Brass, lace and ribbons

Ok so what have I been up to for the last few months I hear you ask, and even if you did not I will fill in some of the gaps. For a start I have been doing quite a bit of Ebaying in preparation of our new acquisition. As some of you may remember some time ago I bought a rather tatty Klaxon off Ebay

but after a little titivation and painting it turned out quite acceptable.

I was browsing Ebay a few weeks ago looking mainly at vintage ‘horse brass’ swingers and rosettes and I came across this.

 a 1914 brass shell that had been fashioned into a vase? But when I saw it I saw another use for it and so purchased it for a very reasonable price, a tenner, after a bit of ‘engineering’ in the garden shed I am quite pleased with the result

and will look quite stunning on Darley’s cabin slide me thinks. Also after removing everything off Minnow all the ribbons in my hanging plates were looking a little tired and so I purchased several spools of red ribbon

Ready to re-ribbon the 58 plates I have assigned to Darley’s back cabin and then of cause there was a need for some lace and I came across this bargain of a total of 7 lengths of antique lace each 31/2” deep and 7’-0” long.

Not to be outdone Dawn has also been busy podging rugs through the winter including this striking blue and yellow one, can’t think where that could fit.

  

Well that’s it for now, update over.  Can’t wait for the weekend when Terry returns with Darley from Ellesmere Port and I can get my hands on her but until then,

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom

The Start of Something New

What a fantastic day we had yesterday, An early start saw us pulling on the car park of the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port by 10.30am.  We were on a mission, but to get to our final destination we had to run the gauntlet of all out friends and acquaintances  which resulted in us not getting to our final destination until about 1.30pm!  As soon as we came into the museum grounds we were greeted by Viv and Si off Monarch & Grimsby, John and Marion Thornett who used to own FMC Kestral along with Kestral's new owners Martin and Sam as well as Laurence and Sarah off Kangaroo and Drew with Jaguar.  So that gobbled up the first half hour chatting and catching up. And this was how the day was to proceed as we gradually moved from boat to boat ( and when you think there were over 50 working boats there!) talking and passing the time of day with all the folks we knew and passing the usual jokes/humour/banter.We chatted with the 'Fullers' off Ibex and Ilford, who appeared to be stealing empty wheelbarrows, had a beer and a coffee off 'the Chertsey crew'  Sarah & Jim, Andrew & Andrea off Dove, now there's a wench for ya, a woman what can rivet!  John Blunn, Jim Taylor, Rose Braine and her dad Malcolm sat in the sun shine on the lower basin then we finally got to the end of our mission, and here it was:-

Our new baby, Large Woolwich motor boat Darley. And so to new beginnings, this is all for my first 'blog' of my new boat, my new blog and  new beginnings, and so, as always
Don't bang 'em about.
Blossom