This is a bit of a fuzzy photograph, but you get our drift. This is Josie fur, floating alongside Bella - in water, not ICE! The temperature is only just slightly warmer than freezing, but she has decided that it is close to Spring and is shedding her winter coat. Oh joy. No sooner have we vacuumed than we find more hair. So, Elizabeth and the Jose went to the deck with the brush. Here is some of the result. We always put it in the canal or on the towpath, even now though it is slightly early, because the birds pick it up and line their nests. We have watched a fur ball disappear in minutes, taken up beak by beak to a new egg cradle. This will help them prepare...On the bird front, Pete put up a new fat/seed ball and what with that and the peanut feeder, we have full to bursting bird life on the quayside. We feed all sorts of Tits, Finches, Robins, Dunnocks, Sparrows and even a Greater Spotted Woodpecker or two. On the waterside, the Moorhens have begun to meet Pete each morning, as now does the beautiful seagull. Ducks have returned, now that the ice has melted and the Swans, though not Rosie and Jim, make the odd appearance. This is our winter in home mooring routine - keep the wildfowl fed in lean months. When we're travelling on the cut in warmer times, we know that they can feed well without us.
Here's our local seagull, drinking from the melted section, whilst standing on the remaining iced section. You can see the piling of ice plates, the result of yesterday's strenuous activity of a boat trying to both get water and turn in the mouth of the marina. The ice is clearly still thick, but this was a desperate boater who had run completely out of water. We believe that he moored up slightly north of Blue Haven, took on water, then had to reverse to return to his home mooring. Blue Haven's entrance was the winding hole of choice and as Elizabeth was at meetings in London, Pete thought Bella herself was cracking up as he heard the creak of ice. A swish of propeller from the boat you can see the stern of was used to force the ice up and as it fell, it broke. A few barge poles meant that at least some ice plates were moved. About an hour later, a usually few minute turn was accomplished.
We can hear the trickles of water, there is a gap between Bella and the ice and the wind is actually blowing us about as we are not a fixed point in a deep sheet of ice. It is even above freezing today! The thaw begins, yet the signs from the met office are that this will not be long. So, we're off to get as much water into our tank as we can while we can.
Funnily enough, it is still snowing! It stopped yesterday and we saw some holes beginning to form in the ice, as we had a bit of a melt on. But we woke to more snow, more meetings cancelled and more conference calls organised. Actually, we like conference calls!! Josie loves the snow, burrowing her nose in it with tail wagging heartily. We are still toasty and we are in walking distance of the shops, just over a mile away. So we're OK. Here's to all of you who are struggling - may you get the help you need.
Well, the ice is 5 inches deep at Bella's bow, and though we are as toasty as ever, part of the reason is that we work hard to stay warm! Josie clearly thinks that holding Pete's foot and cuddling his knee is the way. Pete shows our morning fashion statement (as Squirrel heats up) of thermal leggings, socks, dressing gown, hand mitts and thermal shirt. Elizabeth has her own lacy version, of course. Breakfast is eaten in the lounge by the fire as warmth takes over and when we're both sufficiently warmed up, we brave the shower. However, the shower is an every other day affair, swapping with sponge bath, as we are conserving water. The pipes in the marina are frozen and we may have to fill our hold with water can by water can from the single tap which works! Watch this space.
We woke to a frozen canal, as expected. But last year, we were frozen in on the south Oxford Canal at Fenny Compton, so we've not seen the north Oxford Canal here at Hillmorton frozen. So here is Josie, staring at the canal and the mouth of the marina. The other shot is Pete's Moorhen friend who always hears the side hatch open. S/he watches, he throws duck and swan food (edible by Moorhens as well, we are assured :-), and it is gobbled up from the top of the ice amongst the snowflakes frozen as they fell and have remained. Poor thing is cold, of course, often standing on only one foot, the other folded up for warmth.
This is a bit of a fuzzy photograph, but you get our drift. This is Josie fur, floating alongside Bella - in water, not ICE! The temperature is only just slightly warmer than freezing, but she has decided that it is close to Spring and is shedding her winter coat. Oh joy. No sooner have we vacuumed than we find more hair. So, Elizabeth and the Jose went to the deck with the brush. Here is some of the result. We always put it in the canal or on the towpath, even now though it is slightly early, because the birds pick it up and line their nests. We have watched a fur ball disappear in minutes, taken up beak by beak to a new egg cradle. This will help them prepare...
