It's all very quiet

The cold snap seems to have done more than stop boats moving; the canals list has become comatose, and many of the regular bloggers are posting less frequently.

I'm not surprised; there's not much to report from here either. When it's seriously cold like this, all our energies are consumed by the need to do the routine jobs in a timely fashion, like refilling the coal scuttle and getting stores in.

Meantime, on the other side of the world, Waiouru blogger Tom Jones is being attacked by blood sucking leeches. I quite often wonder why people live in Australia ;).

We're not going anywhere

We've settled down to wait out the bad weather, so there's not a lot going on to blog about today. We went and got the paper, and Sheila took a load of washing across to the main building; in order to save water on the boat (since the supply taps have frozen up), we're using the laundrette now. It's £2.50 for a (big) wash, then £1.25 for the tumble dry, except that it's two tumble loads to every washload, so it's a fiver for the equivalent of two washloads on the boat.

It could be worse, and will allow us to run on the water we've got in the tank for a good long while.

It all feels a lot like last winter, to be honest, which isn't encouraging. Before then, whenever there was a cold snap, it would be a few days to a week at most before you could move again, fetch water and so on. Last winter and this, there's no end in sight, and we've just got to make do as best we can.

The only real grumble I've got about the marina, which is, as I've said, generally an excellent place to be, is the lousy choice of solid fuel. You can have Taybrite, or you can have Taybrite. The problem with that is that it's my least favourite fuel, though it's very popular with a lot of folk. It's full of cement dust, so that where I was emptying the ashpan once every two days burning Excel, now I'm emptying it twice a day. And at £10 for 25 kg, it's not as cheap as it claims to be. Last winter, some may recall, we were buying fuel from Stewart Hooper on Anne. His Mixed Ovals were brilliant.

Heigh ho, can't have everything, I guess, at least we are warm and dry and want for nothing essential.

Still frozen, only more so

It was seriously cold last night; I'm going to have to start wearing thermals in bed, as I kept waking up in the night with that cold draught round the middle sensation.

We made our way carefully to the paper shop, and on the way back, meet up with Adam and Adrian off Debdale, who had just been to the boat to see if we were in. We had a good long natter standing on the road bridge over the canal, then headed back to the boat for lunch.

The boat isn't even rocking anymore, it's frozen in so hard, and the water supply has frozen; fortunately, the tank is well full, so we'll just start using the laundrette in the main building to conserve what we've got for other uses.

After lunch, I went out and took some photos. I've put a set up on Flickr, and here's one as a taster:

The Junction signpost

Earliest snow for a long time

Folk reading this in the UK won't need telling, but we've had an early fall of snow; apparently the earliest it's been for a couple of decades. We'd anticipated it by making sure we had a further supply of grit and salt on the bow, so whilst I went to the Post Office to despatch some porthole doilies to one of Sheila's customers, and then on to the shop for a paper and bread, Sheila stayed home, sweeping the pontoon after which the guy from Lyra spread some grit.

Since then, we've largely stayed indoors, doing routine stuff on the net and the like. The forecast is for seven to ten days of this; we shall have to watch out for a break in the ice to nip over to the service pontoon for a pump out, perhaps when Odyssey comes back next Thursday.

If it's still all white tomorrow, I'll try and get some photos of it; meantime, big bowls of soup tonight!

Winter's here

In an alarming repeat of last year, we're frozen in before the end of November. The weather, which has been threatening to turn seriously cold for a few days, has finally made good its threat. Open skies and plummeting temperatures overnight last night meant that ice formed right across the marina by this morning.

Our use of salt and grit on the pontoon made it possible to get off without falling over, and walking in sparkling bright sunshine through the village to get the paper was extremely enjoyable given that we were a) well wrapped up and b) not worrying about moving the boat anytime soon.

After our day out yesterday, we've spent the rest of the time doing stuff on board today. Sheila ran a washload and took it across to tumble dry it, and we've done some Christmas shopping on the net. The fire had kept in overnight, and it's been kept well stoked all day. As I type this just before four in the afternoon, Sheila is putting up the shutters and porthole bungs. There's still a bit of daylight, but covering the glass helps to keep the boat warm.

I bought a whole chicken yesterday, so I'll start making stock today, with the aim of having some soup ready tomorrow to keep us warm inside as well as out.

Another away day

We've had another day off the boat at Elanor's, so not much to tell, and not much energy to do it with!

