Bobbing along with the trees

We’ve spent a couple of hours today tidying up the trees on both sides of the path leading from Facilities Block 1 to Grebe pontoon where we moor. The long term aim is to create an over-arching effect but it will take a bit longer yet for the trees to get tall enough to do it.

In the meantime, they benefitted from some pruning to keep the path open, attention to their supports and cleaning up the bases, removing the grass from the immediate area to keep the nasties from attacking the bark. Several of the larger trees no longer needed stakes and rubber ties; indeed in some cases the tree was pulling the stake out of the ground, the tie having jammed on the trunk.

It all looks a lot better now; it wasn’t quite finished by lunchtime, so we’ll give it a bit more time next week. The session was co-ordinated by Bob, the liaison person for the Friends of Mercia (aka the Bobalongs as we work alongside Bob).

After a well deserved rest and lunch (and, in some cases, a doze), we took a walk round the marina in deteriorating conditions; it had been very pleasant this morning, but a chilly wind sprang up in the afternoon.

We popped into Midland Chandlers to see if they had any nets of kindling in, but no luck; they’ve not had any now since before Christmas. Instead, we had a very pleasant chat with Graham and his colleague in there, ranging from the causes of water collecting in the bilge to tales of former moorers.

Finally tearing ourselves away, we went into the office for another electricity meter card and into the Still Waters shop for one of their small bags of kindling. It’s perfectly adequate, but more expensive than the MC stuff and of a greater consistency of size; ironically, the rougher, more varied sticks are more use for fire lighting.

Tomorrow, we’re off into Derby again for eye tests, then the weekend will be fully occupied with a family invasion. It looks like we’ll be 10 for lunch on Sunday. I’ll blog when I can, but don’t be surprised if it’s a bit erratic (sorry, that should be "even more erratic").