Ten reasons why January sucks

I am fed up with January. I know there are only two days to go, but it all feels to have been pretty miserable. Here are ten reasons that this of all months sucks.

  1. It is so dark. I know I could buy vitamin D tablets to replace the sunshine, but I just miss the sun. Getting up in the dark, afternoons in the dark. I crave daylight.
  2. It is so wet. I actually feel like it has not stopped raining since September. Driving back from the hotel we stayed in last week, the roads were flooded and the rain was torrential.
  3. It is so cold. Strange because I used to like cold weather. I miss going skiing for instance. But this year the cold seems to have got into my bones.
  4. No fruit or veg is in season. I like fresh food, and this is the worst month. Even the Christmas sprouts have finished. You can get parsnips, potatoes, carrots and apples and that is about it.
  5. The canals are closed. I appreciate this one is very personal to me but I want to get out and about again. Next week we will go down to Narrowboat Thuis for a week or so, but we will probably have to stay in the marina because most canals are closed due to winter maintenance.
  6. It is so muddy. Many of the walks I like for the dogs have become quagmires. It is cold but not cold enough to freeze the ground. Miserable.
  7. There is so much salt on the roads. I am not precious about my car but I do like to see out of the windows. One short drive in January and it is covered in salt and dirt.
  8. So many things are closed. I love to visit a stately home. I love to go on a steam train. I keep looking for things to do to cheer me up but I keep bumping into “open at Easter” messages.
  9. It is twelve months till Christmas. I think I love the festive season the most, but in a flash it is over and we are back to the grind of endless January.
  10. It is still so dark.

On the plus side, we are going down to Brighton this weekend to see our son and fiancée acting in their or local village pantomime. Maybe that will brighten my mood. Oh no it won’t.

January. Bah humbug.

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What is it like to stay in a cottage in a hotel?

I have written in previous blogs about our favourite hotel – Swinton Park in North Yorkshire. We have stayed at least once a year since it opened in 2001. Indeed, I once stayed in 1989, long before it was a hotel. It used to be a training college and I was sent on one of those team building courses that were all the rage in the ‘80s; mixing team theory with raft building and high rope walks.

What we have always liked about Swinton is the mix of relaxation and luxury. I am writing this in the Drawing Room, with lots of comfy sofas, a piano playing, and a log fire. You don’t get that in a Premier Inn.

This year we are trying something different. As well as the hotel rooms, ranging from cozy to massive suites, they now have cottages you can rent. And in January they do amazing offers, with prices about a third of rack rate. So we are staying in High Swinton Cottage for three nights, over Mandy’s birthday. It has a comfortable lounge, a dining room and a large stone kitchen.

It has the benefits of self catering where we have our own space, but still being next to the hotel we can easily use the facilities here. Mandy has a massage booked this afternoon, and we are having a fancy meal in the restaurant tonight. Tomorrow, we are seeing a birds of prey display, taking afternoon tea, and wandering along a winter light trail through the very large grounds.

But I am finding it a little strange. Sitting here in the hotel, I feel like an interloper, and when I am in the cottage it is not quite the luxury of the hotel. I think it would have been better if we were sharing with friends or family but with last minute booking we could not make that work this time.

I know what Mandy would say. I am sweating the small stuff instead of enjoying the visit. We are so lucky to have these choices. It is a great way to be retired. So I will just look out of the Drawing Room window to see the deer and the pheasants. I will listen to the automatic pianist playing themes from the shows. I will put another log on the fire. And I will try my very best to enjoy the moment instead of worrying about what comes next.

I find that so hard.

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Why am I only walking one dog?

We have two eleven year old cairn terriers, Ziggy and Lulu. Ever since they were puppies we have loved going for walks together. We have done some pretty strenuous walks including parts of the West Highland and Southern Upland Ways. They always had so much more energy than me, running up ahead and then coming back as we walked. Unfortunately Ziggy now has multiple cancers and it has reached the stage where I can only take Lulu for walks.

Ziggy doesn’t like it. She has a strong fear of missing out, and looks at me with her big brown eyes when I leave her at the door. Lulu doesn’t like it. She shouts at me that I have forgotten her sister, and she misses her playmate on the beach. And I don’t like it. I miss my companion, with her gangling gait and “at heel” loyalty.

But even taking her down the road to the village green is becoming too much. She just needs to be at home, in the warm, mostly sleeping. It is a sad situation.

But I should celebrate that she is still with us. She was given three months to live a year and a half ago, and she still welcomes me with a wagging tail when I get her up in the morning. And when she has gone it will be even tougher for Lulu. She isn’t the sharpest of dogs and will not understand.

