Spring is in the air!

A wonderful sight at the marina this morning - let’s hope that the rest of winter stays as mild as it has thus far - we can but live in hope!

Around the marina

When I first saw this impressive building from the top locks of the Droitwich Canal I thought it must be Hanbury Hall but on further investigation realise that it’s actually Hadzor Hall. 

It’s a private house built by English architect Mathew Habershon in 1827 for a Mr Howard Galton and the address of the newer houses you can see is Habershon Court, Galton Way, Hadzor! 

The empty side pond at lock 2.  C&RT have been monitoring the flow of water from the locks into the river Salwarpe during the heavy rains we’ve had recently.

There’s Rock ’n’ Roll down there in Droitwich Spa Marina

Looking up toward Droitwich Top Lock ...

... and its rather grand new ‘shed'

Looking down the 3 locks towards the town of Droitwich about a mile away

Droitwich Spa Marina - our mooring is at the far end on the right.

A murmuration of starlings above the marina.

A change in the weather

It started off as a lovely day this morning and I managed to wash down the front cratch canopy with a mild solution of Milton steriliser to remove the green algae; it seems to have worked well.  I left it a couple of hours to dry in the warm sunshine before spraying it with waterproofer and hoped that it would dry quickly as the sky was starting to cloud over.  

It was about 15 minutes later that it started to rain, just a bit to start with and then heavens opened ... just as I’m writing this post!  The lights are on inside and the wind, hail and rain is making a hell of a din on the roof and now its thunder and lightening!  The weather tomorrow is rain, rain, rain ... I’m so glad that we’ve nowhere to go!

In the meantime ....

...  away from Still Rockin’ ... life continues back on board Rock ’n’ Roll ...

... the cassette toilet is in and varnished.  The fit has not allowed for a door so Stuart has made a sliding hatch that works perfectly.

 Mark and Becky on the next pontoon had spoken to us about ‘George’ who visits for bread, and for the past few days these two have been visiting us so we’ve named them George and Mildred.  If we’re not in the galley they’ll walk up and down the pontoon looking for us in each window and giving us a knock - cheeky beggars!

As in lots of areas throughout the UK it was beautiful here in Droitwich on Sunday and whilst George was busy I took Molly for a walk along the canal towards the town.

This is lock 7 and to the right of the picture is the weir which flows into the River Salwarpe and at the bottom of this lock the canal joins the river which was unnavigable as the level was well into  the red board.  You may just be able to see the bridge beyond the lock under which it was flooded to about 12” - time to turn back me thinks.

That same old chestnut ...

... toilets!
When we had Rock ’n’ Roll built we chose a pump-out system but changed it about 18-months ago to a composting loo and today ...

 ... the composter has been removed and the pipes and electrics exposed ...

 ... Steve is checking out both the water and electrical connections ...

 ... prior to fitting a Thetford cassette toilet for Rock ’n’ Roll’s new owners

Stuart (Barn Owl Boats) will be back tomorrow to fit the wooden panel over the ‘back’ of the loo for the removal of the cassette and to make good the wall behind it.

Me thinks ...

 It’s going to be ...

... very cold tonight here at Droitwich Marina.

We’ve got off lightly ...

These four pictures are of areas on the Welsh coast just a few miles from where we used to live before taking to the canals! 

Aberdovey

Barmouth

 The railway line at Tywyn ...

... and the damage the storm left!

Our thoughts go out to all those who’ve been caught up in the storms over the last week or so.

 I took these two photos through the car window on our way to see Margaret and Geoff at Grindley Brook a few days ago after travelling through some pretty rotten weather on the way.

Here in Droitwich it’s certainly been much calmer, lots of wind and rain but nothing compared to the coastal areas.

... and these two I took this morning at the marina - daffodils pushing up!

I wonder what winter weather we’ll get next?

A day off ...

... from packing boxes on Friday ...

... and went to Grindley Brook to visit Margaret and Geoff.
The weather wasn’t as bad as forecast and we had a lovely time catching up with each other’s news and enjoying good company and food as usual. Sorry I forgot my camera but I’m sure Geoff won’t mind me pinching his picture taken just as we were leaving to travel back to Droitwich!

We’ve made a start ...

... on packing up on nb Rock ’n’ Roll!

No pictures or art work on the walls ... empty(isn) book shelves ... 

... one empty cupboard ... so far ...

... all now packed into boxes and put into storage ... feels very strange!

Remember the garden?

... back in August and again in October George spent a lot of time helping our son to landscape his garden.  The garden was designed by a professional who wanted an extortionate amount of money to make it a reality, so Mark (son) got together his ‘team’, father-in-law Norman (the brain), dad George and himself to do as they’re told  as the labourers with lots of help too from the rest of the family of course.

From the plan above you can see two tree shapes, one just to the left of centre (a lovely copper beech) and one in the top right -hand corner ( a Rowan/Mountain Ash). The whole design was planned using these existing trees as a base - all the straight lines of the ‘steps’ across the rise of the ground are from tree to tree.

 This is more or less how the garden was in October, you can see the lines of the steps between both the trees ... looking towards the top of the garden and then towards the house.

 Apart from the decking and pergola that will be next to the Rowan tree, there was ‘just’ the patio to lay and the ‘team’ got together on Thursday (26th Dec).  Norman and Mark have been making progress on the patio on Mark’s days off so after the lovely family Christmas the final ‘push’ was made.

The Rowan tree in early August as the work commenced.

Friday morning was forecast to be wet and if it was, we would leave Marks and return home to RnR, but surprisingly the forecast was wrong so we stayed so that George could help with more paving.

Whilst this was going on I was in the bedroom packing our bags ready to leave later when I heard ‘concerned’ voices outside ... Ange had been watching the workers through the patio doors when she noticed that the the wind was blowing the Rowan ‘wrong’.  Instead of the branches moving, the whole tree was being swayed by the wind.  Mark went to investigate and found a crack low down in the trunk and it was also rotting away ... what to do? Can’t ignore it, it may come down on the new wall and do some damage to cars parked behind ...

So ... it has to come down ... Ange is gutted!

Mark is doing the cutting in the tree, a rope has been found to guide each branch as it’s cut and George will hold the ladder and remove the fallen branches

(sorry about the quality of the pictures - phone camera and strong sunshine)

Once most of the upper, smaller branches have been removed it’s time for the chain saw ...

 ... the trunk has a V in it at about Mark’s head height so the part facing into the garden is removed ...

... that done the remainder of the tree is cut down to a safe height and work on the patio resumes ...

The pictures above and below were taken on Saturday (we left late Friday afternoon) ...

... and it’s finished.  The patio looks great!

Because the (current) Rowan tree is no longer, the ground at the top of the garden can be lowered a little more so that the step onto the decking will be less, so that’s one good thing to come out of the disappointment and hopefully the tree will be replaced in the new year by a sapling Rowan since it was such an integral piece of the whole garden design.