Chainsaw massacre on the Kennet and Avon?

I was taken aback when I read this Waterscape advice message today:

Claverton

Sunday 4 August 2013 until further notice
Please navigate with care between Claverton and Dundas due to falling limbs restricting the channel width.

Enquiries: 03030404040


"'Ere Bert, looks like there's a lot of logs in the water here."
"Those aren't logs, Fred, they're legs."

"Bert, what's that man doing on the aqueduct?"
"Oh, don't worry about 'im. He seems pretty 'armless."

Bumping into friends on the Kennet and Avon

Last month, as I think I've mentioned, was the occasion of my uncle's 80th birthday celebration. Members of the family converged on Wootton Rivers for lunch at the Royal Oak.


Uncle Michael was a loadmaster in the RAF. He wanted to be a pilot really, but his eyesight wasn't good enough ...


... so he built and flew his own plane. When I was little I remember there were parts of it stored - or being worked on - in his mother's (my granny's) garage in Lincolnshire.


I have flown with him once, in a shared ownership powered glider of his. I have a (pre-digital) photo in a box somewhere...

He's retired from flying now - no more crash landings!

After the lunch we went back to his house to watch the Grand National (a sweepstake had been organised to keep the interest up), and after that a few of us walked down to the canal.

From the bridge we turned left to go upstream. Just beyond the work boat was nb Gospel Belle...


... the boat of our friends Peter and Lin (others in the party were impressed that we could find boaters we knew on a random bit of canal!)


Peter and Lin work for Canal Ministries, which is allied to the Boaters' Christian Fellowship.


After church the next day Jan and I went back for coffee on Gospel Belle; after lunch we helped them up a couple of locks and said goodbye.