Happy St Brigid’s Day!

Happy St Brigid’s Day! Oystercatchers are called ‘Gille-Brìghde’ in Gaelic- ‘Brigid’s servant’ - because they saved her life once

Welcome to Super Seabird Sunday where we ask you to share videos, photos & artwork of seabirds to brighten timelines. Here is a close up of a stunning European Shag to get us started #SuperSeabirdSunday

Starting the RSPB birdwatch

A lump of elm glowing like a coal, in the stove. It’s supposed to be not very good for burning, but the wood of this long-dead tree is excellent and hot

Freezing dawn. Redwings in the hawthorns

Stop it, you lot

Opened the hatch for a bit of stargazing. Orion’s well up in the sky now. Blooming cold wind though. Retired to bed to warm up

A useful miracle for Christmas; St Werburgh miraculously restores a goose to body and life after a servant ate it, earning the grateful thanks of the flock

A misty dawn at Diggers

keeping warm in the boat

Thumbing through the British Trades Alphabet for 1969. Did you get this at school too?

Accidentally overfilled the handwarmer yesterday- it’s still hot after 12 hours or so, which is nice on a chilly morning

Full moon over Avoncliff, viewed from the aqueduct over the Avon

Parched peas for a winter’s day

A chilly dawn with the last sliver of the moon

Pulled this big lump of tree out with these chaps’ help

What a lot of rain! River level's rising...

Just downloaded a video-making app, so here’s my first effort with it…

Clear night now, and I can see Orion from the comfort of my bed. Time to put the kettle on though

*blows the dust off her Bluesky account…* hello again!

“This IS the Kennet and Avon?” “Yeah, there’s the river Avon but that’s through Bath, nowhere near us” Walkers passing on the towpath, 100 yards from the Avon (but a different Avon!)

The place where there used to be an angel’s feather, but now there’s just a hungry spider

A brace of Sekidens. Ideal for plinking each other with duck pellets, and the ducks appreciate it too

My map of the Bristol Avon

Yet another bicycle to add to my collection. This is an Elswick Hopper

it was a bit worrying this morning, tuning in for the Shipping Forecast to find that it wasn't there. It turned up later. Seems they've jiggered the schedule around

It's busy here - frogs croaking (and ahem-ing) away, and barn owl ghosting around the field

fixed fourth puncture in a fortnight today. Glad to have moved the boat past Hawthorn Alley…

The first cowslips! On the upper wharf at Bradford on Avon

On the egg of the guillemot, for #SuperSeabirdSunday

Welcome to Super Seabird Sunday where we ask you to share photos, videos and artwork of seabirds to brighten up timelines. Here is my contribution, a ‘bridled’ Guillemot on the Isle of May #SuperSeabirdSunday #Seabirds

A lively dawn, promising stormy weather

This morning’s dawn. Blackbirds singing

Updates my phone software and had to choose a new ringtone. Several calls almost missed because I thought “that’s a noisy duck outside…” #DuckRingtone

A quick morning picture, based on this old chap at Woolhampton lock

The head came off my maul when I was hammering mooring pins in. Fixing it back…

Crane Day on Bradford wharf; the boats that’ve been on hard standing over the winter we’re being lifted back into the water today

A picture for Candlemas, Imbolc and/or St Brigid, depending on how you roll with the seasons

In Burwalls Cave

The first celandine

I’ve added Corsham to my Wiltshire map!

Defrosting the brakes and gears on my bike, using a bucket of hot ash and an old overcoat

Cycling around Bath; was close-passed by a van announcing it was the Bath Blind Company…

A fine cock at the Hunters Arrow smallholding by the canal

A buzzard attacking a red kite over the boat. Red kites are occasional passers-through of this bit of West Wilts, as opposed to further east where they’re as common as sparrows except that sparrows aren’t common

Lots of interesting vegetables floating past the boat today, as boaters discard the excesses of the season

Listening to Sailing By as a prelude to the Shipping Forecast. Quite like old times

We went fishing for Emma’s bike, brushed off her boat roof by a tree