These days I like to see my past life safely in the form of photographs or looking at this blog!

Out on a bike ride I came across this.

There are moments in life where your life passes in front of your eyes and this must have been one of them for who ever went through the canal bridge parapet.

As you can see its a sheer drop of about 15 feet which must have seemed a lot more for the occupants who, from what I understand, survived without serious injury. These days I like to see my past life safely in the form of photographs or looking at this blog!

Back at WMD HQ it was time to determine how to mount the control panel carcase that I have been putting together over the last few days to the layout. I could have just screwed it in place but I need it to be removable, especially during the wiring process so I have put two screws into the layout baseboard and drilled suitable holes in the carcase so that it can be slid on and off.

 I just need to tidy the holes up and paint the raw edges of wood.

It does actually fit as intended which is an achievement for me!

Looking from a distance it fits in well with the structure of the layout. I just need to think about the top and wiring now!

Am I a Gongoozler or a Lock Anorak? Or. Everyday is a school day 2!

For those interested in canal matters will know I have posted variously over the years about the varying fortunes of the local canal that sometimes gets visited by me whilst on a bike ride. My most recent visit shows that the canal is back to healthy levels and indeed looks very canal like again.

Having a couple of spare minutes, not something that I admit to Mrs. Woody, I casually typed into Google (other search engines are available, etc) 'Is there a name for having an interest in canals?' and this is what it came up with!

Yes, there is a specific, widely recognized term for having a keen interest in canals and, in particular, watching canal boats and locks in action: Gongoozler. 

Here are the details regarding this and related terms:

• Gongoozler: A person who enjoys watching activities on the canals (especially at locks) but does not actively participate in boat navigation. The term is often used affectionately by the canal community to describe canal-side spectators.
• Gongoozling: The act or hobby of spending time watching boats, locks, and general canal life.
• Origin: The term originated in the late 19th or early 20th century, likely from the Lincolnshire dialect words gawn and gooze, both meaning to stare or gape.
• Other Related Terms:
  • Canal enthusiast/fan: Used for someone with a general interest in canal history, engineering, or photography.
  • Lock Anorak: An informal term for a canal enthusiast who is deeply interested in the specifics of canal locks, a "geek" for canal infrastructure.
  • The Cut: Used in British canal slang to refer to the canal itself (originating from when canals were "cut" out of the landscape). 

Gongoozlers often collect or create canal-related art, take photographs, or simply enjoy the tranquillity and activity of "the cut". 

Well I never knew that so everyday is a school day but it leaves the question as to if I am a Gongoozler or a Lock Anorak? I don't think I will seek Mrs. Woody's opinion on that! 

Neighbours can stop panicking as this drum kit is just a wooden model

Out on a Christmas Day bike ride to get a better appetite for lunch, I swung by the canal to see what was going on. Nothing! It was eerily  quiet with not a sole in sight,

Or was there someone in the distance?

Not sure exactly what this guy was doing highlighted by the red arrow but it does look like he was fishing! Maybe he was after his main course for Christmas lunch?

Anyway, back at WMD HQ, Mrs. Woody had dished up one of her famous lunches which stuffed me and kept me stretched out on the sofa watching Mission Impossible! Maybe I should rename my 00 gauge Last Great Project model railway Mission Impossible?

I am pleased to say Santa did bring me some gifts so I must have been good!

First off was a cycling related T shirt... 

...which says a lot about my life although not sure about the 'Still going strong' bit!

I also got a new drum kit!

However, neighbours can stop panicking as this drum kit is just a wooden model yet to be built but I'm sure I can get a beat out of it!

Last off is this wonderfully delightful model by Hornby of Locomotion.

I will delve into that a little more tomorrow as it is stunning looking model.

Just wish my wallet would recover as quick after one of Mrs. Woody's shopping sprees!

No time for model making activities at the moment but a bike ride was undertaken and as I was passing a diversion to on route to see how the canal was looking after the Summer of it just about drying out. Well, the recent rain has certainly changed things and it is now positively brimming to near the top of its banks!

I seem to recall being informed by those who know about such things that after the drought this Summer it would take months for the water levels to recover! Apparently not so!

Just wish my wallet would recover as quick after one of Mrs. Woody's shopping sprees!

A floating shunter!

More progress with the scenic sub-bases and this time I am creating the retaining walls to go around the cut out in the landscape where the signal box will be. All I need is card cut to size and then cover it with brick paper - just like this.....

Once the glue is all dry and the brick paper trimmed to size it will fit into the cut out something like this.....

I still need to give the vegetation a hair cut on this sub-base but I wanted to wait until the walls were fitted before doing that.

Despite Mrs. Woody's list of jobs I have had time for a few bike rides and I was passing the local canal where much activity was in progress.

Regular readers will know that I blogged earlier this year about the canal drying up to a trickle and the abundant growth of vegetation that took place.