One point – the butcher's in Barton Marina doesn't open until 10 am during the week; we've visited it twice today.

Hopefully, I'll do a more substantive blog tomorrow.

Dog to dog blog

Hi Boots

Thought I'd catch up with you, since there's not a lot going on for my Granny and Grandpa to blog about.

Mummy has found a really good set of fields for me to charge about in, with interesting bits of woodland in between them. This means I am getting a LOT more exercise, which is good, since I was beginning to worry that I was getting a touch tubby.

Also, there are lots of bunnies about in the woods, and the other day this led to a bit of what Mummy calls an imp ass or something. It's an odd thing to say, 'cos I didn't see any imps about, only bunnies. Anyway, what happened was that I very, very, very nearly caught a bunny, in fact I got some of its fur in my mouth, but it was deep in a thick hedge.

So naturally, I stayed in there to see if I could get hold of it properly. Mummy kept calling to see if I was all right, and every time she did, I popped my head out of the hedge to reassure her, then went back in again, because of course, nothing is more important than catching a bunny.

Eventually, Mummy walked off, so I just stayed where I was, since she'd presumably found something else to do whilst I tried to catch the bunny. When she came back to the edge of the hedge, I popped out to say hi and she put my lead back on, the spoilsport. Also, I'd lost the bandanna I was wearing, a particularly fetching red one, which had got stuck on some brambles deep inside the hedge.

The other downside is, maybe because I lost the bandanna, Mummy now walks me past there on the lead every time.

Today, we've come over to see Granny and Grandpa on their boat, and we had a fantastic walk through the local country estate, which is called Shugbunny or something. There was a really big field near the river where I could charge about chasing seagulls until I was really tired and was quite glad to be put on the lead again.

Tomorrow, we're going back to my house, via the main running about place; Grandpa says he'll bring his long grabby thing with him, and we'll see if we can get my bandanna back. Maybe if we do, I'll be allowed to chase the bunnies there again.

Lots of licks

Your friend Sally.

Into Stafford again

We made another trip to Stafford today, in weather which was probably just as cold as last time, but lacked the chill factor as there wasn't anything like as much wind.

A mixture of routine and Christmas shopping duly achieved, we went to M&S for lunch. It's a very small, crowded M&S, and at first we were concerned that the service in the cafe was going to suffer as a result, but in the event, we had toasted sandwiches and soup, whilst being regaled by the seriously aged gent on the table next door. It was hard to catch much of what he was saying, but we gathered that, having lost his wife some time ago, he now had a 66 year old girl friend who was going to cook him Christmas lunch. There was a lot more, but what with the muzak and my declining hearing, I really couldn't follow much of it.

Nonetheless, he was very pleasant and it all helps to pass the time.

Back on the boat, we lit the fire and managed to run a washload. I've discovered that the flashing "End" light is actually a code which is signalling that it doesn't think the door is latched (actually had to read the manual), so firm door closing is the current strategy.

Elanor's coming over for the night tomorrow, so I'll see if I can get Sally to take a turn at blogging.

It's Monday again...

and the weather continues pretty grotty, quite frankly. We've put the time to good use; the calendar is all done bar the printing, and Sheila ran a wash load and took it across to the main building and tumbled it dry.

Only downside (apart from the usual fiddling about to get the calendar looking good) was that the washing machine had another burst of its contrariness. When Sheila dialled the programme, it thought about it for a few moments, then flashed its End light with a sort of DILLIGAF insouciance.

I had to twiddle the dial a few times, and open and close the door before it would agree to behave. Intermittent faults are always the worst – you just know that if we call out the engineer, it'll perform perfectly for him. No matter, we got the washing done in the end.

It's now two weeks since Wilson's took bits of our cratch away for warranty work, so I gave them a ring to see when we could expect them back. I've had one call back; they're chasing the contractor who's repairing the wings.

Tomorrow, we go into Stafford; some Christmas shopping to be done, and paper stock to buy for the calendar printing.

The calendar gets underway

Apart from routine stuff like getting the paper and sweeping the floor, today's big job was sorting the calendar we produce very year for the rest of the family.

I've got the photos ready (and uploaded them to Flickr), and Sheila has created the pages for it in Numbers, as a spreadsheet.

All I have to do now is put the two things together, probably tomorrow, and then print them out.

Still raw outside, but getting things done

The weather continues to be most unattractive, with an easterly airstream bringing a raw, damp feel, even when it's not actually raining. Still, we got out this morning to despatch the Sony Reader, the payment having come in overnight. The cost was very close to what the Royal Mail website had predicted, so I'd charged the buyer the right amount, which is reassuring.

