Well another wet week of finishing projects.
On Tuesday we were at the Hermitage for the final time – completing the hurdles by the river path. As the posts were put in 2 weeks ago, all that remained to do was finish weaving the willow and elm ‘whips’ ….and back filling with type 1. The day was made all the more fun as there were forestry people felling a number of trees near where we were working. So the work site was fairly hazardous and extremely muddy.
Back-filling was fairly straightforward until we finished the bags next to the main enterance. Then was the long slog (timed at approximately 14-17 minutes there and back again) over to the stables – via the main road due to steps on the other path. Thanks to the excellent work of Pawan, Rob, Neasa and Adreas the path was finished within the hour.
No real idea what happen on Wednesday – Rob & I were on a tree planting course in the Borders – but judging by the photos it involved Corstorphine Hill, Spiraea and Tommy making friends with a vast array of dogs.
Come Thursday – although being promised tree planting, task for the day was to clear out the culvet going into the pond (and some light vegetation clearance for those that had seen to much of the pond). Apologies for the lack of photos but due camera batteries dying, luminous orange mud and the awfull weather conditions; it was really a case of ‘lets try and get this done as soon as possible, so we can get back in the van with the sensible people’ (i.e. John).
The weather defied many forecasts, and every time someone said ‘its definately getting brighter/drier’ the rain responded by getting heavier and wetter (if that was at all possible).
On the other hand the enterance culvet is looking a lot better and the water is flowing a lot faster into the pond. The mud was (as usual) fairly trecherous – given that nowhere was ‘stable’ in any sense for very long. Mud depth varied greatly and I don’t think I was the only one who went home with mud IN my wellies. It was interesting however that we found many frogs in the mud and also some form of toad spawn (?) despite seeming an odd time of year for spawn.
So well done guys for battling the pond again and can but hope we will be tree planting the next time at Polkemmet.
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