Well, much of that growth has gone as the canal workers take advantage of restored water levels to dredge the area. fascinating to see the process with various vessels used along with excavators. All the dredged material is put into the open boat which I think technically is known as a butty. That is then towed to the right hand bank where the other excavator digs it out and places it in the large trench that has been dug - presumably to dry out before something else happens to it.

I was quite taken by the small boat which from a distance looks like a floating diesel railway shunter from the Rocks By rail Museum. In effect it is a shunter as it shunts the butty from one side of he canal to the other. A close up also revealed its fitting canal like name of Heron.

Wonder what it would look like on rails?

It's a frame up!

Much as I do explain to Mrs, Woody when things go wrong and I appear to be at fault, it is not actually me being at fault, but I am subject to a 'frame up' by others which she never believes. I must admit saying that the cats have framed me up is perhaps a bit on the optimistic side of believable so maybe I can understand her doubting my claims! 

Anyway, in relation to todays post I am framing up the cats or will be when I find the time! Let me explain! Mrs. W. and me were out today so we popped into a discount shop which stocked picture frames, For more years then I care to remember, Mrs. W. and me have bought pictures on our visits to various places that interest us but most are not framed. Hence once back home they go into a stack with the intention of getting frames and then hanging them on the wall. It never happens or should I say happened as I am now going through the stack and getting frames and hanging the newly framed pictures on the wall of WMD HQ, much to the amazement of Mrs. W. Today's frame purchasing was for a number of pictures including six in a series called - Railway Cats. To be honest, despite normally having a memory to recall such things, I cannot remember where we got these from. It was probably either Ireland or Yorkshire! 

They should look good once in  those frames and hung on a wall. So long as I don't end up with a stack of pictures and a stack of frames all will be well!

For those interested in such matters, my cycling journeys past the local canal have seen this year produce some remarkable scenes from a near normal canal back in March when it was being dredged....

.... to May which after the driest Spring in many years meant the canal was more river like than canal....

......to June when it was then more stream like..... 

....then in September more like a swamp.....

....to now looking like a canal again after its filled back up and been dredged again! 

Looks like the whole saga has been a frame up where I will no doubt get blamed for the woes of the canal having visited too often!

Reduced shade!

I was hot at the Rocks By Rail Museum yesterday. It was so hot that Thomas's paint app told him it was too hot for paint to be applied to metal so he decided that a day helping me with some vegetational butchery in the shade was the thing to do. Alex thought so too. Now, despite the heat waves and general lack of rain, bushes and shrubs still appear to have grown at a rapid rate so some heavy pruning was required. Thomas had brought in his mini chain saw which he gave his mother for her birthday but then decided to test at the Museum. To be fair it was a great aid and soon destructed vegetation was piling up to the point that something had to be done.

Cue the builders bag which allowed the vegetational debris to be bulked up and transported to the composting area.

There was another issue with this mass vegetational destruction. That being that the shade that had been there was no longer there as we stripped back the vegetation! Being a bit crafty, I made my excuses and took the strimmer along the quarry tracks where it was still shady and cool and my strimming did nothing to reduce that! Cool! More to do on the cutting back side of the shrubs but that can wait for another day - hopefully when it is cooler!

Whilst talking about vegetation, one of my bike rides took me pass the local canal which over the last few weeks has become a stream. This is how it looked a few weeks ago.

And now....

Maybe I should take the strimmer down there!

Lack of rain!

I bike ride to the local canal revealed that the water has almost fully dried up despite the recent rain. 

Talking to a member of the Canal trust it does appear that despite the recent lane and a small leak further upstream, the lack of rain overall this year has meant that there is a shortage in the canal. Have to see how things go as the Summer arrives.

Back in the depths of the Man Cave at WMD HQ, more ballasting work has taken place. Not the quickest of jobs but very therapeutic! Wonder if I will finish it before the canal fills back up?

Surprises!

I was awoken at 1.30am by a sound that I had not heard for sometime - rain! It was good to see that everything in the garden had a good soaking this morning with plants recovering and looking greener. One thing that has not recovered despite the rain is the water level in the local canal. Those who have read this blog before may know that I am a regular visitor to the local canal whilst out on bike rides but to be truthful I have not seen the canal for some weeks so was a bit surprised to the water as low as it has got. It cant be leaks as those got fixed last year!

Another surprise on my ride was this.

You don't see peacocks out in the wild usually so this was a bit of a rare spot. Not sure how it got to where I spotted it but it looked at home!

Yet more surprises with a long over due sort out of a box in the Man Cave from which this emerged.

You may wonder what it is, but conveniently the box end carries the necessary information.

