Woodcutting and company

We failed to spot the kingfisher on our morning walk today, Mags thinks he may have been having a lie-in…
We did have a look under Perry Aqueduct, though. Often, canal aqueducts are far more interesting architecturally from below than above, but not so in this case. The modern construction is a steel trough supported on concrete abutments.

Perry Aqueduct from below

Does the job, though.

Before we moved the short distance to the Weston Arm this morning,  had some wood to cut…

Yesterday’s foraged haul was converted from this….

….to this in about 30 minutes.Ah, the joys of chainsaws.

I chose an electric one, not wanting the worry of carrying petrol on board. There are limitations, of course. The engine has to be running to power the inverter else the batteries would discharge pretty quickly, and you can’t work further away from the boat than the length of the lead (plus however many extension leads you can cobble together…). I save the old gearbox oil when I change it for lubrication.

I split maybe a third of the heap to store in the cratch for ready use, the rest went back onto the roof.
It was close to midday when we set off, just a glimpse of the low sun visible through the thinning cloud brightening the day.

Heading towards Graham Palmer Lock

Up the lock, all 18” of it.

Now that’s what I call a bird-box!

We came around the corner under Lockgate Bridge and were surprised to see two boats moored on the arm.

So we weren’t alone down here after all!

We turned around and reversed to moor on the arm opposite and just beyond the green boat in the distance.

We can have another lazy start in the morning, we’re 5 minutes from the bottom of the Frankton Locks, and are meeting the lockie at 12 noon.

Mags took a picture of me for a change after we got sorted….

Two beardies for the price of one!

Locks 1, miles 1