Sunday at Braidbar

It's been another day much like yesterday, with a very relaxed start and much pottering about. I wandered down to the first Co-op store to get a paper, and dropped off some recycling at the tip as I passed. Back at the yard, we got in some more gardening; the approach to the yard is beginning to look quite presentable.

Then we went and had a coffee on New Dawn with Bill and Eileen. We took Eileen a collection of red and blue tee shirts which were surplus to requirements, as she's taken up rag rug making and Bill was beginning to worry about his clothes all disappearing to make the rags.

After lunch, a bit more was done around the yard, and we found a couple of people peering in through the portholes of Dolce Far Niente, so we told them about the Open Day. They seemed semi serious about buying a boat, so I showed them over Islay, which is coming on the market at the end of this season if no one buys the spec boat first.

Islay was a bit longer and a bit newer than they wanted, but by great good fortune, Graham and Beryl turned up just then; they'll be selling Priscilla this time next year, as they are having a new Braidbar built. Priscilla is 52' and 12 years old, so much more the kind of thing our punters were looking for.

No sooner had all this finished than Stephen and Jayne turned up, and the afternoon was soon slipping by once more, with Bill in attendance as well.

Not much more to say, really, except to mention that if you want to argue for a proper enquiry into the HS2 high speed rail proposals, there's another petition you need to sign, the Government having announced that the original one wasn't adequate. To quote Des Barnard of Farne on the subject:

Please could I encourage as many of you as possible to sign this petition against the construction of the proposed HS2 rail line. If built, it will severely affect some of the most peaceful stretches of the canal network, including the remotest sections of the South Oxford and the Trent & Mersey above Fradley, not to mention the fact that it will pass over the end of our moorings at Lichfield Cruising Club. The whole project is being pushed through without any proper Public Enquiry, and the consultation exercise that has been undertaken is widely seen as just a slick PR stunt rather than an attempt to listen to genuine concerns. The fact that they have now changed the rules relating to petitions seems to be just another example of this government making up the rules to suit themselves!

The petition is here.