Thursday 13/4/22 I took the mower and cut the track on the way to the mill, then mowed the area near our bridge. Eddie cut the rest of the grass but left the small lawn next to the Ducks nest as we didn’t want to scare her away. This was the first cut this year and the grass was quite long. Eddie and Ryan straightened the insect hotels which were leaning over again after the high winds.

I brought a small garden fork for weeding the wildflower meadow and put two screws on the inside of the shed door to hang it on. I also brought a second Squirrel proof Peanut feeder as the Squirrel has damaged several feeders. Beryl supplied us with a bag of Peanuts as we get through a lot of bird food, we filled the feeders including the new one, then emptied the bag of nuts into the sealed container.

We switched on the nest box cameras but did not see any activity in the Barn Owl box. The female Duck wandered away from her nest at one point and we could see her eggs are now covered with down, she soon came back and sat on them again. Eddie looked up how long they incubate their eggs, its 28 days, so we need to keep away during that time.

Anne Marie weeded the top of the river bank and planted some Lambs Ears which she brought, these have pink flowers and will look good from the footpath opposite when they flower. Anne Marie also brought Golden Rod and planted them at the entrance to the mill, as they will spread and are quite resilient if they get mown. The new labels were used to identify all plants. Weeds and cuttings were taken to the compost bay.

We all walked along the edge of the wildflower meadow as its starting to gain height and there is plenty of ground cover now. We saw Wild Carrot and Poppy leaves, Poppies should flower next month.

Anne Marie told us a tree was blocking the track near the pumping station, so Ryan and I loaded up some tools and went to investigate. We managed to cut a way through for people to get past. We chopped up the debris and put it aside for wildlife habitat, but took large logs back for firewood which Ryan cut up, split and put in the logstore.

Ryan cut the triangle of grass with the push mower while Eddie and I removed the glass panel over the brick floor to pull out weeds from the feature, Grape Hyacinths are growing between the panel and grindstones, Daffodils have nearly finished flowering. I put some of todays grass cuttings around the Hedgehog boxes, as they like material around them, we will keep them topped up with leaves and cuttings.

Graham Bartlett  

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