Cold and windy

It's a case of winter's last fling, hopefully. Although in theory slightly warmer, a biting wind has increased the chill factor so that it's a good deal less pleasant out today than it was in yesterday's bright sun. We decided that boat washing would be pretty purgatorial in the circumstances, so I confined myself to swapping the clean mooring lines for the dirty bow and stern ones, and washing those.

I'm pleased to report that my modification of the Squirrel ash pan has worked well; it's possible to transfer the ash into the Tippy with virtually no mess at all. Sheila has been working steadily on at the latest doily order; she'd like to get it finished before we start boating, but isn't hopeful of doing so. Obviously progress will slow down once we're a working boat crew again.

This afternoon we walked into the village to get some more coleslaw and a loaf of bread; we've stopped eating lettuce in our sandwiches for the winter as they are pretty sad specimens at the moment.

After I've done this, Sheila's going to give me my spring hair cut, so that I'll look a bit less shaggy as we boat along. The weather is expected to be warmer but wild and windy for a couple of days, before settling down into milder, calmer conditions at the weekend – typical for the end of February/beginning of March, in fact.

I've done the seasonal change to the boating plans bit over on the right there; once we've decided what to do in May, I'll update it again.