Loading more timber for Harnser at Horning Staithe
Loading more timber for Harnser at Horning Staithe

Loading more timber for Harnser at Horning Staithe which involved much choreography of cars boats and dinghies to reserve the access. Meanwhile the Edmunds dumper driver was arriving every fifteen minutes and spreading bark and wood chippings in our recessed drive. Di’s optician appointment went wrong but we had lunch at Oliver’s and Di did some shopping in Wroxham

I was first awake and so made morning drinks for Diana and I before getting dressed and shaved ready to start work. There was some alarm and consternation at Horning Quay when workmen arrived with yellow paint pots and started to mark out spaces for car-parking spaces just where our delivery lorry was due to stand but we managed to get them to work round us. I left the family in the boat and went to await the arrival of the Amis bargeman, Tony, at Heronshaw and to get the workman to park out of the way of the land-fill dumper truck. The barge was away from Heronshaw by 8.05am and I followed in The Jolly so that we were waiting for Steve to arrive at the staithe by quarter past.

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He came just before the lorry and there followed a scramble to get all the vehicles and boats in the right place to start unloading. Steve took my boat and family back to Heronshaw, the barge was moored, and the timber went on quite well. We did have to manhandle quite a lot of it; not because of our arrangements but because the timber had been baled in lots too large for the lorry crane to handle. The driver was rather grumpy about the whole thing and positively flinging the timber around. But soon the barge was back in the boat-house shell, the timber aboard and the work continuing. Meanwhile the Edmunds dumper driver was arriving every fifteen minutes and spreading bark and wood chippings in our recessed drive. Steve got the paving slabs up and helped rake it out and the action of the dumper quite packed the material down as it came.

By the end of the day the job was done and I paid Edmunds Jnr £250 for 25 loads at £10 each. For my part, I had gone out with Diana first thing to measure up the new boat-house kitchen shell to make sure that our intended kitchen plan would fit and we were pleased that it did. This made us late for our day-trip to Norwich and this distressed Diana when the opticians refused to see Di for her contact lens appointment and spoilt her mood for the rest of the day. Lunch at Oliver’s and then, the girls in the library, Diana and I looked around department stores for furnishings and saw everything that we would need to fit out our new boat-house which I will call "Harnser", being the old Norfolk name for a Heron.

Back in time for me to check on the work and for Diana to do some shopping in Wroxham and then the evening clearing out the shed and garage and putting trial coats of wood stain on sample pieces of wood ready to plan the final colours for Harnser. A Heronshaw bath, my journal for these last two days and then to bed around 11.30pm. Today stayed dry to make two dry days on the trot and I remain pleased with the work to Harnser which is looking very good.