Sue at Sandhill bridge, on the Sharpness canal

I always forget how many last minute things have to be done before you can go away in peace. Today they all seemed to surface. I did manage to do some necessary strimming in the garden which now looks much better, and a stream of phone calls to sort out last minute logistics on several fronts at the office were necessary.

The hot weather is very much my cup of tea, but I did need another bath after all my garden exertions. Then I went out to pick up the picture frames I'd ordered which entailed a return to the suppliers's warehouse at Saul Junction, close by Sandhill bridge over the Sharpness to Gloucester canal. I have blipped from there twice recently when I went to check my research on what materials and system to use for the picture hanging, and both times my blip featured geese, so I was hoping for something different today.

After collecting my order, which was ready as promised having been picked up from Birmingham this morning, I drove just a hundred yards to the swing=bridge again. I got out and thought I would spend a few minutes trying again to film the swallows nesting under the bridge. I found that the bridge attendant was the same woman who I'd chatted with on my first visit last Friday. Yet again she seemed very busy with the constant passage of boats along the canal necessitating the barriers being raised and the bridge being swung open.

I asked her if i could go onto the fenced off area beside the bridge so that I could get close and look underneath it, but I wasn't at all surprised when she said that wasn't possible. We then amiably chatted about canals and the local situation and she knew about the regeneration of the Stroudwater canal which formerly joined the Sharpness canal just a few hundred yards north of Sandhill bridge, where we were standing. I mentioned about Blipfoto and it turned out that she also likes taking pictures using several types of camera, as well as living on a narrowboat on this canal during the summer months, when she works there looking after the bridge.

I then asked Sue if I could take a picture of her for my blip today and she kindly agreed. She then told me about the Saul Pageant that will be happening there in a few weeks and has promised to let us know when the filming of the next Pirates of the Caribbean will be happening in Gloucester Docks, just a couple of miles upstream. That will entail several of the big and tall sailing ships coming up from the sea on the Bristol Channel, via Sharpness dock. I have always wanted to see tall ships on the canal as does Helena. So thank you Sue for letting me try a portrait today, and it was great fun meeting you!