Dodgy cables.

Hi Friends.

A very strange noise woke me in the night. It was something I had not heard in a while, so when it woke me up, I was like what the hell is that?

The noise of course was the rain, yep we had some rain over night, which is of course much needed. I am so glad I did my painting yesterday. The bow now sports a rather natty pink undercoat. I also managed to get a coat of white gloss on the boarder.

Keith reckons that it is nowhere near enough rain, probably equivalent to spitting in a cup of tea!!

He is of course right, because we do need some prolonged rain to help the farmers, fill the reservoir and keep the canals topped up, but every little drop helps. This lack of rain problem does not just affect us, it is affecting the wildlife as well.

The other day I was told by a passer-by that they had a Blackbird nesting in their garden and there were 6 chicks in the nest, but because the parents could not dig up worms, due to the ground being to hard, the chicks starved to death and the parents left the nest. The sad thing is this is going to be happening all over the country. We also have the problem of the woodland fires which have been raging, this is going to have a knock on effect to the wildlife. Many of the places which have been ravaged by fire have been historic heath and woodland, the home to rare plant life and wildlife. It has been reorted that some of the fires were started deliberately.

What person in their right mind would deliberately start a fire like that???

With rain gently falling, it is not a day for painting, so we did not hurry out of bed this morning. I infect did not get up till gone 9am which is not like me at all. With no outdoor paining on the cards other jobs were looked at. Keith wanted to re-do the radio aerial, which is not working properly due to corrosion of the old wire in the ceiling of the boat. So his plan was to put a new wire through on the inside of the boat, this meant drilling holes in the ceiling and into a cupboard. The ceiling hole went well, but when Keith drilled the hole in the bottom of the cupboard, he managed to drill through the TV aerial cable, so this then meant we had to work on that as well. No job ever seems to run smoothly when we do it and yet we are always so well prepared for any job we do. After a bit of pushing and shoving, snipping and soldering both jobs were done and the radio and TV both work fine once more, so in the end alls well that ends well. It would just be nice to have a job go right first time sometimes.

Because we are going into the dry dock on Monday and Keith wants Les to weld in a surround for an extra battery, I thought I should take down the back cabin curtains, because I don't want either of them getting grease and oil over my nice, new and clean curtains. They will go back up when all the work has been done.

With the jobs done, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. I poked my nose out of the engine room door to see a Mallard and her ducklings sitting at the stern of the boat.

Yesterday mum had been up and down the arm with her ducklings in tow after the flies skimming the surface of the water. She is very attentive to all of her brood, so I hope they will all survive.

By the time we had finished the rewiring it was time for some lunch. Having just watched the F1 qualifying for the Turkey GP, I am now going to sit and watch Ben Hur for the umptenth (not sure of spelling) time. A true classic movie, which has stood the test of time. I have a feeling this Saturday is going to be a day in front of the TV.

I hope your weekend is a happy one.

Chat soon xx