Quick blast at 2 degrees!

The time had come to give the 4/4 another winter's drive.

It was a gloriously sunny morning although extremely cold and there had been a hard frost overnight, but I knew that cosily cocooned in the cockpit with the heater going full blast I would be beautifully warm.

With my ice-axe I chipped my way into the garage ( I'm lying!), took off the dust cover, switched off the battery charger, which is one of those that you can leave permanently connected, and fired up the car. At this point I would normally have removed the hood, but at these low temperatures highly unadvisable, unless you are prepared for cracked vinyl or rear window. 

Cleveleys promenade with the Lakeland hills in the distance.

So having done my usual shunting manoeuvre with the Volvo V70, that incidentally achieved 52.2mpg at between 60 and 65 mph over 179 miles the other day (accurately calculated), I reversed the Morgan out and set off on my little drive, initially with the hood up and the heater on. 

The fabulous weather drew me to the coast and the Fylde Coast resort of Cleveleys, where I parked on the recently developed promenade, to take some photos of the car and scenery. Falling out of the car on to the tarmac, (exiting gracefully is always difficult with the hood up), I was met by my beautiful niece Sarah and her partner George, plus the new addition to their family, a little black thing with four legs that they just happened to be exercising on the prom.

Yours truly!

Having confirmed that the warm plastic bags that  most dog owners now carry, and which contain  particularly unpleasant deposits, were safely enclosed in George's pocket, I had the audacity to ask if they would mind taking my picture with the car.

These are priceless occasions because as the chief photographer in our house there are very few images of yours truly and I know that after I have shed this mortal coil everyone will be searching high and low for a photo of  boring old pater! Plenty of pictures of wife and grandchildren, but dad no, so I leapt at the opportunity.

Well warmed after the journey, the hood was taken down and the photo taken for posterity. We said our farewells and I headed home, remarkably warm in the open air, after yet another special winter's drive.