We travelled back to Essex via a lovely evening in Royston, with our friends Eliza and Richard where Fergus now resides in sumptuous splendour. Clive’s dad’s funeral was in Chelmsford and we’d booked into the Premier Inn for two nights – the beds were indeed lovely, in fact the hotel was great with staff who clearly loved their jobs. Funerals are funerals, generally sombre, sometimes terribly sad, and the eulogy always brings the person’s life into focus, a précis which is interesting, funny, sad, poignant. I’m fed up with them though. I’d like the next family or friends get together to be a birthday, a wedding, anything but another funeral.

We spent the weekend in Harwich with our two friends Sue & Howard which was a good tonic to a rather stressful few weeks. They are renovating a large property just opposite the church, which predates 1786 when Cyprian Bridge (packet boat captain) and his family were living there, just when Land Tax began (hence the record). The post office bought the property in 1855 and it was largely business since then, including an upholsterers, a building company base, and in 1974 Trinity House bought it to use as their catering depot. It’s been empty since 2003 and you can only imagine the state it is in. For friends who’ve known me many years, imagine Chapel Hill House when Lloyds moved out times five in size and times ten in the amount of work needed to bring it back to a house. And the dust! Marvellous. Howard and Sue are tirelessly working on it themselves and slowly the house is revealing its secrets and beginning to breathe again. They took a break on Saturday and the four of us shared the triple rugby six nations experience with Steve and Tracy at The Globe, an even better tonic.

Now back in Dartmouth and after a beautiful couple of weeks weather wise, the storms are back, sigh. The French Trawler is still sunk and we are hemmed in until it is salvaged, allegedly in early April. A large Dutch barge is due to arrive from somewhere in Europe, to crane the wreck. In the meantime from the first of April we are on the pontoon free of charge until the salvage has taken place. As you can imagine, deep joy has spread through all live-aboard crews currently on the pontoon.

The pollution containment boom hemming us in

A camera drone flying above the wreck yesterday, filming all angles ready for the salvage team

The trawler is now beginning to rust

The mad Lower Ferry, a feat of simple engineering. The cars drive and people walk on. The tug boat, attached by a warp to the centre of the floating bridge, pulls the ferry into the river and then swings its stern round until it is parallel once again, and then continues to push the ferry to the ramp on the far bank.

Happy Easter – this was the Easter bunny I made this time last year in Rosie Posie’s felting class

Happy Easter X