A bit better

The internet connection has improved somewhat; no sign of  T-mobile yet, but the Orange signal has come back sufficiently to be usable.

I'd normally get Sally to do this post on a Tuesday, of course, but I fear that she's sulking about being made to walk to the village in a natty head collar type lead. This me gives better control of her urge to remonstrate with other dogs if she's on the lead and considers them to be showing insufficient respect. It works really well, being both more effective and kinder to her than the slip lead, but unfortunately it's pink, and Sal reckons it's just too girly for a lean and mean hound like herself.

We had a good charge about in the dog running field this morning, though it was very cold first thing and likely to get much colder before the weekend when the next batch of snow is due. We used the first field for a change, so that she could say hi to a new set of bunnies, but they were no more eager to come out to play than their mates in the second field.

The power supply has been behaving itself today (so far anyway), so I've been able to catch up with my one recipe per day routine for the new book. I did goulash first thing, and then the recipe I invented last night, for takeaway style pilau rice, after coffee.

After lunch, Sal was in a particularly barmy mood for no apparent reason – at that time she normally settles down for a kip until we go out for a walk – so we decided to walk into the village. I'd had the email to say that the replacement DVD for Elanor was awaiting collection at the Co-op, so that made an excuse to head in that direction.

Since the paths are rather icy underfoot, the dreaded head collar lead seemed a good idea and Sal was indeed very well behaved with it on. Though as I say, she's now curled up in her bed pretending to be asleep but occasionally heaving a deep sigh at the injustice of the world and the general lack of basic taste on the part of her humans.

With the forecast sub zero temperatures, Stuart the marina handy man has turned off and drained the water pipes to the pontoons, with the exception of the ones that have heat trace on them. Fortunately, realising that this might happen, we filled the water tank up to the brim just before lunch.

For those readers not familiar with narrowboats under these circumstance, it's worth emphasising that we are probably keeping warm more easily than we would in a house. The Squirrel is ticking over nicely, and the Hurricane is presently running to warm the backend. This also heats the rad in the kneehole of the desk, so I'm typing this with toasty knees.

It can be a bit brisk first thing; the Hurricane starts up at seven, so I postponed my shower this morning until this afternoon; I'm planning to do it as soon as I've done this.