Sunrises, Sunshine, Sunsets

What absolutely wonderful weather we’ve had just lately that has created some equally wonderful skies ...

Sitting on the stern deck 07:30 Wednesday morning with breakfast alfresco before walking into Wilstone, temperature 0.3 degrees c.

There was still some ice around on the Aylesbury Arm junction and the development there is progressing.  It will be interesting to see what boaters facilities well be available when it’s finished.

The pound (water between two locks) below the staircase top locks on the arm was empty, yet at lock 4 the water was cascading over the bottom gates!

The reason for our visit - Wilstone Community Shop for a very nice loaf of granary bread and a chocolate hit for George! The shop next door was interesting too, Armson Antiques has a lovely selection of antique furniture and worth a look around.

The Half Moon pub has a good reputation for its warm welcome including well behaved dogs, cask beers and good food.  I hope that we can find the time and a dry day to try it out.

By the time we got back to Still Rockin’ at 1-pm the temperature on the roof was a very reasonable 13 degrees. 

George has been pleased with the input from the solar panels to the batteries this past few days.  When we arrived here at Marsworth from Bulbourne the battery level was about 80% and during the afternoon the panels raised the level to 100% which meant that Still Rockin’s engine was not run at all yesterday.  You can see from the monitor above we were getting nearly 22.4 amps from the panels at 13:15 and leaving us 46% in the batteries this morning! Not too shabby at all!

A late afternoon invigorating walk in the cold wind round Startopsend Reservoir

… and a glimpse of the sun going down

…  and over the road to Tringford Reservoir where the wind was chopping the water

… then over the wooden bridge under which the overflow from Tring bubbles into ...

… Marsworth Reservoir where the rushes grow very artistically and the late afternoon sun glows gold in the distance

… and the anglers are still trying to catch fish

Beautiful!

Sunset through the trees of Marsworth.

It was not such a good day yesterday though

A lowering sky threatens rain just before 7-am

… and 5 minutes later look what happened to those clouds!

Wow! A fire in the sky!

Looking the other way such calm pastel colours.
Not long after the rain came down and continued to do so for the remainder of the day. Jaq and Les came onboard in the afternoon where the conversation flowed along with lots of laughing and eventually around the dining table they introduced us  a game of Phase 10, a game of cards the object of which is to complete the 10 phases before anyone else. After a good start by Les, he fell behind the rest of us but won out in the end, well done him!