Happy Boaty new year and all things cow

 Well everybody , i hope you all had a lovely xmas , and the xmas you wanted.
I am back in Ardwell , Galloway and at the moment staying with my mother in law for xmas and new year.
Its been lovely , the family has been up from all over and i got to see the newest member of the family, my nephew Joseph who is ten months old..
Money is tight , so xmas gifts were small this year and more doing jobs than gifts.
Mark is doing well on the boat. The spare berth has been converted into the new kitchen area. Much much easier , with everything side by side. Still some work to finish that. Water bags under the floor have been gotton rid of as they kept leaking and tanks in the side lockers instead.
Bow bed area has been stripped right back , insulation put on and covered with a far more pleasing felt. Loads better than the old badly fitted saggy and falling of plastic vinyl stuff.
Still loads to do , and hopefully ready for our mid april departure date to France.

Still trying to find a better solution to the big diesel stove . Heats well but its sort of trapped in a corner , so the middle of the boat is to hot to sit  in but the rest of the boat is freezing.
Also trying to figure out a cockpit canopy , sprayhood binimi thing. We were going to invest in a new one but have realised that the sprayhood will interphere with the boom as it is quite low and when the mast is down across the full length of boat we wouldn't be able to use it anyway.
I was sort of wondering if a canopy could be assembled over the laid down mast so we could have a dry cockpit and so move in the rain. Or at least store wet jackets etc in canopyed area.
Lots to think of , and any ideas gladly taken into consideration.
Back working at the gardens , has been odd but good . Loads of leaves to rake and briars to cut out, paths to scrub etc.
Mother in law is ill with about of shingles . Very painful , so Mark and i have been helping with her shorthorn herd.Nice cows , very friendly and a very nice bull.
I have the honour of scratching said bull and keeping him distracted , so Mark can go in to pen and muck out. He likes a good scratch and i stay outside the pen , so all nice and safe.
Tom , the wanderer is now up staying with me . He is not a hundred percent happy about it but it means Mark can be as noisy as he wants and bring stuff in and out of boat without Tom freaking out [ and he does that so easily as he is a precious] And it keeps him away from all the nasty smells of chemicals used.
Patch has given up sleeping on top of my face and now insists on crawling below covers and snuggling tight in. well till she gets too hot and then we have the Dune worm duvet of her trying to find her way out to get fresh air.
 She has been great adjusting to everything . Tom is determined that his poos be outside he meowls till he finally gives up and uses the litter tray.
 He was the wanderer at our old house so i suppose more adjustment is needed for him. Patch has always been an at home cat , always staying close to us. It is often hard to believe they are brother and sister , their characters are so different.
Well i hope you all have the best of years . And i really hope ours goes to plan but as usual , with everything nowadays , money will  always be the decider in things.. At the moment i  am furiously trying to keep all boaty things in my head while remembering gardeny things and now adding cowy things to the mix of slush that is my brain.
It would be so nice if our brains were like google or siri or bing where we could just ask and the answer would appear , thus leaving our brains to daydream of rainbows and unicorns and imprezas looking beautiful.
Good luck to everybody and thankyou for reading my blog. I appreciate you all.