Any entomologists out there?

I found this insect while I was chopping logs this afternoon.

I tried to find out what it was, but it appears that there are a million known species of insect and a further five million species waiting to be discovered. It's probably something common, but my cursory glance at some pictures didn't help.

Here's another shot with my finger for scale.

Carrying the cross

Today, Good Friday, is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, when we remember the death of Jesus on the cross. In our Norfolk village we carry a large wooden cross through the streets between the parish church and the Methodist church, alternating the direction each year. The walk is done at a slow pace and takes about half an hour.

We walk in silence - well, that's the idea, anyway. This year we ended at the Methodist church where we had a service followed by hot cross buns.

This is the first time we've been at home for Easter for a while. Over the last few years we've been at Tamworth/Polesworth, Nantwich and Market Harborough, all by boat.

It's a daffodil, all white?

Jan says it's common, but perhaps I have a short memory. Whatever, I was surprised to see this daffodil in our garden amongst the usual yellow (and yellow/orange) ones.

Despite the development of gardens nearby for housing we still get some wildlife. Today I managed to photograph this visitor.

As far as I can tell from the internet it's a speckled wood butterfly.

In other news, our boat is being worked on at the Grand Junction Boat Co. A mushroom vent has been resealed and two windows are receiving the same treatment. A small gearbox oil leak will be investigated, and the engine coolant will be replaced with a fresh mix of antifreeze. All should be ready for us after Easter.

Replacing Jabsco Par-Max 2.9 water pump

On Sunday I looked at the water pump under the bed and found a small flood. I don't know if the water was coming from the connections or the body of the water pump itself, so I replaced the pump and used the new O-ring connectors which came with it. This was an easy job as it was replacing like for like, a Jabsco Par-Max 2.9. Also, gate valves were handily there to isolate the pump.

I took this photo after sponging up the water and replacing the pump.

The computer fan is a temporary measure to help dry the surroundings.

There are two things about the pump's installation which might have led to the O-ring connections failing, if indeed they did. First, the pipes leading to the pump are fairly rigid, despite being plastic. Second, the pump is not screwed down - it merely rests on a couple of bits of foam insulation.

I think I could improve on this by using flexible hoses and screwing the pump down. For now, though, I'll see if what I've done stops the leak.

We returned home yesterday to find another minor flood. Our washing machine had been steadily filling up with cold water and leaking all over the parquet floor and into a cupboard. The solenoid valve on the cold feed must be not closing off properly. The biggest damage appears to be to the sliding cupboard door, the bottom of which has been wicking up the water causing the veneer to lift. Now the door won't slide open. Not sure what to do about it yet.

The boat, meanwhile, is at the boatyard for windows and a mushroom vent to be resealed in the hope that that will stop rain getting in. A gearbox oil leak will also be investigated, and a failed weld on a pigeon box flap will be rewelded.

Blacking done (of the barn wall)

I have already posted the first of these images; the set here shows the progress I have made.

Just the original bits of wall to do now, but it looks a lot better. Oh, and I'll black the window frame too.

Boating soon!

Boat maintenance ahead

It's getting near return-to-the-boat time. The first destination is the Grand Junction Boat Company at Gayton Junction where we will see if they can fix the water ingress problem (from a couple of windows). I have also asked them to fix a pigeon box flap where one of the welds has come apart; while they have the boat I'll get them to replace the engine coolant.

But for now it's been excellent weather for getting on with gardening jobs. I gave the lawn its first cut of the year two days ago; today I have been moving concrete slabs and trimming the hedge while Jan has been weeding. Yesterday I finished rendering the end wall of the barn, if the weather keeps fine I intend to give it a coat of black tar tomorrow.

In the warm sunshine yesterday I managed to picture this peacock butterfly feeding from a crocus before it flew away (the butterfly, not the crocus).

We even had our lunch sitting outside! Today has been a little cooler, with a bit of a chilly wind.

edited to remove typo

Laying it on with a trowel

Today I've been doing a job that's been waiting ever since I had the long outbuilding repaired. The walls are clay lump - except where this end wall was rebuilt with modern blocks after the roof collapsed. To cover up the ugly repair I've been spreading a clay mixture over it.

The black is the original wall, the light brown is the gable and at the bottom behind the ladder is where I applied my homemade clay render some time ago and the dark brown is what I had done today up to the point I took the photo. I hope it sticks!

When it's dry I shall coat it with a black tar varnish.

