Blowin' a Hoolie

"The bee's knees", "blowin' a hoolie", and "earlier than sparrow fart".

Kath, nb Bobcat

What do these phrases have in common?  They (and several others) were all uttered by Kath of nb Bobcat.

We had the distinct pleasure of hosting Kath and Rob both at our home on Camano and aboard (however briefly) Eolian this past weekend.  They were on a trip to British Columbia and took the time to journey down to the USA to be with us for a couple of brief days.

It has been said that the Americans and the British are peoples separated by a common language.  There is some truth to this, as the common usage for a number of items is different in surprising ways - for example, you readers in the UK will understand what I mean when I announced that I was pulling an old pair of pants out of the console of our car.  My American readers, on the other hand, will have no idea what the consternation was...

Rob, demonstrating  a proper tea ceremony

Kath and Rob are wonderful, down-to-earth people.  They too are splitting their time between house and boat:  Rob's house (which incidentally houses a surprising number of classic Ducati motorcycles) and narrow boat Bobcat - 58' LOA x 7' beam x 19" draft.  Between the marine connection and the classic motor vehicles, we found that we had no shortage of things to talk about.

In fact, the brief time we had together was simply not enough.  I wish, for example, that it had not been "blowin' a hoolie", so that we could have taken Eolian off the dock - and that we had had enough time to make it for a couple of days.  Ah well.

Kath and Rob have offered to return the favor (favour?), and we are giving this thoughtful consideration.  I have written before about the entirely civilized way narrow boating is done, and I must confess that there is a serious attraction...