Part of the joy of owning a canal boat is having a floating second home. It is here that you can really go to town with decor.

This is the space to get in touch with your inner eccentric.

A canal boat can be as unique as you are.

Bright colours, everything painted, not so much retro as nineteenth century, capturing the essence of the original boat traders.

Crafts are back as YouTube means that skills are easy to learn and the growth of knit and natter style crafting groups makes it easy to pick more experienced brains (and hands) for tips and advice.

Rag work is great. Charity shops are overflowing with fabric. Coffee shops sell (or even give away) hessian sacks. Rag rugs are easy to make, machine washable, apt for a canal boat and add that little touch of you, your own work, your own style, to your floating home.

With a little forethought you can co-ordinate fabric in patchwork and rugs. Scatter cushions are a good project as they are small enough to complete in a month of evenings.

Beginning a large project like a quilt is best left until you really do have the time to get to the end.

Rugs grow quickly and can be made in an hour here and an hour there.

Bunting is very in at the moment. It’s easy to make and adds a great touch to your boat. Just make a triangle pattern from any old paper. A4 is an ideal size to cut down. An afternoon with a sewing machine is ample to make enough bunting for a boat. After all, the whole point of messing about on a canal is to have fun. Bunting says party. This is what you chose your boat for isn’t it?

If you are interested in making your own rag rugs you may like to check out my YouTube video by clicking on the link below.

The disadvantage is that your friends will soon be asking you to make a rug for them too.

Rag work can also be addictive. You’ll soon find yourself trawling charity shops for interesting fabric. It’s great fun.

From the duck’s eye view of the canal we see the world in a different way.

The kingfisher’s colours become emerald and sapphire, trees seem to loom above the water reaching for the ever changing sky, lilies appear as lotus flowers.

At Grangemouth the world’s biggest equine statues take on a whole new grandeur as they appear to be even bigger from the canal.

The Forth and Clyde Canal sounds at first to hint at industrial decay. The kelpie statues both celebrate the connection with metal working and raise art to a whole new level.

It’s possible to exhaust a thesaurus in an attempt to describe the towering metal giants as they rise from the canal. A colossus of art. Enormous and huge don’t even come close.

You can even climb up inside them and admire the feat of engineering that created something so beautiful.

Kelpies are part of the wonderful Scottish storytelling tradition.

The world of storytelling is replete with tales of monsters who lurk in river and lakes just waiting to drag an unsuspecting human beneath the unforgiving surface to the watery depths below.

The Loch Ness Monster and the Kelpies are considerably scarier than Jenny Greenteeth.

The point was, of course, to frighten children into staying well away from the water’s edge. The real monster was the risk of drowning.

Kelpies were particularly devious. White horses with glowing skin who invited children to ride on their backs which magically lengthened to accommodate any number of people. Once there, the children found themselves stuck as if by glue and unable to dismount as the kelpie dived beneath the water, drowning his human cargo.

If you find yourself on the Forth and Clyde, do take time to gaze in wonder and maybe even climb up inside the statues. They are ________________ (insert the word of your choice here). I’ll go for 'incredible' in the true sense of the word as kelpies are difficult to believe in.

For my own telling of the story of the kelpies, please visit my YouTube channel, or type in Fiona Dowson Kelpies.