Time to empty the bogs. Stuck my No2's elsan containers on the back of my boat and set off to Ellesmere. my No2 helped me through the two locks and then I was on my own. Got to Ellesmere and emptied all the elsans, got rid of the rubbish and continued into the Arm. Shopping and a quiet night all on my own.

Early start. Even though we are not in an official heatwave I still prefer to move early rather than late. Got to the locks about ten and rang my No2 to come and work me through the pair of locks, which she did.

Ophthalmology appointment followup. A different specialist this time, a lady. After some drops in the eyes and a few bright lights being shone at them while the visual examination was taking place she explained to me (again) all about age-related macular degeneration which could not be cured or reversed but it could be controlled and hopefully slowed down. The effect of age-related macular degeneration is that the central part of vision goes dark due to the receptors being worn out. I just hope that I can keep enough vision to continue to cruise - heading towards the black spot directly ahead of the boat which should be clear of obstructions and relying on the peripheral vision which should remain relatively unimpaired. She is booking me in for a series of procedures (makes it sound so innocuous) where they will inject Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor into the eye!!!!!!!!! (Did you hear me scream?)

For the next week or so life carried on much the same as it always does, I made a couple more bowls on the lathe, went shopping in Oswestry and Ellesmere as took my fancy and the bus times. I continued my fight with the No 2 bus drivers regarding the manual issuing of concessionary tickets because their machine does not recognise English bus passes and worked on my new web site when not otherwise occupied.
Oh, and I did eventually rewire the bilge pump on Dennis so that it works from the Bilge Pump switch. It turned out the the fuse in the holder had blown but it was extremely difficult to
a) get the fuse and holder out and
b) put the fuse and holder back in.

Received four text messages informing me of forthcoming appointments at the eye hospital. Wrote them all in the diary with a reminder a day or so beforehand to make sure I do not miss any of them. Loaded up the first and read it as best as I could to get the location, time, what I need to take with me and so on. As it is difficult to read each in detail on my tiny phone screen I simply confirmed that each message related to a separate appointment.

My No2 persuaded me to accompany her on an expedition to see some caterpillars, a ball of caterpillars, well two balls of caterpillars firmly ensconced on a nettle. As good a place as any to hide out, I won't be trying to take them off their leaves. Investigation reveals that they might be Peacock Butterfly larvae.
This would be a really good place to show off my ability to get Google Lens and Google to tell me anything I want to know about almost anything but I expect that anyone reading this has more than enough experience to do that for themselves.

Right in the middle of the heat wave we are moored where there are no trees. Trees are a double edged sword, yes they help to keep the boats cool by the shade they produce but they also harbour birds, that shit on the boat and as is well known bird shit is an extremely effective paint remover. Since we had been moored underneath some trees for a week or more my No2 spend the heatwave cleaning the bird shit off the newly painted roof.

Content

Sven.