Just too much ice

That's a deliberately multilayered headline up there. You could certainly say we've seen just too much ice this winter, but what I'm getting at is the ¼" which was surrounding the boat when we started staggering about this morning. Now, even by our quite picky standards, ¼" isn't enough to stop the boat moving, but checking the weather forecast showed that we could expect another two nights of it.

We figured that getting seriously iced in at say Branston Water Park or the Morrison's mooring would be a lot less convenient than here at Alrewas, so we've stayed put. There's just too much ice in the forecast.

The main problems with that are a) my appointment in Burton Hospital at 9.15 on Monday morning and b) the fact that we'd been going to buy coal today, the last bag of Taybrite having been opened yesterday.

Solutions: a) Elanor and Sally will come and sleepover tomorrow, then Elanor can give me a lift into Burton first thing Monday, and b) Monarch and Grimsby came past just after lunch, and I bought 5 bags of Stoveglow from them at £9.50 for a 25 kg bag. I haven't tried Stoveglow before, but it was that or more Taybrite.

In between times, we've also been into the village for routine shopping. This included meat, which let me discover that Coates are now doing home made haggis. I've bought one for Tuesday (Burns' Night [quick edit, no it's not, it was last Tuesday]), and will report on it in due course.

For our overseas readers, this is a haggis:

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

There's more info here, if you want it!