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What rainfall....

We crossed the Channel vaguely in company with Bill & Sue on Rijnstrom, and Roger & Rosemary Preen on Vijf Gebroeders to a gathering of barges organised by the newly formed Dutch Barge Association in Paris May 1995. Photo taken by Rosemary of our arrival in Calais:

We had our first home-grown new potatoes tonight. I grow some in pots started in January. Even the dog contributes, as they start in the living room on top of her cage before being moved into the porch as the shoots appear. Just as a separate course with butter and salt and the first shoots of the mint. Food doesn't get much better than this.

Remove the hose tail from the skin fitting. Fit one or more BSP threaded female/male brass tap extender couplers to the skin fitting. https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/pipe-fittings-c433/threaded-brass-fittings-1-4-4-c312/jtm-threaded-brass-brass-tap-tail-extension-piece-m-x-f-p10604/s10605?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=jtm-threaded-brass-brass-tap-tail-extension-piece-m-x-f-1-quot-long-1-brass-1-2-10070465pr&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQjwppSEBhCGARIsANIs4p5YiEdUItvU2xX05Ks1iJGHVaG8x89C6gYcx9igr9lTHN7J-2YfLTkaAqC3EALw_wcB Fit the hose tail back on the coupler.

We moved here to MK (next to bridge 83) over 30 years ago, and we still love it!

Agreed. As you know I sold my boat this month without ever even advertising it instantly. I sold my motorhome this morning without even mentioning I was going to sell it. I have sold the caravan I am in at the moment again without even advertising it and the buyer is waiting till I hand it over later in the year!!! Absloutely insane at the moment.

We passed a wide beam named ‘March’ yesterday. I wondered if it’s owners had been inspired by this thread.

We lost a sale on our boat this time last year due to Covid. We sold it in February this year for £5k more than we could have got last year. This was a sold unseen, no survey purchase. On the flip side we have however had to pay circa £3k more for the motorhome we have bought compared to this time last year. We reckon that the market will be flooded with second hand boats, motorhomes, camper vans and caravans in 18 months.

The Coach livery is correct for the Loco livery. The Western Region used chocolate and cream for its express train coaches from the mid 50's. until the early 1960's. I remember them well on the 4.00pm Paddington to Birminham Express which barrelled through Northolt Junction (now South Ruislip) about 4.15pm each day at something approaching 90mph, always hauled by a King or two Castles. We used to run down from school to the station every day, in the hope that we would "spot" a previously unrecorded Loco. I still have my 1958/59 Ian Allan combined album

There is certainly new money in boating since covid. The guy moored next to me is on his second boat and started only last year and already thinking of going bigger . He is not the only one. Some may get to like it and stay in for the longer term , others will not - nothing new in that . For me owning a boat is even more of a blessing than it always has been.

I trust the two are not related or you have an abstraction licence?

And me, although perhaps I might know a bit more than a typical boater about certain subjects. As far as I am concerned every day is a school day one way or another.

I don't think she will have a leg to stand on. She decided to buy without a survey.

But make sure it has a stone-cutting disc rather than a metal cutting disc. Metal discs don't work to well on brick and concrete.

Buckets and the aromas of roses come to mind Tim. Well done though.

One of my foibles is chimney's on boats at an angle rather than vertical. I had a wood working shop make me a hardwood angle piece to fit the collar to. Sikaflex was used as a sealant. In the 10 years this has been fitted I've had no issues.

Shame there's no possibility of reopening the Runcorn and Weston Canal! Well you either have to raise a certain sum of money to restore the locks or you have to raise a MUCH larger sum to build a boat lift (let alone operate it)! It doesn't follow that the latter approach will be an easier road to go down. Restoration of the locks also lends itself to a significant volunteer input, the value of which counts as the match funding that grant giving bodies want to see. A boat lift solution would necessarily require full professional design and contractor construction.

Thankfully I am not employed and havent been since 2005. The current situation is starting to look a little more bleak that it was 2 or 3 weeks ago, Go and read some international press and listen to the Scientists instead of ex-nurses chitter-chatter. It is because of people like you who have reacted too little and too late that we are where we are now.

That is one that really is worth rooting for - putting those canals back into the network will really add a lot.