Paint jobs and nattering.

Hi Friends.

Another weekend and yet another change in the weather. Overnight the temperature had dropped to below -3 C, so we woke to a frosty morning. Because the night was so clear, I got a lovely photograph of The Foxton Locks Inn at night.

With all the usual morning jobs out of the way yesterday, it was time for the us to repaint the Blue on Hadar. After a frosty start, it was followed by the warm sunshine, so the conditions were right to make a start on repainting the blue in the correct shade, Lauderdale Blue. Now I should say that when Tina our painter painted our boat, she did a fabulous job and we chose the Blue she is painted in now, but once the boat came out of the boat shed we realised the Blue we had chosen was way to light and although we have liked it for the past 4 years, it is now time to change it to the correct Blue which is Lauderdale Blue. So for a while if you see her she may be sporting two differents shades of Blue lol. AlreaI am already in love with the new Blue. I also painted the forward bulkhead which had been painted in the lighter Blue, but we have decided to change it to red oxide as can be seen in the photo. At the time of Hadar's original painting Keith could not decide which way to go and opted for the Blue, which upon reflection, was the wrong decision. Having changed one side yesterday it already looks much better. It also means where we have the rings on the bulkhead rails, the damage and rust won't show up so much. Also in the photo can be seen the pigeon box and the further cross beam in the new Blue, which looks great, even if I do say so myself. Having done all of the painting jobs for the day we then got chatting to lots of passers-by, who were visiting the locks for the day. By the time the afternoon crept into the evening, I was feeling everso slightly cream crackered, so after tea we sat down to watch the TV and Keith fell asleep. By the time it got to 9pm I was ready for my bed, so going to the pub was out of the question. We were both in bed at 9.30pm and I do not remember a thing after that.

This morning (Sunday), there was no frost, just a dull start to the day with spots of rain, so painting looked out of the question today. But as the morning wore on the sun began to come out, soKeith restarted the 1st of his new water cans, he has begun to sign write the name on the front. He then started the 2nd one with the 1st coat of primer. We have donated the 2 old ones to the Foxton Canal Museum. I got on with painting another coat of Lauderdale Blue on the pigeon box, swan neck and cross beam, which is now drying. I then turned my attention to a new mop handle, which was a freebie out of the hedge. After a coat of White primer/undercoat, it is looking great. I am not one to throw things away, so the old one which I broke when we had the freeze, had the handle shortened. We then spent 15 minutes getting the mop head off the broken part of the handle. The head has now been re-united with the other half of the handle, giving us a shorter mop which is ideal for the gunwales. I do want to make a tradition mip head, but need to find an old woollen blanket, so that job is on hold at the moment.

The locks have been busy again today and we have spent a lot of the afternoon nattering to folk. I also spent time chatting to Ann and Steve on NB Fox, which is only a short boat, but has a huge amount of character. I so love this life where I get to chat to loads of people I would probably never normally meet. This also includes you lovely people who read my blog and send me e-mails, so thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Chat soon xx.