Day 96: Boat painting, moving and strimming.

Dear family, friends and followers.

Have you noticed that because it has been so much quieter of late the birds are singing louder, or rather we can now hear them?
Well as I have said before we have road works going on outside of the Arm. It is all part of the Stanks Island road works and yesterday and today, they have been drowning out the birdsong with their jack hammers. It was so bad yesterday there was no way I could of sat outside.
Yesterday I got on with some strimming work in the Arm, as we fight to keep the weeds at bay and the grass cut. At the moment it is a battle which is being lost in the weed department. I can keep on top of the weeds in our garden, but doing the whole site, there is not a chance. Anyway I will do my best to help out where and when I can. If all else fails I have the strimmer.
I sat in the car park for a couple of hours waiting for a delivery from Argos. When we arrived home for the lockdown phase of the virus our electric kettle decided it was a very good time to die. I thought we would manage with our little travel kettle, but it takes too long to boil, so Keith suggested we order a new one from Argos. Yesterday was the day of its arrival. The delivery slot was from 2pm to 6pm originally, this got cut down to 2.45pm to 4.45pm. They were supposed to e-mail or text us when they were close, but knowing what delivery companies are like, I thought they would probably not bother, so I sat out in the car park and waited. I was chuffed that I only had to wait till 3.30pm. The delivery driver dropped the parcel (not literally) outside of the gate for me and whilst he drove off, I retrieved the kettle, which I am glad to say works brilliantly and is a darn sight quicker than our travel kettle.
I helped one of our vulnerable moorers with their shopping delivery. We have a number of vulnerable boaters here at the moment and moorers of a mature age. I think I am one of the youngest moorers in the Arm at the moment. I know I am certainly the youngest of our residential moorers.

After what was a busy day, it was nice to have a relaxing evening, in front of the TV. 

This morning we were woken up by the roadworks guys, banging and crashing around with their tools. We had our morning cuppa before getting up to wall to wall sunshine. 

One of my first jobs of the day, was to top coat some of the paintwork, I have been working on over the past few days. I am not a professional painter, so I would not want anyone looking to close at my paintwork, but I do like to make a good job of it and I am pleased with how it has turned out so far. It at least keeps the boat nice and tidy. Because of the lockdown a lot of boating friends are painting their boats. I have visions of very tidy and shiny boats on the canal when this lockdown is over and we all go cruising again. 

After lunch, we reversed out of the Arm, winded the boat and reversed the boat back into her mooring, so that I can do the paintwork on the other side. I know I have a bit more work to do on this side, so we may be moored this way round for a while. This is how we used to be moored on our old mooring, so I must remember to get off the boat on the right side. The reason we have not moored this way on our new mooring before is because the pump out shed is right by the stern of the boat and we know it can smell at times. But because I want to do the paintwork we will manage. If we find it is not smelly at all, we may well stay this way around. Watch this space to see what happens. Of course at the moment we are not doing many pump outs, due to the lockdown. With the heat of the day in full swing, I took the decision to not do any more painting today. I will make a start again tomorrow, when it is cooler in the morning. Instead I went out with my strimmer, to finish off what I had started yesterday and to strim some grass for a fellow boater along side their boat. With my good turn done for the day, it was back to the boat and a much needed coffee, which Keith very kindly made for me.

A lovely day and a lot done. Tomorrow the painting will begin.

Pop back soon xxx