General Witterings -
Painting on 'Rosy'

I've finally got around to doing something about the back doors.  They are a small pair of doors - steel on the outside, wood on the inside.  They are traditional narrow boat doors - a centre panel with a swatch of roses, the top panel with a castle scene, the rest of the wood being scumbled (grained) to match the rest of the cabin.

When I bought Rosy, the doors were in need of attention.  They are often open to the weather, so the paint work was in poor condition.  I got the castles professionally repainted, and have been meaning to do something about the rest.  The roses panels are not too bad, so a couple of days ago I rubbed down the scumbled paint work to remove all the loose stuff, and Polyfilled all the cracks in the wood, and rubbed that down when it, too, was dry, and then primed the raw wood and Polyfilla.

Over the weekend, I put on two coats of cream top coat.  The intention was to grain it - I have a tin of scumble, and the necessary rubbers - but I'm having second thoughts!!  First of all, the cream paint looks quite handsome in its own right, and it brightens up the cabin.  Secondly, if I grain it, it might go horribly wrong (I've not done it before!).  Even if it goes OK, it won't match the extant graining.  So rather than having something that doesn't match, I think I'll go for a matching contrast.

On Saturday morning Rex finally re-appeared.  I'd been looking after Jess, his border collie, for 3 or 4 weeks whilst he went to Scotland for a week!!  He was detained in Scotland by the medics who confined him to hospital bed after his artificial heart valve moved out of position.  I've not lived with a dog before, so it was ... interesting.  The next day (when I was painting the doors) Jess re-appeared and was excited at seeing me again.  She smiled!!!  Her smile is delivered thus:

She stretches out her front legs - head low down, bottom up in the air, tail wagging like fury.  Then, keeping her teeth clamped together, she rolls her lips back so that you can see all her teeth.  She obviously reads Dennis the Menace, and copies Gnasher.

I thought she was going to attack me, but it's just a smile.

Toodle pip!!

Bill