Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Drat those flies!

Why do flies have an almost magnetic attraction to wet paint? You watch them moseying along with very little going through their tiny minds, then they smell paint and BANG, something goes off inside their heads and they head like heat seeking missiles to the freshly applied coats.

Some land feet down and can be brushed off leaving their feet behind when the paint is dry….
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Some splash down upside down, and leave an angel impression….SAM_5808

The worse ones are those that land unseen just before you lay off the fresh paint. They get smeared into the surface.
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This guy in the undercoat really tried to get free… leaving footprints in the surface and paint up to his knees.
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Luckily the red will need at least one more coat, and the undercoat is obviously not a problem.

We’re not only anonymous now, we’ve also gone into stealth mode.
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The roof is finished, the handrails are on the way, and the cabin sides and rear are in undercoat.

I finished the left side this morning before we headed back up to Northwich for shopping and collection of new specs.
Mags thought she’d ordered two pairs but only one was waiting for collection last week so I had her second pair to pick up, and my two pairs too. So we can see what we’re hitting now. Although there’d better not be too much of that once the finish coats are on!

It’s struck me that although we’ve been down on the Weaver for a while, I’ve not taken many photos of the scenery. Probably because we’ve hardly gone anywhere!
So here’s a couple from today…

Cardens Ferry Bridge over the confluence of Witton Brook in the distance.SAM_5816
The river turns right just this side of the bridge. The brook was navigable through to Witton Bridge through several locks to service Witton Mill and salt works in the area, but since the mill closed the navigation has reverted to it’s natural state.

We used the services on arrival in Northwich, then went under Town Bridge to wind in the wide section where the novel Floatel used to stand float.

The raft sections which supproted the buildings were secrured to these piles…April 2010 132 Flotel
This picture taken in April 2010…

This one purloined from a travel website when it was in it’s heyday….101041
Built in the 1980s it closed early in 2009 and was demolished for safety reasons later that year. The decaying buildings had sunk two feet below their design levels, vandals had done their worst and the whole site was an eyesore.

The April picture shows the main shed of the boatyard with it’s original side slipway, May 2008 226 Northwich

The whole area is the the process of redevelopment, and will become a mixed residential and retail scheme, with pontoon moorings and boat services on the river.

Northwich Marina developmentSAM_5819

After the shopping we returned to moor below the lift, back up onto the canal tomorrow.

Locks 0, miles 2

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if i was you i would do all your prep outside then book a wet dock for final coat

Unknown said...

Ah the floatel. I stayed there once. Bleary eyed I stepped out on to the balcony at about 5.30 one morning for a cigarette because I couldn't sleep, and there on the other bank were about 7 fishermen. I hope they liked my PJ's. :-)

Geoff and Mags said...

Hi Carol
Must have got a few pulses racing....