Hi everyone.
How are you all coping with this hot dry weather?
Our garden is looking rather fried. I am not using a hosepipe on it and am only using water from washing up for our pots. I do fill the bird bath from the canal, but have not used canal water on the garden, because right now the canals are also suffering in this heatwave as the forecasters have put it. The northern canals are shut at the moment due to a lack of water.
I feel we should all do what we can to help CRT at this difficult time. There are lock restrictions further South, which is going to mess up a lot of peoples boating holidays sadly. In a way I am glad we are on our mooring. The Grand Union Canal at the moment is doing fine for water, but not sure how much longer that will remain the case. I guess we will have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I have been very busy helping at the stables. I usually do two mornings a week when not boating, but the owner had a serious carriage driving accident just under a week ago and is in hospital at the moment. We have no idea for how long, and so I am helping her husband with the stables, so it frees him up to check on their other two sites where they have ponies. A lot of the ponies are out to grass at the moment and on hollibobs, so we only have four in the stables, but there is still plenty to do. Only this morning, I was mucking out one of the stables and getting it ready for the Autumn, when the ponies will be back in. There is always something which needs doing. Due to the carriage accident all events we were supposed to be going to have had to be cancelled, which is a shame for people expecting to see us, but there is nothing we can do about it and health must come first. Not only that with the temperatures rising, it was likely we would cancel some events for the sake of the ponies.
Once we have cleaned out all of the stables, we will be painting the outsides with wood preserver ready for the Winter weather and we have to de-cobweb as well. I am definitely going to be wearing a hat and long sleeves for that job.
If I seem a little quiet on here, it is because I am doing more and more at the stables. I have a lot of boat jobs to do as well, but with the heat it has not been possible to do any painting.
Keith however has been able to get on with painting two new water cans. One we bought and one was gifted to us by a dear friend.
Insides primered and then the outsides were done.
Red undercoated and then he did a first red gloss.
This is how they look today. He has done a first coat of Blue, before he goes back to the Red again for a second coat. They will look lovely when finished.
We, had hoped that Keith was being seen by his consultant at the end of July, but the appointment got cancelled. He has another for August, so we will see if that one is kept or again cancelled. A lot depends on what happens at the appoint, because we want to go out boating again. Of course that will be water level dependant. If it all goes belly up, then I will still be kept busy at the stables. I really want the hospital to sort Keith's pain out and to get him sorted out. This has now been going on since his Hernia repair in January. I will keep you posted.
I will hopefully post again soon. In the meantime, stay safe out there.
Pop back soon x
