Bartimaeus

Yesterday’s wasp sting has left my leg swollen and a little painful today.  Clare wanted to get on with her knitting and we had no pressing engagements so we decided we could manage to stay where we were for the day.  We’ll probably need to forage for at least bread and milk tomorrow, and might do so by taking the boat to Lancaster, which will also charge up the batteries.

So with nothing better to do I set about demolishing the cupboard in the saloon. This is one bit of the boat that was never to my liking.  I don’t want the telly at head height dominating the whole room, so I had always planned to remodel the cupboard to bring the telly lower down – and preferably hidden when not in use.

So I’ve spent most of the day undoing the dozens of screws that held the whole thing together, and the tiny number that held it in place.  I needed to use power tools on two screws, and a saw to release the cables that had been threaded through a hole and then wired up.

The saloon is now full of the debris, but pleasingly the floor and walls are almost complete behind with the exception of a short length of skirting board.  We have made very little use of this space so far.  If we ever get our sofa that will change.  Most of the pieces can be stored in the bow locker until I decide if any of it is useful.

The grand plan is to build a cupboard that can hold the (split) tandem.  I hope it will also be capable of stashing a number of other things that need temporary homes, such as seat cushions, windows and table tops.

Once I’d had enough of demolition, we went for a short circular walk to investigate a bridleway we found on Sunday but I chose to avoid.

From the top of the lane, it looks like the track goes straight in to the river.  When you get there it turns out there is a narrow arched stone footbridge. Fortunately no jobs-worth has yet thought to add a “Cyclists Dismount” sign to it.

On our return my leg was more swollen, though no more painful.  I’ve put one side of the dinette in to chaise longue mode with extra cushions to lift my foot up.  I’m not going to demolish the dinette.