A weekend of two halves

7th & 8th February

After a restless night, I woke early yesterday, but loafed in bed for quite a while on a frosty morning. Eventually, I dragged myself out and ambled down to the shop to buy a paper; there was no need to get anything else as Sheila and Elanor were shopping on their way back from Lincoln.

My walk was enlivened by the twanging wooden ruler noise of a woodpecker drumming. It seems a bit early for him to start the mating process, but it was a fine if chilly day, so I suppose you can't really blame him.

Back at the boat, I managed to get another bag of coal off the roof without having to climb up there, for which I was grateful as it was still covered in frost. I filled in the rest of the morning pottering and watching a succession of boats breaking their way through the ice, some to turn into the junction, a hard task in firm ice, others to go onto the water point.

There were a number of folks just strolling about; it's nice to see locals appreciating their waterside. One young woman boggled me slightly; she was attired in low slung jeans and a cropped top, thus exposing a foot or so of midriff, complete with navel stud. That metal must have been cold.

I was feeling dozy after lunch so took a walk down the towpath to the bridge that leads to Little Haywood, and then back by the road to Great Haywood and so back to Sanity.

There was still a fair bit of afternoon to fill before I could expect to see Sheila and Elanor turn up, so I started watching some of the documentary material included with the DVD of The Two Towers. It's really very interesting, with an account of the various amazing bits of technology they used to produce the film.

Eventually the two women in my life appeared, and the rest of the time was given over to loading stuff from the car into the boat and generally getting sorted out.

Today has been more of the same really: a walk to the village for a paper first thing, getting stuff put away and sorted out, another walk after lunch and then various relaxing activities.

The only down side at the moment is that Sheila has come back with a recurrence of her dental trouble from before Christmas. I blame all this unhealthy living in houses myself. The simple solution will be to go back to Alrewas to get it fixed, but it looks as if we are going to be frozen in here for a few days at least. Since the relevant crown has come loose and is leaking yuck from behind it, I think Sheila is going to have to consult the dentist here tomorrow, if only to get some more antibiotics to get the infection back under control.

Apart from that, everything is just fine, relaxing back into our routines with a huge sigh of relief.