Protecting the P&J

After we had Percy painted John the painter's advice was give it a good clean and polish in October and again in March/April. This protects from the worst of the ravages of bird poo and acid rain. We know the paint will wear and fade and we planned the colours around that as we wanted Percy to age gracefully - like me !

So now I have time I set to in early October. It's a lot of washing and polishing  and by in large it had survived its two weeks with lots of up and down the gunnels etc. My goodness my shoulders ached after the first day - I had done all but one side - well I had washed that side but not polished it .

I brought 20 large mico fibre cloths off ebay that were excellent for washing drying and polishing. Next time however I will invest in a rotary polisher to help my shoulders.

I did give me the  opportunity for a little cruise to Alrewas and back so I could polish the other side the following day. 

This little bird was fishing in the winding hole, helped by me moving the fish about I guess 

At Bagnall lock there had been a stoppage after the balance beam has snapped !! This was the repair waiting for the stoppages to have a gate replacement I think. Can you imaging pushing on the balance beam for it to snap !

The following day I cut back the large willow bush/tress adjacent to the decking I put in. It cast a lot of shadow and we could not see other dogs coming  - Leia is not  friendly dog to dog sadly.

Over the winter I'll dig out the full root ball which will make the mooring much nicer as the grass will grow over extending the size of the mooring.

These were present on the mooring when I arrived  -I chose not to extent my mycophagists tendencies !!