Winter weather at last!

We woke up on Friday morning to a very cold boat! We have been letting the fire go out overnight because the weather has been so mild, but this morning I shivered as I got dressed and laying the fire was the first job of the day!

I love these cold, frosty mornings and bright sunny days. The canal was so pretty this morning:

We were looking after Jack and he gets very restless if he doesn't get a walk, so it was the perfect excuse to get out there and he and I had a really long walk along the tow path. As the morning was warming up the sun on the canal was making it steam! :

The light was so georgous this morning and the reflections in the water sensational:

In the afternoon, P decided that he would go bird watching. Having been out with Jack for a couple of hours I couldn't justify having another jaunt. I am self employed and have to do some work everyday!

So I stayed in and did some paper work. After a couple of hours I couldn't stand being indoors any longer so went out to chop up a couple of pallets of wood: 

It was overall a very productive afternoon. I chopped up two pallets, giving us and T next door enough wood to last us several days. I got an offer of six weeks work in Malaysia from one of the companies I work for and I made a great big pan of soup in the slow cooker which will do us for lunch all next week. Son number two who works part time at the Vue cinema while he is at University got us free tickets for 'The Iron lady' for next week and I heard a new piece of music on the radio which I loved and was able to downlaod from a website for next to nothing. All in all a cracking day!

P came back from his bird watching trip to say that he had seen loads of great birds including two barn owls hunting over the fields, but no camera!! We plan to go back this weekend and see if we can get some pics, but hope the owls don't prove as elusive as the kingfisher!

Having had a hot shower courtesy of the marina,(not on the boat), we had a  Chinese takeaway - after all it was Friday evening and it had been a pretty good day!

Yesterday, we went walking. I did my knee in over the summer and what with one thing and another we have hardly been out on the fells for months and so are trying to catch up now. We had a fantastic walk in bright sunshine, although the ground was frozen solid and we had to wrap up very warm to keep out the cold. The view from the top was sensational!

More on this weekend in my next blog. Too much to do today, but I will catch up later or tomorrow. We have a number of boaty chores to do today and I thought it might be an idea in my next blog to write a list of things which must be done and at what intervals, for aspiring boaters out there, so watch this space!

Al