The canal icing over

I gave myself about fifteen minutes for a blip detour just before I had to pick up Helena from her afternoon job.  I drove down the turning before Hope Mill Lane, where her job is located, into another one called Ham Mill Lane.  Within two hundred yards the single track lane ended at a hump backed footbridge over the canal, a virtual replica of the one in the far distance of my photo.

I parked beside the scaffolding protecting Ham Mill lock, which is being completely renovated under plastic tarpaulins and then walked about thirty yards up beyond the lock and stood on one of the fishermen's platforms which line certain bots of the water.

I was surprised to see the ice had nearly covered the canal surface and wondered what the ducks and coots i could hear but to see near me would do for food.  The quiet of the p[lace was then interrupted by the train which wandered past up the valley on an embankment just to the right where I used to take pictures of the steam trains running down the Golden Valley.   I liked being there again so will have to come back and maybe see a kingfisher flying past, as I have done in the past.