Supplies and Placemats.

Hi Folks.

There is something amazing about watching the water freeze in front of your eyes and that is exactly what happened last night. I watched out of the galley doors as the water on the canal began to freeze as the temperature dropped below freezing again. It was a little like watching the ice come towards you like in the film “The day after Tomorrow”, ok not that dramatic but that is what comes to mind. The temperature got down to –5.8c last night and so this morning I woke to the sound of the ice creaking, it is almost as if it is singing when it cracks. Keith got up to visit the toilet and with the movement of the boat the ice cracked along the length of the boat. As I have said before this is my favourite time of the year, and I love what the Winter throws at me. Whilst Keith was up he made us a brew and I got up and worked on the back cabin fire, breathing some life into it after it had been dampened down over night. It was not long before I could hear it roaring away, so shut the bottom door and enjoyed the warmth being given off, as Keith and I sat in bed drinking our first cuppa of the day whilst watching “Are you smarter than a 10 year old”. I can honestly say I am not, but it is funny to watch people falling down over very easy questions and yes I am a little smug when I know the answer.

8.15am time to get out of bed, mainly because my bottom was numb sitting up in bed. Once dressed it was time to take Paddy out for his first walk of the day. He was well up for leaping off the boat, but as it was a little icy, I helped him off in a more gentle style. The towpath was not slippery for a change, so I allowed Paddy off the lead once past the moored boats for a bit of a run. The one thing with Paddy is, once he has had enough, he will turn around and head back to the boat, and we had not gone far, before he did just that, he had done his business, which was picked up and put in the poo bin. Back on the boat breakfast was ready and so having fed mog and dog, I got to sit down and have my breakfast. The generator went on at 9am to charge the batteries for the day.

After the batteries were charged, we headed off down into the town to buy our supplies for blacking next March. Wilkinson’s was are destination for paint brushes, rollers and trays, white spirit and rubbing down paper. We came out of Wilkinson’s without the rubbing down paper because they did not have what I wanted, but we did get some shower sponges and water filler refills, the rubbing down paper can wait for another day.

I have been looking for basket to hold my washing up liquid, scrubbing brush etc over the galley sink and Homebase had what I was looking for. It was a little more expensive than I hoped for, but beggars cannot be choosers and it does fit nicely where I wanted it to go. Having got the few bits we wanted we slogged our way back up the hill to the basin and the warmth of our boat, where I made us a coffee, before we had a visit from Gary our printer man. He is making our placemats, coasters and key rings for next year and wow I am absolutely delighted with what he has done so far. Gary wanted to show us what they looked like now they have been printed and we cannot be more pleased.

The placemats include the photograph of Marmite and Paddy and I am over the moon with it. Next years supply is fantastic. Not only are the boat ones included like this year, I have used some of my wildlife photographs for some of the other mats, which I am very excited about.

Talking of Marmite, she has become increasingly interested in the Christmas tree.

I saw her batting one of the Christmas decorations with her paw, so it looks like she has found a new toy to play with.

This week seems to have flown by, it will soon be Christmas and wow another year will have past.