Caen Hill (Saturday 4th June 2022)

Needing a couple more bags of shingle I bought some Cotswold Stone in Melksham and then headed off to the canal at Bowerhill, just up the road from there. I could hear the sound of suitably refreshed revellers on a narrowboat approaching the swing bridge before I could see them. There was a festival vibe everywhere throughout the day, in fact. This time I didn't see any swans but by the bridge were some mallard ducklngs, and a short distance further along were a family of Canada geese with a number of goslings, showing off to admirers on the towpath. Back at the bridge I noticed some of the mallards were actually diving underwater with a lot of noisy splashing. Mallards are not diving ducks although I have seen juveniles semi-submerged before now, but this was a sight new to me.

I arrived at the top of the Caen Hill locks a little later and found it busier than I had ever seen it, although there was no official jubilee activity taking place. There was a boat going through the top lock and I snapped a couple of the boaters who acknowledged me as they walked past (in the Extra).

L.
Tuesday 7.6.2022 (1156 hr)

Blip #3678 (#3428 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #000
Blips/Extras In 2022 #116/265 + #046/100 Extras
Day #4455 (1032 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2821 (#2661 + 160 in archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-50 (Yellow) and Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro lens

Two Visits To The Kennet And Avon, 4 June 2022 (Flickr album of 31 photos)

Caen Hill series
Devizes series
Canals series
Kennet and Avon Canal series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop  (recording completed February 1964, IBC Studios, Portland Place, London)
Having heard and enjoyed this recording thousands of times since 1964, when Radcliffe and Maconie played it on this morning's Radio 6 show I was listening especially to the instrumental ska/rhythm & blues backing, wondering who was on it, doing such a good job.
Rod Stewart was long said to be the harmonica player, including by Millie herself in 2016, but he has said he was not. It is now known to have been Pete Hogman, playing with other members of the Five Dimensions; he also played on PJ Proby's Hold Me. The ska guitarist and arranger was legendary Jamaican musician Ernest Ranglin.
She began touring in March 1964 with the Five Embers. These included Gary Boyle and Clive Thacker who later joined Brian Auger and the Trinity, so must have been pretty good.

One year ago:
Caen Hill (Swan on nest)