A frozen month

It's now a month since we left Debdale frozen in at Tixall Wide.  In the intervening time, plans were made for a rescue, but the weather didn't co-operate.  It seems there's now a widespread thaw, although the webcam at Great Haywood Marina still shows plenty of ice.  Of course the next problem will be that stoppages between Tixall and Autherley Junction mean that whoever rescues the boat will have to go the long way round, back through Birmingham.

Easy All on test

The January edition of Canal Boat is in the shops, and includes my review of Easy All, a 67footer by Heartwood.  David's photos of the exterior look particularly good this month; you'd never know that we spent the morning dodging showers, that it was really windy, and rather cold.

Christmas Cards

The internet connection where we were stuck at Tixall Wide was very good, so I took the opportunity to order some Christmas cards using some photos of Debdale in the snow.  I used Picnik to add text, then uploaded the photos to Moo.  The cards, which were ordered on Sunday arrived yesterday, and will be in the post this morning!

New gloves

When it comes to buying equipment, nothing beats a personal recommendation.  So we were all ears when Lesley from Caxton told us about her perfect boating gloves, as she helped us down the Farmer's Bridge Locks.  Gloves are difficult: woollen ones get wet, but waterproof ones often stick to your windlass, making it difficult to wind paddles up and down.  Lesley recommended Grippi Waterproof gloves, so while we were iced in at Tixall Wide we looked them up on the internet.  They were two pairs for the price of one at the time (not any more, apparently), and the two pairs could be different sizes.  They arrived yesterday.  Perhaps the eight inches of snow in the garden means that today is a good day to try them out.

Winter Cruise photos

I have uploaded a set of photos to Flickr from the winter cruise.  Looking at them, the change in the weather from dank and misty at the start of the trip, to clear blue skies, to snow and ice, is quite remarkable.