SOUTH DOCK MARINA - ROTHERHITHE

And so to South Dock Marina by mid-morning on the top of the tide. The entrance is easily identified by Greenland Pier.




I called the Lockeeper on Channel 37 and she opened the gates straight away enabling me to glide straight in to the comforting quiet of the lock and then the marina.










A comfortable berth for a day or two after an arduous journey.

The marina has a busy boatyard. You can just see the lift out crane in this pic.








They lifted out a badly damaged rib for repair in the yard.

There are quite a few exciting rib ride businesses which were flourishing over the bank holiday weekend. Looks a bit dangerously dodgy to me. Must be getting old!

One branch of the family came up to see me. Lovely. We had a little birthday party on board and wandered around the marina complex. All kinds of boats from the fabulously glamourous 'Blue Trout' to the usual madhouses. Many birds nests - mallard, coot, moorhen, pochard and grebe. They seem very content in this arificial human world.



  Another branch of the family came the following day. Couldn't come Sunday as Allie was working. (You can see the marina is bang opposite the docklands development Canada Wharf.)

We wandered around and had a birthday lunch in The Mayflower, a riverside pub overlooking the Prospect of Whitby on the opposite bank. The Mayflower had provisioned and sailed from the very hard where this pub was sited.










The industrial archeology of Rotherhithe is fascinating so I decided to stay an extra day and have a look around. I followed the Thames Pathway which follows the riverside like a towpath.

The dock trade was mainly in timber from both East and West, predominantly from Canada and Greenland by the time this map was drawn.












There's a lot of old history left to see. There were more than one of these. What is it?

A left over crane.

This is the entrance to the city farm.

The footpath was plagued with joggers!

Where I had a cup of tea.

Further round I could see across the river to St Paul's Shadwell Church where Allie is Curate.












And then back to Lady Cate through lovely park and woodland created from the filled in Russia Dock, lying down the centre of the peninsula.

NEARLY SPRING

Yet again, where has that month gone? I must get more disciplined, writing the blog more frequently with shorter entries and more pictures.

Yet more selling

I’ve sold the old bookcase/display cabinet using eBay. I had thought to keep it for all my books and for sentimental reasons. But no, be strong, it must go. This downsizing house clearance business is not easy, especially when sentiment is involved. I suspect modern furniture does not generate the same sense of family attachment as used to be the case.

James was very keen to have the bookcase as it just fitted a space in his place. Bought me a bottle wine as thanks! He and his son came to collect so I got them to put the carcase of the military chest on the roof of my car and I drove it back up to Melton to put in the store.

Doing 50mph in the slow lane was very relaxing. Everyone else has to work round you!

Bike

Is now fully fitted out with mudguards, panniers and padlock. No excuse now for avoiding exercise by cycling and swimming. I can cycle down to the pool in ten minutes. Deep breath!

 

 

It’s not easy getting in and out of the wheelhouse!

I’ve ordered a cover so that I can keep it outside.

 

New bird species

 

Delighted to see a pair of Teal close to Lady Cate. First time I’ve ever seen them. They are delicate and graceful in build and movement. Beautiful.

 [Pictures from Google Images]

 

Mailbox

Really settling in now so I’ve got a mailbox. It has to compete with the many others outside the office stairs so I thought I’d get something slightly different. I needed to paint my name and Lady Cate’s on the side but couldn’t get transfers or stencils anywhere in Woodbridge but I found some children’s play letters, painted them and stuck them on.

 

The finished article.

In place on the office stairway post amongst the others, flag aloft!

 Low tide, clear morning, wide open skies

A picture is worth 10,000 words.

Four more teals?

beaks down flat happily sucking, slurping, sieving across the mud. Not the same as the first pair I saw. I didn’t know there were many varieties of teal. These new ones are most probably a bird I’d never heard of, Garganey, females.

 

Wander in London

Having stayed overnight with Allie, my younger daughter, a curate in Shadwell, I wandered back to Liverpool Street station through the transformed old docklands and the City. The walk to the Tower, despite intense residential development, is very peaceful. Everyone's at work!

Surprising wildlife on the way.

Bold, confident Canada Geese.

Tufted Duck in the old dock waterway.

Memorial sculpture with The Shard in the distance.

Feeding the birds.

A bold black-headed gull.

Cluttons – one of dozens of estate agents dealing with the thousands of flats built in the renovated warehouses.

Early morning grey! The Shard, The Council House and Tower Bridge.

Thames moorings at low tide.

Rear of the warehouses, now converted into flats, with London hire bikes.

The Dickens Inn, St. Katherine’s Dock

St. Katherine’s Dock, rescued anchor at one end of a retractable pedestrian bridge designed by the great canal engineerTelford.

More of Telford’s bridge in the foreground, brutalist hotel, converted warehouses and luxury yachts in between.

The cannon of the Tower of London reminding Boris who’s boss.

HMS Belfast and a modern river ferry.

Hard at work guarding the Tower!

Bemused tourists.

Ancient and Modern

And in to The City past one of its guardians.

 HASTA LA VISTA!