Dauntsey Lock (Friday 25th March 2022)

I'm not sure how I came to be at this spot and to blip a second swan on a nest within a few days, also the only picture I was able to take.

I hadn't been able to remove the wheels with the flat tyres I'd discovered on the trailer on Wednesday so instead drove with them to the garage which is only a couple of hundred yards up the road, driving very gingerly. They weren't able to do it on the spot as I'd hoped so I couldn't continue to the recycling centre, but left the fully-loaded trailer with them and drove off without a plan.

It was easiest to take the left turn north out of Calne, so I did, heading towards Lyneham considering my options. I had my camera bag with two cameras so after passing through Lyneham I decided to visit Dauntsey Lock, which is where the headquarters of the Wilts & Berks Canal are, housed in the Peterborough Arms, which is being refitted.

Unfortunately, I soon came across a Road Closure and had instead to turn off and head for Bradenstoke Abbey. When I reached Bradenstoke village I saw a small lane with a road sign for Dauntsey, so I took that (very busy because of the road closure) and succeeded in reaching Dauntsey Lock beyond the Closed section.It had been built up since I was last there and no longer provided any parking spaces so I had to drive around a bit to find somewhere legal to stop.

When I did reach the canal there were various Keep Out signs at the towpaths during their restoration and at the pub car park, but from the road looking down at the canal I came across this swan, a male swan taking a turn on the nest, took one picture and then ran out of battery power. I reached for a spare but unfortunately it was on the charger at home.

My other camera, my P900, took a different battery and that too was exhausted before firing a single shot. I had two spares of that battery on me, fully charged when put in my bag, but now also flat.

I limped home by an alternative route via Foxham. This also has some canal walks, I then remembered, and is ripe for a re-visit. All batteries went on charge as soon as I got home. As I was putting the cameras away a lenscap fell from the K1 to the floor with a clattering sound and vanished - I still haven't found it.

L.
Monday 28.3.2022 (1039 hr)

Blip #3611 (#3361 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #008
Blips/Extras In 2022 #049/265 + #020/100 Extras
Day #4385 (1027 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2755 (#2595 + 160 in archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-1 Mark II and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300 mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

Swan series
Wilts and Berks Canal series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
JJ Cale - Don't Go To Strangers (recorded 1971, Nashville TN)
No-one creates a groove like JJ Cale, as Eric Clapton realised when he heard After Midnight on the radio in 1970 and recorded it himself. I had the pleasure of seeing JJ Cale at Hammersmith Odeon (as it then was) on a complimentary ticket provided by the BBC. This comes from his debut album Naturally. As the rest of this week's choices came from airings on Cillian Murphy's Radio 6 programme (he being nothing like Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders), this comes from his show first broadcast 2 November 2020 and repeated recently.