Fairies and baby gerbils?

First of all, let me tell you that there's a new addition to the Addendum Blog for readers of "Hints and tips for life with YOUR feet under water", entitled CAUTION!

(If you're not a reader, then you're missing out! Take a look at it now here.)

Okay, now I've got that off my chest...

It's feeling a bit like last year's lockdowns to me. I know it's not, but the fact that we can't cruise now (hernia) and that we don't really have anywhere to go, apart from localish shops, makes it feel like last June - not that that was a bad month; far from it. But I'm doing the same walks and the same rituals, and still writing the same book.

We have, however, made a good start on doing the various jobs that we'd like to get done before we cruise again - whenever that might be. Grace is working on the front cratch board.

The trellis is going to be entwined with roses to match those used on the cabin sides. Then we'll install the tunnel light and the horn onto the board. We've had to touch up the paint on the windows that stand on each side of the board. Rain got in somehow, and we had to remove and replace some rotten wood in the frames. The job should be finished by the end of tomorrow.

The local willow trees have been very productive. A friend, upon seeing a single flower lying on the pontoon, thought he'd seen a young gerbil! That has now been joined by countless friends.

They create quite a scene when they fall into the canal and drift into the reeds.

And these are the juvenile gerbils! (if you have a vivid imagination).

Carnage on pontoon C!

This is the average size of a juvenile male.

Fairies are a thing at the moment, too. All right, they're not really fairies, any more than the fluffy things are really gerbils - picky, picky! But they're what Grace and I have called thistledown since childhood. and they're about now, drifting aimlessly in their millions. They get everywhere; in your mouth, in the boat even when the doors and windows are closed, in the car, up your nose and in your eyes. They just love spiders' webs, and those are all over the place!

But this is what they look like when they're clean and tidy, and not consorting with spiders' webs.

Beautiful!