A walk along the Gt Ouse Valley

Yesterday as a break from mundane boaty chores I took the two dogs for a walk through the Gt. Ouse Valley Park past Wolverton Mill (a five storey water driven flour mill now converted into flats) and on towards Stony Stratford.

The two dogs took full advantage of the easy access to clean water (mind you, dirty, stagnant varieties of water are equally appreciated by Fletcher and Floyd) and spent quite a bit of their time swimming and retrieving sticks.

There was plenty of newly coppiced willow (above) as well as this year's growth (below).

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And here (above) is one of the mundane chores that I escaped from, getting a coat of paint on our new longer boat plank.  We got this plank in preparation for our summer on the fens where we expect mooring to be more rough and ready than the canals.

Rain stopped play but at least I got two coats of undercoat on the new plank and the sand we will use to create the non-slip surface is drying in a tin on top of the fire.. That will be a job for another dry day however.