Sunny Sunday again

That's three in a row – I won't make the same mistake as last time, and will just say that it's nice for those who had the day off, and frustrating for those who don't (and great for those of us who have every day off). It looks like we're going to have a milder and wetter spell for a few days, then back to these chilly conditions by the end of the week. As usual at this time of year, some of the less responsible papers are predicting "the coldest winter for 100 years", apparently undeterred that the same forecast last year never came to pass.

A check on the Met Office site shows that, whilst it's anticipated that conditions between now and the New Year are more likely to be colder than average rather than warmer, with drier rather than wetter weather, there's no sign of a seriously freezing spell. In any event, accuracy for weather forecasting drops to 50% beyond five days out, so anything after that is no better than guess work.

That's not to say that us boaters don't keep a sharp eye on the forecasts at this time of year, but that's just prudence. There was a bit of cat ice on the open areas of water round the marina this morning, as well as a severe frost; we've seen several boats heading across to the service wharf to pump out, which is only sensible in the circumstances.

It's that fine balance between taking common sense precautions and unnecessary panic.

We've had a pottering sort of day, reading and web surfing in the boat and taking a walk round the marina after lunch; we didn't actually get out of bed until gone nine, and had to restart the central heating in the bedroom so that I could shower in comfort.

Elanor is presently exercising Sal in the field, having come over to drop off her mother's present and borrow my bicycle pump, her own having given up the ghost. She's got a Halfords Apollo X26 bike taking up room in her very small house; as she doesn't get to use it at the moment, she's planning to sell it. We may possibly offer it around the marina first, then put it on eBay if we don't get any takers.

Looking at similar machines on there, she might make £50 on it, which would be handy with Christmas coming up. It'll have to be "buyer to collect" though, I'm not wrapping up a bike to post it…

/wahaha