WHEN...

... are we going to get some warm weather?

I'm getting pretty fed up of wearing winter clothes and can't wait to put them away and get the Spring/Summer collection (!) out of the wardrobe!!

Helen has a theory that the longer it takes to warm up, the better summer we are going to have. I hope she's right!

Actually, for the first time in years, we haven't made plans for the summer holiday yet. Usually we go on the Thames on the faithful 'Margaret Amelia' (We saw her clearly in her Windsor mooring as we descended into Heathrow at the start of our trip to NY!) but this year we may not do that because we're not sure how we would cope with the pups aboard! Lots of people do have dogs on board, but they seem to be a little quieter and calmer than our two currently are. I can imagine we would spend a lot of time fishing them out of the river if we took them this year and, as I'm not sure about their swimming abilities, don't really want to risk it yet!

We always go away with Helen and Bill for a couple of weeks in the summer. However, we do have some problems because Bill flatly refuses to fly and I am totally unable to sail anywhere having discovered that I suffer from terrible seasickness, usually before even leaving harbour. The last two trips (one just from Calais to Dover and more recently a nightmare overnight sailing from Amsterdam to Newcastle) have found me unable to raise myself from the floor of the cabin without being extremely poorly. (Coming back from Amsterdam was the worst. Even Charles thought we wouldn't make it as the boat crashed and dived into the waves. I spent the entire time lying on the floor of the bathroom, until I got so cold I just had to try and get to bed, so literally crawled along the floor of the cabin and up the side of the bed, where I had to lie totally motionless on my stomach, incapable of even lifting my head from the pillow!) Mind you, both of those crossings were rough to say the least, so if millpond conditions could be guaranteed I might be okay. I certainly didn't have a problem previously, but really don't want to take the risk ever again.

Anyway - the fact that we can't fly or sail limits us somewhat when we are going away together as you will appreciate. Not that it has impeded us really - being on the boat is our idea of the perfect, totally relaxing break, and our recent stay on a French vineyard was fabulous - we just have to make sure our destination is driveable!!

This year we may just spend a couple of weeks based here, going off for days, or we could try and rent a cottage somewhere and then the kids can come and join us, as they often do, at some stage during our holiday. It's just nice to be thinking about it really!!