To make the render all I do is mix some of the old clay lump, which fell down, with water in a bucket.

And then I apply it with a trowel.

It takes an unbelievably long time. When I came in at 6pm - when it was getting dark - I'd done less than half the wall. And that was with a 10am start. At least the blacking is a quicker job.

(edited to correct typo)

Red bug

While moving logs at home today I came across this little beastie.

A quick search on the internet suggests that this is the red lily beetle.

A little logging

Actually, a lot of logging. We have had quite a few trees cut down in our front garden. This is some beech. I have also been splitting ash and pine. Mostly pine.

Crocuses are photogenic, aren't they?

Stove fixed and a short boat trip

Just over a week ago the fitters came to fix our woodburner at home. The rear blanking plate had broken, so it was a case of "simply" refitting a new one.

I'm very glad we paid someone to do this as an angle grinder was needed to remove the old bolts, and the three holes in the new blanking plate needed drilling slightly wider to fit the new bolts.

The job took an hour. As soon as it was done we drove to Milton Keynes and lit the stove on the boat - the one at home would have to wait a few days. On the Saturday (a week ago today) we drove up to Birmingham to sort out a loo problem at a house we let; on Sunday we took the boat out of the marina.

We only went as far as Old Wolverton, all of one mile and one lock away. It took more than an hour as we stopped at the services to empty the loo, and there were all the moored boats of Cosgrove Marina to pass.

Our mooring opposite The Galleon was convenient for Jan's BCF committee meeting there on Monday. Later Ally and Josiah visited the boat. No danger of him hitting his head on the gunwale.

Josiah enjoyed watching the ducks with Mum from the side hatch.

The next day we returned to the marina and drove home. The boats on the left are on the Cosgrove Marina moorings; ahead is Cosgrove Lock.

Now we are at home I can report that the stove works better than it has done for a considerable time. It draws better and there are no fumes. Yes, I will get a CO detector. (We do have one on the boat.)

Nev on Percy prompted me to write this post, so here you are.

Panto run over for another year

One of the reasons we return home from boating when we do, around the beginning of October, is so I can go to rehearsals for the village pantomime. This annual event was started in 1970 by a man called Duncan who devised it as an evening's entertainment for his mother. The entertainment was enjoyed so much that Duncan decided to repeat the exercise the next year. It quickly grew into the lavish production that we have today. This year's run was sold out for the first time. Nine performances to 180 people at a time in the village hall makes all the rehearsals worth all the effort.

As I mentioned before I had the role of Narrator in Sleeping Beauty.

This was the biggest part I have had. I'm pleased to report that it went well. Now I shall miss the pantomime "family" ... until October.

A few years ago Duncan retired from active involvement with the pantomime group, becoming President and passing the writing baton to Lloyd who does an excellent job. There will be a big celebration in a couple of years' time, no doubt, when the panto reaches its 50th production. Duncan will then be 93.

Woodburner blanking plate broken

Our home woodburner had been letting out a bit more smoke into the room than usual, and probably dangerous fumes as well. When I looked round the back of the stove I discovered this. The stove is on the left, can you see the crack?

From inside, after removing the baffle, you can see that a piece has fallen off the blanking plate which covers the unused flue exit.

From the front nothing looks amiss. This is a Cottager 01 stove, which we had fitted 18 years ago.

The blanking plate is normally hidden by the baffle - or throat plate - which itself was a bit cracked and distorted but I don't think that matters so much.

We are having someone to come and sort it out next month. This would have to be the coldest time of the year.

This is our view of the sun breaking through the fog this morning.

Treading the boards

It's that time of year again - oh yes it is! - when I take to the stage in the village pantomime. This year I have the role of Narrator in "Sleeping Beauty".

Here I am being made up. I don't know who took the photo, sorry.

We have now completed three performances with six more to go, finishing this Saturday. If my head looks rather large in the photo it's because this year is the first time I've taken a solo bow at the curtain call ...

Crick's third prize no good to us

At the Crick Boat Show last year we entered a competition for which, if I remember correctly, the first prize was a year's mooring at Crick Marina. We had to come up with a slogan extolling the virtues of that place. Well, we won third prize: a month's free mooring at Crick Marina, to be taken before the end of May. Unfortunately we won't be able to use it. We have paid until the end of March for Thrupp Wharf Marina, after which we intend to be on our travels again.

