Long Thursday

So I leapt out of bed at 6am to go to a Share the Space event at Old Ford Lock 19 this morning.

Old River Lea junction looking lovely in the morning light.

This was a repeat of yesterday's event with DS and DV, where we engaged with towpath users in Haggerston in the evening rush hour to hand out maplets and share the STS message.

Bobby at Old Ford 19 

Bobby at Sweetwater

It wasn't as busy as we expected, so we took the time to go on down the towpath, to Sweetwater and the Hertford Union looking for more photo-ops for Bobby.

Eventually 11am swung around and we called it a day and I met up with SD and JH at Sweetwater to lead a towpath ranger patrol down the Hertford Union.

We immediately had litter and fly-tipping issues to report, an abandoned Boris-bike and rough sleeping issues to send off to the London Enquiries office.

But the Hertford Union is short and in no-time (or so it seemed) we were at Old Ford on the Regents to say hello to the volunteer lock keepers there. SD, JH and myself are all at various stages of lock keeping experience ourselves so this was a lovely time to chat and share anecdotes.

I returned along the Hertford Union to Old Ford 19 to pick up my bike and cycle home.

6 hours.

Haggerston Lying Down

This was DV, DS and myself; National Towpath Ranger, London Towpath Ranger, and Lead Volunteer Towpath Ranger (Lower Lee). We arrived in Haggerston around 4pm to roll out Bobby and spend some time engaging the towpath using public with the Trust's Share the Space message.

Bobby in Haggerston.

Bobby's off around the country again soon, in the capable hands of DV. He's determined to get as much publicity value out of using him to spread out towpath code as he can before he eventually succumbs to the punishment that kingfisher doles out.

2 hours.

How to talk with strangers.

"Leading Practical Volunteer Events"

This was a training day at House Mill, Three Mills, a lovely, and great smelling, 18th century tidal mill building.

Mills!

There were ten people on the course: a fair mix of old staff, new staff, and old and new volunteers.

There were a few important take aways, but some of the most important for me were about the incredible importance of preparation and delegation, styles of leadership, and building confidence in how to talk with volunteers.

This excellent TED talk by Amy Cuddy on body language was referenced heavily in that second part. 

I'd like to add another useful video. A lot of my time on the towpath is spent approaching members of the public, to offer help, to ask questions and to engage generally. This one's for everyone who struggles with confidence in approaching strangers in public...

6 hours.

Limehouse KD Scooter Blues

Another wet Sunday afternoon, but the day was cheered by the unexpected arrival of KD to accompany me on today's patrol.

We walked out from Limehouse Basin, along the Limehouse cut, me pushing my bike and KD doing sterling work picking up litter as we went. We passed out the usual dozen or so maplets to visiting towpath users too.

At the floating towpath I spent 5 minutes cutting back a bit more of the overhanging foliage, then we crossed Bow Locks to Twelvetrees.

KD points out the scooter.

The remarkably clear water showed us first a scooter in the water, then, less prosaically, a delightful pair of kingfishers working on the far Bow Creek bank.

We strolled on to Old Ford Lock, where we left the rubbish and while I made tea we checked that the lock on the sanitary station door was still working properly.

2 hours.

Bits and bobs

Had a lunchtime meeting with my manager DS and TO.

Talked about the towpath ranger role and what we should be getting up to through the Winter. Then I headed for Docklands and picked up a new uniform sweatshirt (for me, to replace the one that doesn't fit), some wooly hats for volunteers now it's getting cold, and a hi-vis backpack to put the towpath ranger gear into (it doesn't fit very well in the panniers supplied. I'll use those for smaller jobs.

2 hours.

Danger Weird!

Another excellent patrol with the Thursday crew: PA, SD & JH. We walked up from Tottenham Locks through Stonebridge and Picketts Lock to Ponders End Locks.

PA & JH

Issues reported included rough sleeping, litter, a blocked Elsan and mooring problems. We also trimmed back overhanging foliage where it was thought to be causing issues and handed out a few maplets to passers by.

Not sure the plastic rose helps here.

PA & SD trimming back eye-catching stuff.

2 and a half hours.

"Just Read The Instructions"

Today I was checked out as a lock keeper for Old Ford Lock 19 and Carpenters Road Lock.

This was a Competency Assessment And Training Scheme day, alongside three other volunteers and a member of staff, learning the fairly simple operation of Carpenters Road Lock, and the specific things to make sure DON'T happen there - and the finer details of operating Old Ford Lock 19 including the various ways of triggering an emergency shutdown and reset procedures for when that happens!

A lot was made of contacting M&E when things go wrong and can't be reset. And the best way to do this is to call London Enquiries or the weekend emergency number.

The most emphasis was on being observant, watching not only the controls but what was going on in and around the locks, and keeping in communication with the skippers through the locking process.

I enjoyed all of this and asked a lot of questions about a things around the locks to our instructor AF, who fortunately shares my sort of engineering curiosity and could answer all of them.

Check out my trained fox too!

4 hours.

East Wick to Tottenham

Good company for this patrol along the Lee navigation: PA, SD and JH always have a great supply of banter and good questions for me.

JH, PA & SD

We encountered and reported some rough sleeping issues, fly-tipping and overflowing bins, as well as answering questions from boaters and the towpath-using public. Here and there we also pruned back some of the thorny wild roses overhanging the towpath.

At Lea Bridge, this sign needs replacing:

Need a couple of new signs on this bridge.

We finished with a tea break at Markfield Park.

2 hours.