Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Big Thaw

That’s it then. Our “Winter Wonderland” has been transformed into a mushy mess! No longer is Meg coming home looking cleaner than when she went out; it’s back to normal now, mud up to her arm leg pits.

It does mean that I can make my regular water run quicker, now that the towpath is no longer iced over, and I made a record trip to the shops and back this morning.

There’re still a few inches of ice on the canal but it is getting thinner. I reckon that we’ll be able to break it come Monday. In what open bits there are, around the boat, the water is incredibly clear. All the normally suspended silt has had a chance to settle out in 2 weeks without boat traffic.

We’ve been keeping ourselves amused identifying the different birds visiting our feeders, and watching the antics of the squirrels.

A pair of Jays (not very good, they were a bit shy)
Squirrel at lunch

I made a seed feeder from a plastic pill container, the lid from a butter tub and a twig for a perch. A bit Heath Robinson, but the birds didn’t seem to mind. Blue Peter’s got nothing on me; I didn’t have to use any sticky back plastic!

Marsh Tit

It baffled the squirrels for a day or 2, but then one clever chap worked out that if you lift the pot more seeds come out and can be collected off the ground!
Apart from the squirrels the roll call includes blackbirds, robins, marsh, blue and long-tailed tits, the shy jays and even a pigeon.

I’ve also had a go at a jigsaw puzzle Dad gave me for Christmas.

The finished article.
Not as daunting as I thought it’d be, but fun. Thanks, Dad. You can have a go, next.

The facilities up at Anderton have “Do Not Use” signs on the doors. Apparently the pumps that move the c**p uphill to the main sewer have failed. Luckily the fresh water is still on else we would have been in trouble. I hope they are fixed on Monday or we’re going to be having to keep our legs crossed!

Locks 0, miles 0 (again)

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