Bits and bobs of progress

Do you like our new clock for Herbie's bedroom? We bought it at the Wendover Arm festival last month. It matches the larger one in the saloon in that it measures time in pounds per square inch! They are made by a man on narrowboat Cypress who moors at Cowroast on the Grand Union. We haven't decided exactly where on the wall to screw it yet so here you see it rested on a shelf.

We took our cratch cover up to AJ Canopies at Braunston to have rips patched and zips mended and stayed overnight with Rick and Marilyn while it was being done. Rick has made us a nice bracket for Herbie's headlamp and also gave us two specially modified bright yellow tennis balls which will clip over the tops of our mooring stakes to warn passers by on the towpath and save their shins. He also gave us a boat hook salvaged from the Rochdale canal. What a fine fellow!

The cost of the canopy repair was £130. Ouch! What's more the patches are quite a bright blue over our older faded and darkened blue . Better if they'd used black or grey.

While we were waiting in Braunston, we dropped into Tradline Rope and Fenders. A whole shop full of ropes, fenders, shackles etc of every conceivable type. They had a special offer on ropes so we did what we have planned for a long time and bought a set of four black ropes (fore, aft and two middle). Our old ones were pretty tatty.

Also in Braunston, we spotted this boat passing through the lock outside the Admiral Nelson pub (yes, we did have a pint of Black Sheep) and we were taken by the panels either side of the rear door. The lady said them came from an old cast iron fireplace surround. Nice idea.

Thias morning we took the chance to give the cratch canopy a good scrub while it was off the boat. Here it is drying inside out on our conservatory floor.
Apparently a new one costs about £800 which includes two visits to your boat to measure and to fit. That's on top of the wooden frame and front window which costs at least the same again. Ours came with the boat I'm glad to say!

Unless the weather is awful this weekend ( a distinct possibility), we plan to meet up with Sandra and Graham (who we met at the end of our may trip) on their boat Shallmar and accompany them on Herbie from Bulls' Bridge down to Brentford where they are due to go out onto the Thames. They had invited us to join them on the Thames too but I don't think we can fit it in at the moment. With all the recent storms the Thames might be running pretty full I would think.