Thursday's Musings.

Good afternoon folks.

It is another Spring like day and yet there is not a sign of a daffodil anywhere here. I guess they are still in hiding. We have got Snowdrops but nothing else yet. Someone yesterday, that there was going to be a shortage of Daffodils for Mother's Day.
If the weather forecast is to be believed, it is going to warm up nicely for the weekend, which willbe nice as there are jobs that need to be done. I made a start this morning on some paintwork, but before that the usual daily tasks had to be done. P needed his walk and then he and the mog got fed, as did K and I. I then had the fires to make up. Before I could make up the back stove, the chimney needed cleaning again, because smoke was blowing back into the cabin last night. Because we burn house coal on the back stove, the chimney gets blocked with what can best be described as tar. It goes has hard as a brick when cold and yet when hot, you could lay it on the road. Because the fire was almost out, the tar in the chimney was hard and terefore difficult to break off. But after half an hour of work, the chimney was clean enough to re-light the stove. Once that was relit, I put a joint of Pork in to cook slowly. There is a wonderful smell, wafting through the boat. I will do some potatoes and veg with that for dinner tonight, and afters will be an Apple Crumble. I am a woman who likes to do a lot of home cooking. We very rarely have have ready meals. I was bought up to do my own cooking. Thankfully K likes good, simple, wholesome food. So with those jobs done and dusted, I decided to get some of the boats paintwork done. Having painted the white band on the stern, I touched up the Red and the Black bands, so now it looks nice and tidy for five minutes. The Red on the bow needed touching up as well, but that is proving more difficult, due to the signwriting, so I did the best I could. A blind man would be glad to see it, I reckon.
Lunch consisted of Cheese and Onion toasties, which were very nice indeed. K then thought it a good idea to run the engine for a while, as she has not been started for over a month. Our elderly engine of course had other ideas, she was not for starting. After a few goes, K coaxed her into life, but she is only running on one cylinder, so there maybe a fuel blockage somewhere. It looks like another job, which will need doing at some point before we can move off, whenever that will be.
There is still no sign of an appointment from the hospital for K, so we are still sitting and waiting. The only good thing about this situation, is the fact that I can get jobs done, whilst we are on the electric. The washing machine has been on and the drier has just completed its cycle, so another thing to cross off the list for today. K is watching 'Ride The High Country' on Channel 4. I like a good Western and this is about average, but it is something to watch. Is it me or is there very little of interest on the TV at the moment. I have been enjoying 'Lambing Live' on BBC 2. Coming from a farming background, it has been lovely to watch the lambs coming into the world. But it has also shown how hard life is for the farming community. Great program, I wish there were more like this on TV.