Paper bought, we plodded back to the marina. Sheila stopped off at the main building to tumble dry a washload she'd done yesterday evening, and I came straight back to Sanity Again to light the fire and potter about.

I'm still feeling quite dozy on the new drug regime (OK, no change there, some might say) so potter was the word. Never mind, the paper got read and we've made a start on this year's family calendar. We've chosen the photos for it; once I've finished tarting them up in iPhoto, I'll put them up on Flickr.

That's about it for now; chicken curry tonight, methinks, and another quiet day tomorrow, probably.

A foggy but productive day

It's been another busy day over at Elanor's in the course of which we received an Ocado delivery successfully.

The room full of stuff that needed sorting is beginning to look quite organised, so there's a big sense of achievement.

The weather has been seriously foggy all day, so another good day to be on a mooring.

Back at the boat, we've stowed all the goodies and found out that we've sold to Sony Reader to a guy in Denmark. I've emailed him to tell him the extra postage he owes, so once we've got his dosh, we can despatch the beastie.

Gently dozy

As expected, today's increased drug dose has rather sedated me, very pleasant, but not it's desperately conducive to creativity.

We went for a walk this morning to the paper shop, and got my latest prescription made up at the pharmacy next door. It's a good one; although they were busy, I had to wait very little time.

Both on the way out and back, we had a chat with Charles and Ann on Moore 2 Life, and with Del and Al on Derwent6. Both boats are heading away from here now, so we probably won't see them again before the New Year.

Back at the boat, I lit the fire, checked the progress of the auction for my Sony Reader, which finishes tomorrow, and finalised an Ocado order we're having delivered to Elanor's tomorrow. Apart from that, we've been relaxing, especially in my case. Hopefully, I'll be a bit more with it tomorrow.

Filthy weather, but another day as planned

Yes, I know we usually get one day after another, but you know what I mean. Despite really grotty weather (gosh, am I glad we did the service point bit yesterday) Elanor turned up on schedule, and leaving Sheila to look after Sally and vice versa, took me to Alrewas for my GP appointment.

This had much the outcome I was expecting, and I don't need to go back until the New Year.

Back at the boat we all had lunch together, then Elanor and Sally went off to get some exercise in Sally's favourite running and jumping about field. We've spent the rest of the afternoon quietly on board, in contrast to the wind howling outside, stoking the Squirrel and reading and stuff. (We've been stoking the Squirrel, not the wind.)

(Oh, look, as I say, you know what I mean.)

It all went as planned

...which doesn't make for a very exciting blog, but then that's the point really.

This morning we ambled down to the paper shop, taking the Garmin with us. This demonstrated that it's just under a mile each way, so getting the paper just about constitutes the two mile brisk walk recommended for us oldies every day.

After a lunch involving home made ciabatta rolls, we actually pulled off the pontoon and boated all the way across the marina to get a pump out, diesel and five bags of Taybrite. I don't much like Taybrite, but it's all they stock. It looks like we're using about £100 per month in heating fuel; the Hurricane is burning around 0.7 litres per hour, and we've burnt around £15 pounds worth of smokeless fuel in a fortnight. In addition, we've consumed about £3.50 worth of electricity.

So our carbon footprint must be pretty small, all told.

Back on the pontoon, I was able to persuade the plug to go into the forward shoreline connector, though it still needs checking to see why it's so reluctant to join up.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the GP to see how the latest meds are working, so fingers crossed.

Nice weather, quiet day

It was really cold overnight, and the houdinis and mushrooms were well frosted up in the morning. We know this, because as the boat warmed up, they started dripping, in some cases down our necks...

We've been having a very pleasant day doing housework type stuff like running a wash load and taking it over to the main complex to tumble it dry, and refilling the water tank.

I've also had a very pleasing contact with Tom Jones; no, not the Welsh one, this one's a Kiwi living in S Australia. (I think it was an NZ PM who made that crack about if a Kiwi emigrates to Oz, he increases the average IQ of both countries, but I don't think that applies to Tom.)

Anyway, Tom and his wife Jan are having a boat built in the UK, with the aim of living aboard, and like some other famous liveaboards (ahem) he's blogging about the experience. The boat is going to be built by Ben Harp, and should be starting any time now, so we'll be able to see it growing since Ben builds on the canal bank just outside the marina.

