Up on the roof.

Oh joy of joys we have sunshine and not just one day of it, but a whole week yippee.

This means it is good painting weather as far as I am concerned, and so this the roof which has not been painted for two years will get a couple of new coats of paint. I had rubbed it down during last evening, so it would be ready for some paint.

Up with the lark and before the heat of the day set in, I wanted to rub the roof down on the back cabin, but it was covered in an early morning dew, so before anything else I wipe the roof off with a cloth and allowed it to dry whilst I took Paddy for his morning walk. Where we are moored it is so quiet and no other boats, so Paddy was allowed to jump off the boat and run along the towpath without a lead. This he did with gay abandon, until he realised I was not in sight and so he did an about turn to find me. Paddy hates it when he cannot see either Keith or I. On getting back to the boat, the roof was almost dry, so I gathered together brushes and the paint, which we have been using for the past five years and we still have a quarter of a tin left, which is just as well because the company that made it does not exist anymore, so I lovingly look after the remainder of the paint so it lasts. As the last of the dew evaporated away, I got on with putting the first coat of varnish on the galley doors, so they had all day to dry, the tin said 16 to 24 hours drying time, which seems like a long time to me, but hey what do I know. At last I could get on to the roof and start painting from the engine room back towards the back cabin doors. I do so love it when it is first painted and no I am not one of those people who likes her paintwork perfect. I just like a tidy boat and for it to look nice. After all when you spend a lot of money on something and it is your home you want to keep it in good fettle. All the varnishing and the roof was done by 9.40am, just as the sun was coming over the hedge. I then turned my attention to the bow, which had been painted whilst we were in dry dock, but Keith had managed to knock chunks of the red paint off, so I rubbed it down and undercoated the bald patches ready for some gloss during the afternoon. The varnish was dry by lunchtime to the touch, but I will put another coat on tomorrow. All in all it was a good mornings work and it left me the afternoon to soak up the sunshine. Whilst I got on with the painting, Keith was also busy. He mad the brackets for the solar panel, so now we can tilt it up and down to point it in the direction of the sun and he made up a new fireman’s hose for the cratch board as our old one had perished.

After lunch Paddy and Marmite were allowed out on to the towpath, where they joined me in lounging in the sunshine. By 4pm I felt like I was cooked enough and as I did not want to burn, I called it day outside and went in to the cool saloon to catch up on correspondence. Tomorrow is going to be another painting day, as everything gets second coated.