But for now I will make the most of my walks with Lulu, and my time with Ziggy, cuddling her and giving her sausages.

Sorry for a downbeat blog this week. I’ll get back to my usual “everything is awesome” next week.

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Are jigsaws a waste of time?

My wife likes to do jigsaw puzzles. My mum also enjoys them, though she can only do 500 piece ones these days. I quite like the cartoon ones but I have always found jigsaws a bit of a waste of time. Surely I could be doing something more productive than moving bits of cardboard around a table.

This week I have really been enjoying building this space shuttle jigsaw. It is three dimensional and built of wood, so feels more like a model than a toy but it is still a jigsaw. It was a secret Santa present so I felt obligated to build it. I am glad I did because it felt like a real achievement to complete it.

So is doing a jigsaw a waste of time? Have I been wasting my time? Maybe I have but I have also been watching TV this week and how productive is that? And I have read the latest Rory Stewart book, which was also given to me at Christmas. For some reason, reading does not feel like a waste of time, but what good does it really do?

Also I am very aware of Mandy reminding me that we are retired and entitled to relax.

So will I start doing more jigsaws?

Probably not. They are a waste of time.

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It’s looking like it’s going to be a wonderful new year

We are staying for a few days with our eldest son Robbie, and his partner Alessa, in their swanky house on the South Downs. I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunrise.

We really are blessed to live in such a stunning country. Whether we are living on Narrowboat Thuis, or in bricks & mortar houses, there are few countries like the UK. I spent much of 2025 grumbling about the weather. When we were on the boat in the summer, it was sometimes so very hot. The canals dried up and became unnavigable. From September to December it felt like the rain never let up. The ground in some areas became like a marsh.

But on crisp, cold, clear mornings like today I could not wish for a better place to live. And having Christmas with one son and New year with the other, both with their wonderful girlfriends has been such a privilege. I am a very lucky chap.

I think it is a sign for me in 2026. My New Year’s resolution is not to complain about the weather or other challenges and what they are stopping me doing. Instead I will enjoy the moment and what it allows me to do.

A very very happy new year to you and your family.

Pete

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Who needs a plan for Christmas?

I am writing this on Christmas Eve. I am looking forward to the big day tomorrow. Christmas has always been my favourite time of year. I have such happy memories of when the boys were growing up. I would plan the day practically to the second. I would go to the midnight service at our local church and then come back to help Santa fill the stockings and eat the mince pie and carrot. At 0630 the boys could come into our room and open their stockings. Then breakfast at 0730, family presents at 0830 and a walk before lunch at 1300. The rest of the presents were at 1430 and then the Queen’s broadcast at 1500, followed by charades and a little more TV.

As the family grew up I have had to learn to be more relaxed about the plan. This year our youngest Martin and his girlfriend Cheryl are joining us. They have been under a lot of stress lately and they have asked for a lie in tomorrow, before a brunch and a late lunch. I have tried hard to accommodate this chilled approach to Christmas Day, but as it has got closer the lack of a plan has begun to get to me. So I have made a plan on a spreadsheet for our relaxed Christmas Day.

Just having this plan has made me feel better about the day. Mandy, Cheryl and Martin can stay in bed, while I complete the prep and then they can join me.

I know what you are thinking. What if others do not follow my plan? For instance what happens if they are not up for the 10am brunch? Well that is OK too. I know that if I complete everything on the plan in the right order, it will all come together. I can flex the times if I have too. Even better, because it is on a spreadsheet, I can adjust everything.

A happy Christmas for Pete is a well organised Christmas. A happy Christmas for others is an unstressed relaxed Christmas. All I need to achieve both – is a plan.

I hope you had a wonderful day and are enjoying the festive season. A very merry Christmas to you all.

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Why am I so excited about new canal books?

This week I received.a package in the post. It contained not a Christmas present, but four books with maps and routes of the canal network in the UK.

Narrowboaters have many options for navigating these days. We use a website called CanalPlan AC and an app called OpenCanalMap. But most boaters also like to read the guides. Some use the ones from Pearsons, but we prefer the originals – the Nicholsons. They have good maps of the routes, helpful lists of pubs and places to visit, and honest descriptions of the towns and villages on the route.

I also have a personal connection to the Nicholsons because one of my friends is the main author, Jonathan Mosse. I met him about ten years ago at a barbecue for narrowboaters in Scotland. He lent us a long chain for an anchor when we travelled the tidal river Clyde. And since we have been in England we have used our Nicholsons to navigate the huge network of rivers ad canals across the country.

Once a year I let Jonathan know all the changes and edits we have found in the books. Perhaps a pub has closed. Perhaps a bridge is incorrectly numbered. Perhaps we have discovered a wonderful new cafê. In return he sometimes sends me new editions, and that was what I received this week. In fact, guides 2 and 3 have not even been published yet. They come out in February but Jonathan has got me early copies.