Tomorrow, we plan to chug across the marina to get a pump out and refill the diesel tank and buy some coal, probably.

Catching up after yesterday

Yesterday we spent over at Elanor’s mostly, having done some shopping for essentials like pasties on the way. Part of that shopping was another visit to the excellent The Butcher, The Baker and The Ice Cream Maker at Barton Marina. As well as meat for ourselves, we bought a cooked bone for Sally.

It looked enormous, being a chunk of the pelvic girdle of a bullock, but in the course of the day, Sally reduced it to a piece about six inches long, after some dedicated gnawing. We’ve had dogs for most of our lives, but never one with the jaw power of this one.

On the way back to the boat, we stopped off at a remarkably remote field just outside Burton, where Sally was given a chance to run about and rummage. The sight of her coming back towards us, afterburners on, ears folded back for better streamlining, and hind legs coming well forward of the front ones at each bound, was quite awe inspiring. Fortunately, these days she’s getting a lot better at aiming off and stopping when told (mostly); the first few times Elanor tried it, Sally would leap in the air on arrival and hit Elanor’s chest with both front paws.

At around 32 kilos of speeding dog, this meant Elanor lying down on her back quite quickly.

It was gone five when we got back to the boat, and I had to stow the shopping, get a shower and then cook dinner, hence the decision to miss out on the blog.

Today, we had a serious lie in, not rising until after nine. This second adolescence stuff is just great. After breakfast, we ambled over to the marina reception, where there are some recycling bins, and then on down the towpath to buy a paper from the newsagent at the far end of the village, thus combining exercise, a nosy at who’s around and purchase of said paper.

Back at the boat, we’ve had a quiet day, pottering about and watching other boats coming and going; there’s a fair bit of activity today, I suspect with boats being winterised mostly.

We spotted an unknown Braidbar, Sorbier, the other day, and today I managed to get a view of her BW reg number. This proved her to be the boat formerly known as Rowan, number 65, so we’ve been able to update our master list of Braidbars.

Quiet day, except for the wind

I thought I'd better do a post myself today; though it's tempting to say "Why keep a dog and blog yourself?", except, of course, she's not my dog, and I won't be seeing her again until tomorrow, when we're scheduled to go over to Elanor's.

Thing is, I've not got a lot to report. The person who won the bidding for my Sony Reader finally ran out of time to pay for it, so I've relisted it. Sheila took a load of washing across to the main building and tumbled it, thus saving us a load of hassle and condensation from drying it in the boat.

£1.25 seems like a reasonable price to pay for 30 minutes that finishes it all off.

Canal Boat was for sale over there, and earlier we had walked down to the other end of the village to buy an Independent.

So that's about it, really; a quiet day, with even the wind slowly easing down, and a quiet evening to follow. Sometime next week we'll need to move the boat across the marina to pump out and get some more coal, so we're hoping the present weather pattern takes a break and gives us some high pressure stuff, with calm, sunny weather.

Just as long as it doesn't freeze, of course.

Dog to dog blog

Hi Boots, how ya doin’ boy?

I’ve read some of your posts on your Mummy’s blog, and I really like your style. Can I be your friend?

If I can bum a lift on Granny and Grandpa’s boat next time they’re down your way, we could maybe meet up and find out who’s the best at chasing rabbits. I’m pretty good, but my mummy gets in a real strop about it and won’t let me catch them.

Like you, I take Mummy to obedience classes every week, but the well cool scene is at dog agility. I can do the jumps easy peasy, and the tunnels, though I have to really bend down to get through them. I’m just getting the hang of the A-frame, and I’ve only just started on the see-saw. The dog walk (up in the air on a plank) is good; you can stop half way over and have a good look round, though every one gets really mingy about it if you do.

The other night, after I’d done a circuit of two jumps and both tunnels off the lead for the first time, I nipped over to where Mummy had left my lead by the start, picked it up, and ran into the rigid tunnel with it. It got a good laugh when I came out the other end without it, I can tell you. Even the collies were impressed,  I could tell, ‘specially when the trainer had to take the tunnel to bits to get it back.

Must go now, breakfast’s ready, and if I don’t watch out, Cato the cat will nip down from where he lives on top of the kitchen cupboards and nick mine.

Take care

Love

Sally

Your friend Sally

Sally on board

As planned, I spent this morning looking after Sally whilst Elanor took Sheila to the dentist, and then they went on to Tamworth for some mum and daughter retail therapy.

