Polly

Good point!

Good to read of improvements, main thing is, can you lift a glass?

Well I am a happy bunny because Brilliant will be getting rid of the rest of the cheap and nasty wood she was 'lumbered' with some long years ago and which we had been slowly purging. Doug is doing her rib surgery right now so hopefully she will be in great shape come spring.

Looks like you would wake up somewhere new and exciting, like tangled in tree roots, or 'going with the flow'!

'Ere 'ere young Doug, none of that 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire' stuff, this is BOAT wood!

A signal failure of the Safety Elves, there is a lot of environment out there that we need insulating from! I demand action!......

Many thanks, but the order has now gone in.

I wondered if we were into moon derived language, thanks Peter. We knew of course that Doug would be trimming the stock, and the sap wood looks to be about 2 cm each edge.

We were in Atherstone today, and the larch looks good, thank goodness! Sykes is a massive operation, family owned, 150 years old business. The place is impeccable, with every type of wood you can think of all beautifully stored. We wanted a lot of wood, and they were clearly able to provide in the amounts needed for a big project, so far so good. Still puzzled as to the derivation of 'Waney edge' as an expression......

I was doing a management course and bumped into an article on the politics of management that had me stumped entirely, so I analysed the grammar.. A whole page that was one paragraph and only two apparent sentences. I say apparent, because when I looked, there were in fact no verbs. My favourite meeting game was working in the names of Shakespeare plays.

It's fairly informal Steve, we bring stuff to barbecue and put all the BBQs in a group so that we can all sit together. We will have a few optional activities and plenty of opportunity to chat and get to know everyone. Theres a party type tent so that we can get out of the rain if needed.

Ok but Austen is off limits from the cake box

I have lost count of the number of times I have corrected 'should of' in written work! My favourite American language anecdote as reported in the Times Educational Supplement ran something like this:- An American senator from a southern state was objecting to the teaching of Spanish in schools. 'English,' he said, 'is the language of the Bible, and if it's good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me.'

Well slow to be harvested maybe, so more mature when cut? Otherwise further north?

Ok, call me fussy, but I want larch in Brilliant because her original construction was larch on oak. The popularity of larch cladding on all those Grand Designs means that lots of fast-grown timber is coming in from Siberia, but this isn't suitable for boats on account of the frequency of knots, which could pop and sink your boat - not a problem for the average Grand Design. I bought some from Maldon, feeling hopeful. "You just got yourself a very expensive bonfire," quipped Doug merrily. Fortunately the yard accepted a return. i interrogated the skipper of a lovely wooden Cornish ferry, that led me to a sawmill near Falmouth, the transport didn't sound like it was going to be a budget option. Doug suggested a wood yard in Oulton, no they didn't have enough but usually bought in from a couple of sawmills 'in the West Country'. One of these turned out to have a plant in Atherstone, Warwickshire, which is in range for us to go over and inspect. A call with them established that they had proper boat larch, slow grown 'Waney Edged' ...a prize for Timbo if he knows what that is!? Doug has approved the photos, taken the .... out of me for mentioning 1/4 sawn, 'You've been reading that book again,' and so, hopefully and after one false start and lots of searching, Brilliant may get the wood she deserves.

Loved the programme, was that you Barry waving at them when they were looking out from Toad Hall Cottage? I have worked around actors long enough to be quite unfazed by Pru's frank weather observation! How interesting JM that the production team were somehow so well briefed! It looked to me as though Tim had been handed a ready tied mooring line and asked to drop it on the post, which he did. That may be unfair but I think the moorings are more ring than post on the cut on account of the horses towing at one time, so he'd be more used to putting lines through rings and returning them to the boat? What did strike me was the amount of wine consumed.

We went for a meal today, there was a 30 minute gap between stater and main. Phill pointed out that we were waiting there were apologies and promises of dinner 'soon' ....no it wasn't 'soon' and when it came, I had the joy of cold roasties. The service check 'is everything alright?' Came, so I said 'No, cold roasties aren't acceptable' Apologies and we will replace them at once. No they didn't....at all. 'Was the meal ok?' Asked the waitress holding the dessert menus. 'No, we waited too long, roasties were cold......' Apologies and my meal wasn't charged but we skipped dessert and coffees. The bill was still £90 for 4 of us. Grrrrr! No it wasn't on the Broads BTW

Don't Herbert Woods do Christmas hire? I can't say for sure.

Congratulations! ...and yes! They did research on music and ..ok it was rats, but heavy metal v Mozart came off as being extremely unfortunate!

You made a sensible offer ,I think.

Happy Anniversary you two.

We had fireplaces but only ever one fire in the living room, by the time you got to my uninsulated attic, the ice was on the inside of the skylight.

Yes I used to sleep with my underwear at the bottom of the bed to stay warm and get dressed under the blankets. We had a bathroom inside which Dad had made by knocking together the coal house and outside toilet; Grandma next door had the tin bath in front of the fire. In the 60s we had a gas fire installed in the living room, pure luxury, and that meant no more need to bolt through to Grandma's in the morning as she always had her fire lit, we didn't because everyone was going out to work or school.

Congratulations guys!

Great, keep them coming folks.