Oh, it seems like a long time since I've been out to play with Canal Club: a combination of work, holiday, and being ill for a few weeks.

But I'm back now, and today, as a special treat, we ship ourselves out to Abbadabbadingdong, to do some light remedial work on Jubilee Junction. Or at least, that's what Bob said....

First job of the day is dealing with the stricken Dumper. Some dirty rotten swines (the Yoof of today) stole a car, drove it all the way down to the edge of the river, ram-raided the locked gate that we share with the fishermen, bumped the stolen car all the way down to the junction where they set fire to it. Not satisfied, they then decided to play with our dumper, breaking into the toolbox and stealing all the tools. They tried to start it - presumably so they could drive it into the lake - but couldn't, so they broke the brake cylinder, unscrewed and threw away all the filler caps, and discarded the starting handle somewhere in the area.

Charming, eh?

Message to yobbos - if you want to drive our dumper, just join the group. We'll teach you how to drive it, and give you lots of chances to drive it around. If you're interested, we'll probably teach you how to drive a digger as well - wouldn't that be more fun than stealing? Plus the opportunity to play with power tools, sharp bladed tools, hammers, all sorts of lovely toys. End of message.

So, first jobs are for Roy to do a temporary fix on the brake fluid cylinder, aided here by Mike and Malcy, while the rest of us poke around in the sedge for the starting handle. Bob is going to be along later with a truck, and it will be a great deal easier to load the dumper if we can get it going again, even if only for a short time.

Poor Dumper, what a mean way to treat a stately old codger. And yes, we have insurance, of course, but as the excess is somewhat high, it won't be worth us trying to claim for this damage. We'll just have to fix it ourselves.

Malcy and Mike watch while a third party scrabbles around on the grass, looking for the filler caps.

Roy checks that he's done everything possible, while Mike indicates that the starting handle has indeed been found.

Hooray! Clouds of black smoke say "yar booo sucks" to vandals and yobbos, Roy has managed to start the dumper. What a star.

Bob arrives with the beavertail, which is a truck with a flap at the back for loading heavy wheeled vehicles. Roy drives the dumper up under it's own steam, which is slightly worrying for the rest of us, as it has no brakes. Cries of "stop!" at the critical moment from everyone watching. But Roy's a professional, he does it without any problems.

And there it goes, off to the workshop to have the brakes fixed so that we can play with it safely again.

Thank heavens that we have access to the WRG truck, otherwise we'd be paying for vehicle hire as well as paying to get the dumper fixed.

This becomes a poignant moment for the rest of us as Bob drives it away, leaving us looking at: (spine-chilling chords in the background) .....

Oh dear. A large heap of scalpings, which now have to be moved by the barrowload up to the far end of the footpath leading out to the Thames. Drat! If only we still had a working dumper!

Heaping curses upon the heads of vandals and yobbos everywhere, we grit our teeth and start shovelling and barrowing. This goes on for some time!

A moody shot of the junction, with the wind rippling the waters and not a boat in sight, which took some doing, as boats seemed to be going past at a rate of one every minute. This is going to be a very popular canal, once it's open again!

I get sent on a mission up the right-hand side of the Junction, to locate a number of trees that were planted there a few months ago, and to clear spaces around them so that they don't get accidentally mowed.

Er, trees? In this?? Are you sure??

Yay! I've found some! Here's one little sapling, with a newly-cleared breathing space around it.

One down, thirty-nine or so to go..... half an hour later, I've found most of them, and cleared spaces so they can breathe a bit. Having accomplished my mission, I head back to see what the rest of the gang have been getting up to.

Where is everyone?

Aha! All is becoming clear. This may be a mystery to some viewers, but to Canal Club regulars.... it means that one person is using the red strimmer, which uses the fuel in the green cans. Someone else is using the orange strimmer, which uses the fuel in the red cans. And someone else is using the hedgetrimmer, which has to be fed from the special metal can on the far left.

It's therefore vitally important to remember which machine you are using.....

Roy has arrived with the Toytown Mower, and is quizing Mike as to which fuel goes in it.

"Errr, from the red cans?" guesses Mike.

"Nope." says Roy.

"Errrr, from the green cans?" guesses Mike.

"Nope." says Roy.

"Stop teasing," interjects Malcy, "it's already fuelled up!"

So Jim hops aboard, with his ear defenders in place, and sets off to mow the sides of the junction, and any other grass he can find.

Here's Jim being a bit keen, and doing the grass inside the fence, right beside the water.

As you might be able to see, it's at quite an angle!! Hang on tight, Jim!

It's been decided that we'll leave the right-hand section - where I eventually located the trees - unmown, so that the wild flowers there can set seed and hopefully produce an even better show next year.

We did find some ragwort, so a note was made for an extra work party to do some hand-removal during the week.

That was my lot for the day, not a great deal of work but well worth it, to keep the Junction looking nice: it gets a lot of visitors, even on a not-particularly-nice day like today, including walkers, dog-walkers (don't forget to Pick up the Poo, folks) and inquisitive boats.