I took her for a walk, a case of taking the moochin' poochin' for a stalkin' walkin', and then thought to get the camera out. Sally proved to be a complete photo tart; here are some of the results, including one with her mummy reassuring her after her return:

This is my best profile

Is there a chance of a treat if I sit really, really nicely?

Please?

When's Mummy coming back?

I love my Mummy

Into Stafford in the cold

We got the timings right again today, in that we went to Stafford in the morning, and only had to endure a fierce nor’easterly wind with concomitant chilling. This got worse all the time we were in town, and we were glad indeed to get back to the boat, light the fire and make cups of soup.

During the afternoon, it started to rain, as well. All objectives were achieved in Stafford, which was pleasing under the circs. Sheila now has a new pair of specs, and we got various other bits of clothing whilst we were there.

Winter seems to have arrived early this year, with snow further north and higher up; I just hope it’s not an indication that we are in for another severe one, as the gloomsters were predicting last month. The latest long range forecast I have seen (just checked it here) suggests a very cold and snowy December and Christmas, but with things easing off a lot into January and February. So, if true, not the very prolonged winter we had last year, but still quite dramatic.

We’ve spent the afternoon practising for these conditions; Squirrel well stoked up and much reading and internet stuff taking place. One thing that this brought to light is that according to Sitemeter, this blog continues to attract around 150 hits per day, by no means up with the hugely popular blogs like Granny Buttons, but it's still gratifying to know that you’re all out there reading this.

I tried turning off word verification on the comments side, but promptly started getting attention from spammers again, so it’s back on for the moment.

Tomorrow, Sheila has a further trip to the dentist, lucky her, whilst I stay home and dog sit so that Elanor can chauffeur her about.

Happy Winter Mooring

It's weather like today – very windy, cold sleety rain – that makes us glad we've taken a winter mooring. Under the circumstances, there's not too much to say. We've stayed in the boat, with the Squirrel well stoked up, and kept ourselves busy.

Main event was the Sainsbury's delivery, which came at 11.45, so within the 11 till 12 slot. Sheila went and lurked in the reception building until it turned up, and then redirected it to the boat. The service isn't as good as Ocado in some ways. The stuff isn't all bagged up within the crates, making it harder to transfer to the boat, and there's no option on the check out page to give directions to the driver to send him straight to the boat.

In addition, you have to take a chance on all the stuff being available at the local Sainsbury's, whereas with Ocado, you get told at point of order if what you want is or isn't in the warehouse.

Still, it's a load better than lugging it all back from somewhere else.

We had a message from the opticians that Sheila's glasses are ready, so we'll be going into Stafford tomorrow, probably. Meantime, I've given up on getting payment out of the guy who won the eBay auction for my Sony Reader, and have started the process of reversing that deal so as to put it up for sale again.

Oh, and the WW review of Braidbar 123, Janet Grant, is very good; the mag came into the marina shop today.

Modern art comes to Sanity Again

We're not up to much today that wants blogging about, so I thought I'd get this done early. After Sally and Elanor had gone, I shoved Sally's onboard water bowl into the shower just to get it out of the way. Later, I was struck by the pleasing contrast of the shiny black bowl and the shiny white shower tray, and thought something might be made of it.

Here, then, is my first attempt at "serious" art:

It's called Dog bowl with shower mat II and is part of my SIIAJGMTM* series.

Andrew Denny, eat your heart out! ;)

*Sod is it art, just give me the money

An away day

After a really nice evening last night with Elanor and Sally, we've spent the day with them today, giving Elanor a hand to sort some stuff in her house. (After all, we do live there, officially.)

So there's not much to say here, except that the shop in Barton Turn Marina has improved still further, and we got some meat there on the way back; boiled ham and pea soup tomorrow...

Sally in the summer

A couple of things to report

Two main things happened today: I renamed the Beale Park Blog, and some guys came from Wilson's of Kinver and took bits of our cratch away.

Since the next IWA National Festival is at Shobnall Fields, Burton on Trent, I’ve renamed the blog Shobnall Fields Forever, and done a brief explanatory post there. As last year, I won’t start posting regularly there until much nearer the time, when my daily witterings, or haverings for those North of the Border, will appear on it rather than here.

We’d had two problems with the cratch, with the wood frame round the glazing bowing out so that there was  a gap between the wood and the glass, and with the cratch cover when rolled sagging down because it’s too long and needs an extra strap on each side.

