Off we go again

Well, what a good Christmas that was. We had an excellent three days in Boothby and the boys were really very well behaved, although appropriately energetic and clearly having a good time.

Elanor joined us on the boat for a couple of days over New Year, so that Sally's distress at the fireworks was minimised, though she still found it hard not to bark at midnight. We managed a fair bit of exercise, too, with much frisbee chasing through the snow.

Speaking of which, we endured a few days of snow and ice between Christmas and New Year which has now entirely gone, though we had another hard frost last night.

Yesterday, we made an expedition to Go Outdoors in Derby, courtesy of Elanor, where Sheila bought a new pair of boots, Berghaus no less. Go Outdoors have a very good discount scheme and are heartily to be recommended; our thanks to Jo who told us about them. Sheila's previous boots, bought a few months ago from Cotswold Camping, have shed a lace hook already, so she's sending them back for a refund.

The new pair are much kinder to her sore toes, what's more.

I've finally got a new camera, a Lumix TZ55 from John Lewis. The other one is wending its way back to Japan. The TZ55 doesn't have GPS or a touch screen, but does have the range of settings that I wanted. It's going to take me a while to find my way around it, even with the menus in English.

We've eaten well, too, mostly courtesy of The Butcher, The Baker – turkey and beef over Christmas and a leg of pork for New Year. Sally even got a bit of crackling off that, after Sheila had stripped the gooey bits off it.

Tomorrow, we settle back into the marina routine and it's noticeable that the day is slowly getting longer already. Once clear of the holiday period, it always feels as if Spring isn't far away, hurrah.

;))