Bath.
In March the collapsed hip was revised and I am now walking without a stick again. About a month after the hip op grandchildren numbers 5 & 6 arrived up in Lancashire drawing Margaret
So life has been anything but quiet! Unfortunately things became  too much for me to cope with the blog so I had to suspend postings for a while.
We have rejoined Gecko in Stone and will be here for a few days before setting off north.