I did wonder if we would be able to make use of the reciprocal arrangement between Crick and Cropredy Marinas as we have to be in Banbury on April 1st, so I phoned Crick to ask. The answer was no, I would have to take the mooring at Crick. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. And sometimes you even lose what you win.

Here's a photo of a pair of collared doves among the grass, apples and leaves in our garden last November.

Breaking ...

... the silence!

It's been far too long since my last post. I got out of the habit after returning home; not even Sarah's recent return to Blogland spurred me on.

Until now.

Is it too late to wish everyone a Happy Christmas? As Christmas has only just started, strictly speaking, I wish you all a Happy Christmas anyway. (If I had my way I would switch on our (very sober) Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, not before, and leave them up until Twelfth Night (by which time most people would have removed theirs).)

I'll ease myself back in gently - with a photo from a walk Jan and I took this afternoon.

That's the sun struggling to break through a blanket of mist over the Norfolk countryside.

OK, here's another photo. This is from a Boxing Day walk along the south bank of the Thames east of Woolwich.

According to my brother, David, this ancient slipway was used to launch Henry VIII's warships. I couldn't find anything on the internet to back this up; can anyone confirm this?

Pylons and sunset

I couldn't resist this shot of sunset behind the pylons.

National Grid helicopter

Jan and I went for another local walk yesterday. As we left the house we could hear a helicopter nearby. The noise stayed fairly constant, indicating that it was probably hovering. Air Ambulance? Police? We walked towards the sound and saw that the helicopter was neither ambulance yellow nor police blue. It was this, a National Grid machine.

It seemed to be gradually working its way along a run of transmission lines. Was it surveying the lines themselves? Or the pylons?

Or was it surveying the land for a new set of power lines to connect to a new offshore windfarm? These transmission lines have only very recently been upgraded (five years ago), as I wrote about here.

November poppy

We went for a walk near home this afternoon and came across poppies in a field of crops.

I thought they were an early summer flower, but November is an appropriate month.

We enjoyed the autumn leaves.

Plenty of holly berries for the birds.

And a few rose hips.

The photo makes it look frosty/misty, but it wasn't. It drizzled a bit this morning but our walk was dry and still on the mild side.

Diamonds are for ... sixty years

On Wednesday, after enquiring at Wolverhampton Boat Club, we arranged to leave Jubilee there for a few days. We have affiliate membership of the Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs through our membership of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship; this was the first time we had used this connection. We had already identified a convenient railway station - at Bilbrook - and had originally planned to leave the boat on the towpath. The boat club option was much better, being a secure offside mooring. We left the fridge on and hoped the solar panels would be sufficient to keep it going. The boat was under the trees a bit, but it would have had sun until mid-afternoon. I can report that the battery voltage was 13.9V when we returned today, and the fridge and its contents were fine. Hooray!

We got the train to Wolverton; I cycled to the marina to retrieve the car; we drove home to Norfolk. Here we did two and a half solid days of gardening, mostly lawn mowing and hedge trimming.

On Saturday we drove to Essex where we joined in the celebration of my parents' diamond wedding anniversary. The Queen sent her congratulations.

Lunch was eaten, speeches were made and the cake was cut.

Doing his best not to steal the show was Josiah, being kept quiet with bubbles.

After tea and sandwiches at Shenfield we drove to Wolverton where we stayed two nights at Ally, Ben and Josiah's house. Here we did more gardening and a bit of fence planning.

Back at the boat, we have moved half a mile to Bridge 2 just short of Autherley Junction and visited Morrison's. We have been doing some more route planning; we will head south down the Staffs and Worcs to start with. I have an idea about something a little crazy. This needs more research; I shall reveal more later.

Cleaning for The Queen (but not sitting down on the job)

Jan and I helped with the regular village litter pick this morning. This time it was under the banner of "Clean for the Queen", a nationwide litter blitz dreamed up, I believe, by Keep Britain Tidy.

First, though, we litter pickers took part in a small-scale unveiling. A bench commemorating the centenary of the First World War - lest we forget - had been newly installed. We ripped off the plastic sheeting and posed for a photo.

Jan was proud to be the first to sit on the bench, but somehow I missed that photo opportunity.

The bench is rather good, with doves of peace and poppies.

Then we dispersed round the village and filled our purple plastic sacks in the rain. Here's Jan posing with hers!

There was more purple this afternoon at a Lenten Concert we went to in Wymondham Abbey.

It was very good; we went for a curry afterwards. That was good too.