I had forgotten about this model but the price ticket gives away that it was bought some time ago which I think was about 13 years ago! Anyway, I will have to delay further investigating my surprise find until tomorrow - lots of things to do on Mrs. Woody's job list for me in the meantime! It will be a surprise for her if I ever complete the jobs on that list!

 looking a b=but one thing that 

Swan Cross Code!

There are occasions when we all see or experience something that takes us by surprise but gives us a great feeling afterwards. Today was one of those occasions for me when, whilst on a bike ride I came up towards an old disused canal which the road crossed over on a bridge built after the canal became disused and hence needed no headroom to allow for the passage of barges. Not only is there no headroom for barges to pass under the bridge but literally nothing can get under it. However, wild life has its ways of dealing with obstructions such as this as I quickly found out having to slam my brakes on as these three swans decided to cross the road to get from one side of the canal to the other and had obviously decided they had right of way under the Swan Cross Code (those of a certain age will remember the Green Cross Code road safety campaign) and I wasn't going to argue!

Having successfully and safely (for them), crossed the road they then glided off in the water to continue with their morning cruise!

I know I am lucky to live in the country where these sort of events happen and experiencing this gave me a great feeling afterwards even if they frightened the life out of me as they came out of the undergrowth!

Under thge weather 2!

Still not feeling great but well enough to cut the scrap wood from Phil the builders escapades in bringing WMD HQ up to date and use it to restock the log store for the log burner!

I found that the skip makes a great saw bench and the saw dust goes straight into it meaning less cleaning up! Working smarter not harder as I get older! 

With the warm weather I did feel that I should at least make a token gesture bike ride even if I was not feeling that well. Certainly gave me some fresh air but there was no power in my legs. I think local athletic snails would probably have over taken me at some stages. However I did at least get up to the local canal which I have not seen for some weeks now.  

Obviously things have been happening in those weeks with the Marie Celeste of the canal, AKA Earwig having returned and been parked (or is it moored?) in the middle of the canal. No idea why but no doubt the reason will reveal itself at some point if I can reinvigorate myself for another bike ride and indeed find the time to get back to some model amking!

Cat art, canals and a boat called Earwig!

In repainting the hall I noted that a lot of the pictures that I took down and then rehung are related to cats which given the number who have lived their lives at WMD HQ over the years is perhaps not too surprising! I go have some personal favorites - the art that is , all cats are treated equally!

This first one is one that my Mum bought from a car boot sale about 40 years ago. She had it framed and I always loved it. Why? I don't really know but I just do! When I inherited it I wondered where to put it so it has leant up against a bedroom wall for some time but with the opportunity to re-arrange pictures during the repaint process it now hangs in the hall

This hangs by the front door and is another of those that just captures my heart!

Finally for today this one probably says it all. Any cat owners will more than likely understand the words!

Apart from admiring cat art I have also managed several bike rides over the past few days. You may recall from an earlier post that I had see the Marie Celeste of the local canal following its disappearance after being stranded when the canal water level subsided to trickle level! It was riding high in a lock but the glare of the sun made it difficult to see. Well another bike ride has found it hiding in the bottom of the lock but I ventured a different way to avoid the glare of the sun.

My venturing also allowed me to observe that its name is not Marie Celeste but Earwig! Now it takes some imagination to conjure up why it is called earwig. Any thoughts, please tell me!

The cat sat on the ......kitchen cupboard?

As is usual in the WMD household nothing is ever as you expect. Our cats do not sit on mats but they do find other strange places such as on the top of the kitchen cupboard where Marty sat himself.

Why on top of there? Well I think he was fed up with the work on repainting the hall where I am now getting out of the corner with some paint on the walls and almost all the ceiling done. Mrs. Woody will be impressed - hopefully!

There has been a little time to get in the Man Cave where corners still feature as I build the landform that I started the other day. First off another section of sub-base has been constructed from mounting card for the far end of the baseboard.

The picture below shows the entire sub-base made up of three pieces.

Then a large sheet of polystyrene was liberated from the WMD Stores - I knew it would come in handy! The idea of this is that by gluing it to the profile or upright of the sub-base it will join the three parts together making them one piece.

With the polystyrene cut it was glued to the back of the sub-base with various handy tubs of things used to keep it in place whilst the glue dries. Whether the theory works remains to be seen but I need to give the glue a chance to dry so I am not moving it yet!

In other news, the first bike ride for a week due to the weather, saw me passing the local canal where the water levels are really high - just about 6 inches off the top of the bank.

Interestingly, especially for those interested in such matters, the disappeared stranded Marie Celeste boat last seen about two weeks ago has reappeared - just as I said it would! Not a great picture as that large bright object in the sky decided to shine directly into the lens of my phone camera! However, the red arrow indicated where it is.

A close up gives a bit more clarity.

Will it stay there or disappear for several more weeks? Who knows but I will be keeping a watchful eye! Maybe that was reallly why Marty was on top of the cupboard to see the boat?