Tuesday 4/11/25  The only day Eddie and I could both go to the mill was Tuesday this week. We saw a peacock butterfly soaking up the sun in our compost bay.

We put our bridge across and took tools in two wheelbarrows down to the fallen tree we cleared recently, to bring back the logs to use on our woodburner. On the way I wrote the dates of the next open days on our sign and checked the card box was full.

When we cleared the fallen tree we cut enough away so walkers could get past, but today we cut the tree further back on both sides as a mower will need to get past when the footpath is cut. A pair of swans were in the river nearby.

We cut ivy off the logs and put them in our wheelbarrows to take back, they were heavy so we had a rest on the bench seat opposite the mill and watched a robin on top of the fallen wall and pied wagtails on the visitor centre roof. We carried the logs over the bridge and took them back to the logstore in the Gator truck. 

We had lunch outside and saw blue tits and great tits eating from the feeders, that was before we filled them up. We also saw a great tit fly into the nest box we repaired last year on the opposite bank, we could see its face in the hole, then it flew out.

In the afternoon Eddie cut up the logs we brought back to fit our woodburner stove while I mowed the lawn between the wagon and river wall with the push mower.

Beryl gave us a historic small fire grate from one of the old cottages, it was very rusty so I used the rotary wire brush to clean it. We’ll put it on display in the visitor centre.

Eddie put the logs in the logstore and I tightened two handrail brackets on the bridge and checked that the screw caps fitted to the bridge recently were still holding the floor in place, which they are.

We loaded up tools, screws and wood to go back and put up another of Beryl’s fallen bird nest boxes from the tree near the cottages. We fixed a piece of wood to the box and fitted it to the tree securely with two long screws.

Graham Bartlett  

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