Epic blog consisting of the continuing Moorhen saga, Bunting, Historic boats and a wayward fender.

There has been a huge amount happening today so this might be an epic blog. Firstly the Moorhen family, see earlier post. Again  I was woken by screeching and chuntering from one of the birds sitting on the nest early this morning. It sounded like world war three had broken out and then to add insult to injury the other bird started. I finally couldn't stand it any more so up I got to investigate. Another chick was in the nest so maybe that was what all the fuss was about.

After walking the woofits I looked to see if the two that had hatched previously were still swimming about. Unfortunately not a sign of them anywhere even though one of the parents were busy making another nest on the opposite bank. A nice juicy meal for the pike or seagulls (which circle around here frequently) I deduced.  Then a short while later the chick in the nest decided to come out. Bad move on its part as it was much to young to venture out into the world.

As Ian and I needed to go shopping, we left them to it fully expecting it to be in the water with mum. I was wrong. On our return we found it back in the nest and tucked up under one of the parents wings.
Thank goodness for that!!.
Some of the boats around us had started to put their bunting up and not to be left out we did the same. Quite a sight to see and very festive. I'm sure the locals around here wont have seen anything like it before. Should be a talking point for quite some time.

 Then, after a quick lunch, we went off to the Railway Inn for a pint and met Jo and Keith 'Hadar', Jen and Graham 'Best O' Mates, Ian and Caroline 'Indulgence' and Frank and Gill on 'Fragil' A very happy couple of hours was spent with loads of tales of the waterways and much hilarity before we all made the move back to our boats



From left to right:- Frank, Ian, Caroline, Jen,  Ian J, Jo, Keith, Graham and Gill.

 After we got back we noticed that the moorhen chick was in the water after all. I felt very sorry for it as the chick looked exhausted and couldn't even keep itself above water.To watch it die was not in my nature, so grabbing my net I fished it out and held it in my hands to warm up. This did the trick because it revived rapidly and started calling for mum again. I did no more then put it back in its nest and with a bit of bread  managed to intice one of the parents to go back to it. So for now, she is looking after it again. I do hope it stays put for a bit longer this time. It needs to gain some strength before it decides to go swimming . Ian then went off to help with erecting the site while I stayed and watched boat after boat arriving all without a clue as to where they were going to moor. Then Mike Brown came by on the Lichfield and Hatherton trust boat Willenhall.

 Almost immediately after 'Atlas' and butty 'Malus' arrived. Seeing them wind round, or trying to, was well worth watching because the wind, instead of aiding, them was more of an hindrance then a help. What made it worse was on finally completing the turn, the chap at the bow dropped the boat pole into the canal and a nifty bit of maneuvering was needed to retrieve it.



Look toward the bow. That splash is the pole hitting the water.



While all this was going on I happened to glance back and who should I spy on top of 'Hadar'. Jo doing her David Bailey impersonation.


Now if I can just get you to hold still........

 At the end of all that excitement I felt I deserved a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Suddenly our boat banged alarmingly. The dogs shot up, even Judy who's nearly deaf, leapt up. At first I thought it was the boat moored next to us crashing onto the hull, but no the fender Ian had put against the concrete pillar had gone missing and with the wind moving our boat around it was banging on the pillar as well as rubbing off all our paintwork! Luckily Jo, Keith and Graham were about and spotted the said fender floating  toward the boats on the opposite side of the basin. I grabbed my fishing net and with great haste made my way to the boats keeping one eye on Jo telling me where it was and another eye on the fender as it sailed merrily across the basin. In the end I had to knock on the IWA boat, pass him my fishing net, and with the help from him and this very nice gentleman, who I now know as Ivor Caplan on the RBOA boat, managed to retrieve the offending item. A big cheer went up from some of our fellow boaters and I was very pleased to restore it to its rightful place next to our gunwales.