2013 - and a Happy New Year to you all!!

Time for a post methinks.... it has been a while. Christmas was spent with the family in Hampshire and New Year was spent with friends at Stafford Boat Club. All in all, a very good Christmas and New Year. Time then, once the festivities were all over, to start cruising again, this being our first winter as continuous cruisers. One obvious subject is the weather, first we were forecast to receive the 'beast from the east'. Admittedly, we did get a couple of cold days, one morning the thermometer went down to minus 5.7C and there was a little bit of thin ice on the Shroppie. Then we were to get the 'pest from the west', i.e.rain, and that indeed we did get. Hopefully, there will be no-one telling us in 2013 that there is a water shortage amd that the resevoirs are not full. Obviously, every cloud has a silver lining and the wet winter SHOULD mean trouble free cruising in 2013. Then there is the weather we are getting at the moment, sitting here on Tixall Wide, it is more like a spring day than a winters day! The weather is mild, it is dry and the sun is shining. We have to keep the fires in otherwise it gets damp, but, we also have to have the sidehatch open sometimes! We've spent a couple of days here, peace and quiet after all the hectic festivities, there was a bit of sorting out to do, I always try to operate by the premise that if I get something new for the wardrobe then something has to go (BUT, this does not seem to work with her shoes!!) So, the wardrobe was emptied and tidied, but all I could find to thow away was a couple of pairs of old slippers, who needs five pairs of slippers anyway? We did venture as far as Great Haywood today, we needed water and to dump some rubbish, a newspaper and a couple of things from the shops, there were boats everywhere! Queues for the water point, no empty moorings, so, as soon as we had done our business we scurried back to the peace and quiet of Tixall Wide. What next? We may head towards Penkridge for a couple of days before turning round and going, firstly, to Rugeley for a couple of days and then Hopwas or Fazeley for a couple of days as I have a few meetings to attend in the next week or so and both these locations are good for access to the rail network.

Sunset over Tixall Wide 02.01.13