We have been living in bricks and mortar houses since October, albeit with six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. I am itching to be back on Narrowboat Thuis. We won’t get properly going till March but perhaps we can get a week or two on the boat while it is moored in the Marina. Maybe New Year in our Narrowboat, with me, Mandy, the dogs and reading my new books. Sounds good to me.

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How do I find pictures of ancestors?

Most of us take thousands of photos each year with our phones. It is a long way from when I was growing up and I had a very old camera that only took black and white film. Each photograph was carefully chosen and then I had to wait till the film was used up before taking it to a chemist and waiting a couple of weeks to find out if any of the pictures had come out, or if they were out of focus or had my finger in front of the lens.

I have mentioned before that I like to study family history, and one of the challenges I have found is old photographs. My cousin Pat and I have lots of old pictures of family but most of them have no names and we struggle to work out who they are. The best we can do is to try to look for matches. For instance, I think that this photograph is my great great aunt Elizabeth Capener.

But Pat has this photo about 30 years later. Is it the same person?

For a long time I have worried that the massive photo collections we now have will be even harder to collate once we are gone. Photos are no longer special to us so although they have many meta tags on things like place and time, they don’t know who the people are.

I downloaded IOS 26 on my iPhone this week, and it is full of the latest AI tools. It can turn any photograph into a 3D image. It can create panoramas by merging photos. And it has the security of really good facial recognition. So the technology for matching faces is out there. But without being a professional developer I have not found an app that does it for me. Is there one?

Either way, such tools are coming, and I think that family historians will have an easier time in future. Or maybe we will simply be redundant when a bot just does all the work for us.

Anyway, are these photos Elizabeth? What do you think?

EDIT I have just used ChatGPT and it has done an incredible job matching the photos, pointing out things like the left eyelids being slightly droopy and the deep set eyes with identical spacing. They are likely to be the same person. Hello great great aunt Elizabeth!

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Tidy Garage, Tidy Mind

I don’t like clutter. Never have. That is why when we moved house a year ago I was so quick to unpack boxes and find the right place for everything. Within a week the house was basically sorted although an awful lot of stuff went to charity shops or the tip. The one area where I failed to tidy was the garage. For quite a while it was jammed full of boxes.

In the spring I finally went through every box and threw a lot more stuff out. But as I emptied the boxes, my garage itself became a bit of a tip and I have become increasingly frustrated through the year as I couldn’t find anything. Well this week I finally got around to putting up some shelves and tidying.

There is a good and a bad in this. The good is that I can now find whatever I need. The bad is that I have become obsessive about maintaining the tidy garage. I found myself telling Mandy that she can only put things in there after consulting me. I mean – it’s a garage!

I think my ridiculous behaviour is a mental thing. When things are well organised I feel under control. When things are messy it just feels wrong. I can cope with a disorganised garage by closing the door but eventually it has to be sorted. That is just the way it should be.

I see that Wes Streeting is saying this week that the NHS is over-diagnosing Autism and ADHD. I am not sure that over-diagnosing is the problem. The thing that costs money is over-treating. People like me with unusual ways of thinking are OK with no treatment. Because even though sometimes I have ridiculous ways of thinking, I quite like them.

And garages should be tidy.

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What will I want when I am 90?

It was my Mum’s 90th birthday last week. When I asked her back in February what she wanted to do to celebrate, her answer was that she was not sure we should organise anything because she might well not be with us. She was not being grumpy or sarcastic, simply practical. Fortunately we paid no attention and with my siblings and Mum, we organised a wonderful party on Saturday.

It was just immediate family and a few friends, and was for less than three hours, but it was a really lovely occasion. I think everyone got to talk to everyone else, and in particular my Mum was made to feel very special.

It made me think what I would want when I am 90.

I wouldn’t need more “stuff”. That’s for certain. I spent the first 60 years of my life acquiring things I didn’t really need. By 90 they would be even less important.

I would like to be compos mentis. We lost my Dad to Alzheimer’s a few years ago and I hated the decline. I’d also like to be physically fit. Mum struggles with mobility but can still cope independently. I’d like that.

But if I can’t have those – indeed if I can’t even live that long it would be OK. I’d like to be able to look back on my life and say it was a life well lived. I’d like my children to be happy. I’d like Mandy to have remained the bedrock of my life. I’d like to have been a good person.

I think my Mum can say she has achieved all of these and more. Hopefully she has many more years to go, but it has been a good life and it I feel lucky to have been able to celebrate with her.

I’d also like a party.

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