Down and dirty.

It has been a few days since I last posted, so I do apologise.
Life has been a bit manic. I have been busy planting the garden out and sewing seeds. The rain we have had has been most welcome, because it has meant I have not had to water the garden. I will post some up to date photographs of the garden later in the week.
We have spent time with friends Richard and Christine on their boat NB Mandalay. It has been absolutely wonderful having them around for a few days. Lots of catching up has been done whilst they have been here and today was no exception.
Keith is still continuing to improve, with blips here and there, but that is to be expected. Yesterday was a milestone because his drain wound has finally given up its scab and so he is scab free at long last. Keith is still having issues when he does not take antacids and so today he had to take them again due to chest pains. We have made an appointment for him to see the GP about this, as we both feel he may need the antacids on repeat prescription.

Yesterday was a lovely day between the April showers, so we did a bit of weeding and some sorting out. During the afternoon, we heard a "Hello" from the gate, so Keith went to see who it was to find Linda and Richard off of NB Mary H standing by the gate. Linda had contacted Keith on Twitter to say they were coming into the arm and could they come and say "Hello". We invited them in for a cuppa and with the sun shining we sat out on the pontoon along with their handsome dog Muffin, who was so well behaved. It was lovely to make their aquaintance and to meet Muffin. I shall now be following their blog from time to time and hope we meet up again sometime. There was plenty of nattering and laughter over a cuppa and I am quite sure we will see them again.


This morning I got down and dirty. I climbed down into the hold and shovelled about half a tonne of loose house coal into bags. I have been waiting to do this for sometime, but did not have enough empty bags to get the job done, but today was the day. To say it was a dusty job was an understatement as you can see from the photograph. I was plastered. I wore a doubled up face mask, but the dust still got through. After the job was done and the bags were neatly stacked at the bow, it was time for a long hot shower.
After lunch, I got to put my feet up before we locked the boat up and headed off to see Richard and Christine for afternoon tea. Christine baked scones and we enjoyed strawberry jam and cream with them. A proper afternoon tea and enjoyable chatter about all things boating and life in general. Sadly Richard and Christine are leaving the arm tomorrow and it maybe some time before we see them again. It has been wonderful having them around and great fun catching up.
Back on board our boat mog and dog were waiting for their dinners and then dog needed walking. The evening is going to be spent with my feet up.