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Packing up and leaving Heronshaw, stopping off at Stanton a little late to have breakfast with Mum and then widening her mobile home doors for her wheelchair and giving her Escort a run out.
Then the dash to Bar Hill to join my family to have lunch with Di’s parents before home to unpack and catch up with mail and calls. News of the German election and a welcome for migrant birds who arrived a month early from Africa due to the warm southerly air-streams.
It was another very early start, getting up, having a light breakfast before shaving and washing. There were all the things to pack away for the journey, the boat itself to lay up and leave in a fit state to meet any eventuality. I had intended to start my journey by 8.00am but it was about 8.25am before I left. I made a point of dropping my rubbish into the skips at Horning and then going along to the Percival’s boatyard to see what they had done with the "Little Lady". It was plainly visible through the window of the workshops undergoing further work. The journey to Stanton went very well considering I had left so late. There were few vehicles due to the hour and any tourist traffic was actually going the other way.
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The last full day working on the Heronshaw shed on a hot and sunny day; working first with Jack and then on my own. Tidying and packing afterwards for my journey home when I would have preferred to stay. Speculation about Chancellor John Major ahead of Tuesday's budget as Thatcher now criticises the "Green" movement
I had decided that this was to be my last day at Horning. Another fine, warm - indeed hot - and sunny day. I had to break off work a few times to meet my new neighbours on both sides, who by now had come up to enjoy the weather for the weekend. I finished fabricating the lower shed sides and then, later, we had the thatched roof high enough to consider re-building it. First I had to prepare a foundation of paving stones bedded down on gravel carried from elsewhere on the plot and the whole had to be fairly level as judged by a spirit level which was a very difficult and physically-demanding job. With first Jack helping me, we first got one end on, then the other and were just preparing the base for the first side when he had to go. Then, I worked on my own in the afternoon, adding the other side and in the evening jacking up the shed ready to take the lower sections.
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Continuing to raise the shed with Jack on concrete blocks and then to buy more timber from Jewsons with which to build up the sides until off to The Black Horse pub for lunch. Builder Arthur Edmunds came in later but advised that restoring Heronshaw was uneconomic
This was another warm and sunny day, a bit too warm to work really, and Jack came again and we carried on jacking the shed as it went ever higher on concrete blocks; but this time I was very careful to underpin it in a very careful way. At lunchtime, Andrew persuaded me to join him and Jack on a visit to "The Black Horse" and I had lunch there, meeting a few of the local characters. I went to Jewsons again after for some more wood and materials and then fabricated the lower shed sides in the evening which was a steady job with all of the sawing and chiselling involved. Builder, Arthur Edmunds came round with his son and, after sounding encouraging at first, he is now estimating large sums of money for jacking up and renovating Heronshaw and is now trying to persuade me to knock it down and build another which is quite a disappointment.
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On another fine, warm and sunny day, Securicor arrived with some boat parts and then Jack to help me jack up the shed roof again after I had started renovating the walls. A lorry load of blocks arrived today and struggled with the overgrown road. It does not seem as if Freda can get down to stay with Mum next week after she had promised to relieve Mum's Home Help, Doris
Awake at 7.00am to my, by now, customary early fried breakfast to be greeted by another very fine, warm and sunny day. Securicor arrived early as well with my new macerator and water pressure tank and things were beginning to look up. I was out early to the garage where I completed the task of clearing it out and was embarking on the renovation of the shed sides when Jack arrived to help me with the shed-raising again. This process continued all morning and afternoon until the bare roof had risen to a height of 3ft again and I was able to get inside the roof to remove the old nails and conduct some repairs. I also managed to rebuild the back and front walls, by cutting them down to 4ft with the idea of adding 2ft extensions once we had the shed up to that height.
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