Lovely day!

Well, true to his word, Martin Plant, the engineer, arrived almost dead on 8.30 this morning. Two hours later and I had 5 brand new clean and shiny 11o A/hr deep cycle wet cell leisure batteries fitted. It was nice to be able to use the hoover straight away without the engine running and without the power shutting down and warning alarms bleeping all over the place! I did take a picture of the new and very neat battery banks but with this new phone, I somehow managed to loose it!

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, a skylark was singing overhead and the call of the cut was just too strong to ignore. A gentle breeze that was gusting somewhat stronger by the time I cast off helped me out by blowing the bow round nicely for me and passing under the marina entrance bridge, I felt spring was definately in the air. I can feel more regular trips out coming on, and soon my Friday evening exits will be able to be resumed, with the return journey on Sunday afternoon. I have posted a picture above of my trip up to Rose Narrowboats and I don't care what anyone says, 'there is nothing, simply nothing so nice as messing about on boats'. The journey up and back was enough to make me feel I was returning from my 6 week extended summer cruise - it was lovely with the warm sun on my back and only the background hum of my engine to compete with all the birds tweeting. Diesel, Coal and a pump-out were the order for the day at Rose andon returning, I decided to take Simba out for a long walk over the Battlefield at Shenton and up Ambion Hill - one of my favourate places to go on the Ashby and still very much worth the longer drive over to visit. Yet again, whilst walking over the hill, I was bemused by the number of people who liveabord and never or rarely move the boat. People often ask me what the best thing about living on a boat is. I have posted a picture of it below!

Tomorrow, the weather id set to be aweful and so I have left all the work for then! I have a good number of hours of planning, preparation, marking and various other school management tasks to be done as usual for a weekend and so if the forecast is correct, tomorrow seems a good day for doing it!