Living with the cold weather

It's been a bit less cold today (nearly said warmer, but that wouldn't be right). We had just a dusting of snow first thing, but since then, although cloudy, it's been dry. We're expecting snow overnight, all day tomorrow, and probably on into the weekend. There's no sign yet of this cold snap ending.

It's not made a lot of difference to the routine, except that we're being especially careful with our water use, since filling up now will involve the co-operation of several boats to run hoses down from the tap nearest the facilities block. For us the principal change has been to start using the showers in the block rather than the one on the boat. Like most other things here in Mercia, they are very well designed, with plenty of room and a good solid sliding screen between the wet and dry areas. You can undress and dress without risk of trailing your undies in the damp.

The only downside is probably inevitable; the shower unit is an electric instant one, with the fairly slow flow that they always seem to have. But the water is good and hot and there's plenty of room to wave your arms about under it.

More work was done on the books before we walked down into the village for supplies before lunch. Since then, we've had a walk round the marina and I spent a bit of time checking our water system. The Seagull IV drinking water filter was running a bit slow, but that proved to be down to low pressure in the accumulator alongside the pump. I pumped it up and things are much better, no need to change the filter yet.

I also found that the expansion vessel on the hot water side had no pressure in it; attempts to pump that up were less successful, however. I fear that either the bladder has ruptured or the Schraeder valve has failed, so it may well be that we need to have it replaced.

Another cold weather dish tonight, methinks; we got some good sausages in the Co-op, so I'll use them in a sausage casserole.