Bartimaeus

With no cruising planned for the weekend, Shane felt his excuses for putting off the next design project had run out and all the supplies he needed were an accessible walking distance away. They were only open until 12 so the morning’s constitutional was to Travis Perkins. I have never been so went along to see what all the fuss was about. Shane was happy with his purchase and cut the wood to size for ease of carrying, especially in the wind. I would have taken a photo but I was holding the other end.

Apologies for the faded pictures but I had the camera that prefers low light with me. One bright item I saw which I hadn’t seen before that stood out in a dull background was this container.

Near the canal I saw a pastel coloured mural, which attracted my attention. It reminded me of the sort of thing that would be created at Woodcraft Folk event, with which I was so heavily involved when the boys were young, both the values and the tree symbol. I remember so many craft activities, social justice, nature and co-operation activities. I especially enjoyed these at camps. 

As we returned to the canal, we came across a lone boatman at a lock. He was having difficulty moving his boat, having got the gate stuck against the bow. He seemed to have sorted the issue by the time we got there but was grateful of the offer that we could close the gates for him after he had driven out. The lock was under a bridge with a sloping roof so I went across the lock to the lower side, since Shane was handicapped by his swaying stock of wood. Even on a day when we were not moving, we were still able to benefit from the canal life of pleasant casual exchanges with other boaters. We also continue to see the activities of the water birds. We watched geese ducks and swans getting in a flap over a pile of bread a man threw down from the footbridge.

Back at the boat we lunched then spent a frustrating hour and a half trying to change over to a new phone supplier. With  a very slow website and badly made up forms and procedures, I was relieved that I was relaxed and chilled at the start, otherwise I would have been totally infuriated with it. The process is not yet complete but progress has been made. By the time we had gone as far as we could with that, Shane felt that another walk was in order before the light went. This time we went in the opposite direction, through the park and into a wooded area.

The wooded area took us to the back of the hospital grounds. We walked through to the front entrance and were able to do a circular walk as is Shane’s wont. There was rather a rainbow colour theme around the entrance, a rainbow flag, some perspex covered passageways and the logo of the trust.

The plan is to make shelves for the kitchen for items currently filling the work surface. In the meantime the stock of wood is taking space on the floor.  We have spent some time planning the shelving today. Shane might begin his own wood craft activity soon.