This being Wilsons, there’s no problem about them fixing it, and they’ve taken the offending items away to do so.

Elanor and Sally have joined us for the night, in the hope that the fireworks will be less disturbing for the pooch here in the rural calm of Great Haywood than in the middle of Burton. Shugborough Hall is having a bonfire do of some sort, but not until tomorrow night.

Another damp day

It’s wet and windy, so it’s been a day for lurking in the boat. I’ve made a start on a Sainsbury’s online order for Monday (Ocado don’t deliver here, shucks), and caught up with the email traffic.

Still no sign of payment for the Sony Reader, humph.

On my way to buy a paper, I met Keith and Susie on Etherow and Pilgrim (they have one 35’ boat each). They are on their way to the Llangollen for the winter, having been around here all last winter.

At this rate, I might actually get round to doing that catch up posting on Building Sanity Again. Here’s a preview picture I’ve taken for it, showing the new shutters for the bow doors:

An average day at home

We left the Hurricane heating on all night last night for the first time. Previously, I’d turned it off at bedtime, if it wasn’t off already, because I was afraid it would fire up in the middle of the night to keep the calorifier warm, but I needn’t have worried.

The programmable thermostat turned it on at half six this morning, so that by the time we were ready to get a cup of tea, the whole place was toasty.

One of the buyers of our Sony Readers having coughed up, we posted it off this morning; there’s been no sign of the cash from the other, so I’ve sent him an invoice as a gentle reminder. It’s an unknown buyer, so we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that all will be well.

The weather has been pretty iffy today, so, apart from the trip to the Post Office, we’ve lurked onboard. Sheila washed a quilt cover during the day, and we took it over to the marina main building and put it through the tumble drier. At a cost of £1.25 for half an hour, you wouldn’t want to do it for everything, but it’ll be worth it for the bulky stuff like towels and bedding.

Also during the day, we had a phone call from Peter Mason at Braidbar. There’ll be a review of two boats, Janet Grant and Islay, the hire boat, in next month's Waterways World, so that's something to look out for, and we had a conversation about that perennial problem, tarry muck running out from the base of the stove chimney. Some fuels seem to do it even with a double skinned chimney; spraying the cavity with foam may be the answer. In the meantime, we keep a tea towel wrapped round the base to soak up any yuck that emerges (not one we use for drying the dishes, obviously)

Here’s not much else to report for the moment, so I’ll get Sheila to give me a haircut; who says life is dull onboard?

Enjoying the mooring

We’ve had a good first day on the new winter mooring. The early part of the day was spent pottering in the boat, catching up with email stuff and the like. I was pleased to note that our first 20 hours or so had used all of 27 penceworth of electricity, including running a wash load, so our costs are going to be reasonably restricted.

We walked into the village and caught the 10.20 bus into Stafford. It’s a short run, and Stafford seems a nice town. The bus was amazingly full. Sheila ordered some new spectacles, and we got the postage boxes for the Sony Readers at Ryman.

We’d planned to stay for lunch, but even after strolling round and checking out the shops and the large indoor market, there was time to take the 11.50 bus back and lunch on the boat.

This afternoon, we’ve had a quiet time, reading and doing stuff on the net. The readers have duly sold, for a bit less than we’d hoped, but still enough to make it worthwhile. We’ll get them packed up and despatched tomorrow, assuming the cash has come through by then, which it should, PayPal being what it is.

The weather has deteriorated this afternoon, wet and windy, so we clearly got the day the right way round.

Into the marina

We had a leisurely start this morning, as there was no point in getting to Great Haywood too soon. We were able to say a fond farewell to Graham and Carolann as we passed Autumn Years, and plodded merrily on through classic November weather, damp and misty, to lock up Colwich and then Great Haywood.

Ann from Moore 2 Life happened to meet us there, and we were able to have a quick natter. They’ve just been in the marina for a couple of nights, and were out and about again.

The turn into the marina is a bit fiddly, but once inside there's plenty of room for manoeuvre. We went down to the service point for a pump out and to fill with diesel, then went across to our berth.

Having got tied and sorted, we walked back to the reception to pay for the first three months and sign what needed to be signed. We’ve spent the rest of the day getting all hooked up and so on, and Sheila ran a washload.

The only fly in the ointment is that the local Post Office doesn’t sell postage boxes (“no call for them”) so it’s in to Stafford by bus in the morning; the eBay auction of our Sony eBook readers ends tomorrow, and we want to be ready to post them off.