Thursday 13/7/23  We checked the nest cameras and noticed a white egg in the Jackdaw box which wasn’t there before. We kept watch on the box all day but saw no activity, so the egg is a mystery. Its not a Jackdaw egg as they are speckled blue, and it looks too small for a Barn Owl which is what the box is made for.

We repaired the donation box as a piece of wooden trim around the banknote slot had fallen off, Ryan made a replacement and glued it back on, when the glue set I varnished it to match the rest of the trim. Eddie painted the frame and underneath of the round table, Ryan mowed the paths in the wildflower meadow again.

We took the information board off the visitor centre wall and Ryan made a stand for it, so we can put it on a table at Narborough Fair on Sunday. We cut a notch in the wood to fit the stand of the small display screen, with a metal plate screwed over it so the screen can’t easily be stolen, it will show videos of the water wheel turning and a slideshow of the wildflower meadow. While making the stand I knocked over the box of screws and they all got mixed up so I had to sort them out and put them back in the right compartments.

The blue Lupins have gone to seed, Anne Marie collected seed pods so we can plant them elsewhere, then watered and weeded the gardens. We discussed using the greenhouse for seedlings, we’ll try leaving them in a tray of water as they will need to be left for a week at a time without watering. We thought of offering plants for donations at open days.

Eddie cut down the remaining tall weeds in front of the brick stacks and strimmed the area by the compost bins, then weeded around the machinery area next to the water wheel. Eddie also cleaned some of the bird feeders and topped them up. Birds have now eaten all the Cherries from the tree.

Ryan took down the insect habitat from the visitor centre gable end as one of the logs had fallen out, I found a replacement from our log store which Ryan drilled and fitted, the canes were loose so I cut some more and fitted them tightly into the compartment. Ryan refitted the habitat on the wall.

Emma joined us and pulled more tall weeds from the wildflower area, these were harmless weeds, unlike the poisonous Hemlock we pulled last month. I also helped to pull up weeds, Ryan gathered them all up and took them to the compost bay.

We were visited by Ann and Vivienne from the holiday cottages, they had stayed there in 2018 and also visited the mill then. They walked through our wildflower meadow and looked in the visitor centre which was untidy, as we had gathered up exhibits for Narborough Fair, but they watched a video of the water wheel turning and saw the finds discovered when making the wildflower meadow. I made them tea which they drank outside with Emma.

Friday 14/7/23  We had some very sad news on Friday, Barry Howard who was a regular volunteer at the bone mill between 2016 and 2020 passed away in the morning. See our tribute to Barry.

Sunday 16/7/23  We had a stand at Narborough Fair to publicise the bone mill and recruit volunteers. Emma, David, Ryan and I took displays and finds along including the human skull bone. Our multimedia screen showed the water wheel turning and our wildflower meadow, we also had the model mill on display. There were not many outdoor stalls at the fair this year, but we had plenty of visitors in our room. Many of the visitors took our leaflets with details of the next open days on 16 & 17 September, so we hope they will attend. Several people said they lived in Narborough but didn't know about the bone mill, so the plan to make people aware of us seemed to work.

Thursday 20/7/23  Emma and David had taken the exhibits used at the fair back to the mill on Sunday, so today Ryan put the display boards back up in the visitor centre and I refitted the multimedia screen to the wall and tested it with the new combined slideshow of making the meadow and the meadow in flower. Eddie took the stand off of the information board and Ryan fitted the board back on the wall, Eddie brought the white display panels over and I put them back on the walls. 

Eddie and I put the large metal exhibits back on the outside display area. The anchor strap had been left out in the rain, so the explanation sign attached to it has faded, so will need to be reprinted and laminated before the open days.

Eddie cut most of the grass at the mill while Ryan and I took the chainsaw across and along the opposite bank where a tree had fallen across the track. Ryan cut the tree trunk into pieces, we took some back for firewood. I put the brash aside for wildlife, the track is now clear for walkers. The Nar Valley Way is narrow with tall nettles in many places so I’ve let Norfolk County Council know it needs cutting, but if you use it please also report it, as we know from experience they will only cut it if they get lots of complaints.

Back at the mill Ryan cut up the logs we brought back and put them in the log store. We saw a Duck with three Ducklings in the river, we think they’re the ones that nested at the end of our river wall recently. 

I weeded the Bistort plants I put in next to the Lupins and noticed the Larkspur which Anne Marie planted beside the tunnel exit is flowering. Two blue Lupins are still in flower, I brought red Lupin seeds from my garden which we’ll grow in the greenhouse so we can have a mixture of colours.

Eddie strimmed the grass between the damaged walls, as the ground is too uneven for the mower where it got churned up while clearing the wall. We plan to rebuild the wall this summer and repair the grass afterwards.

I re-arranged photos on the blue boards as we changed them around for the fair, so I put the originals back. Some coins had fallen off the white display board so Eddie and I tried to identify them by dates on the coins and our chart, but the coins didn’t match any in the chart, so we had to leave them loose. I put finds back on the shelves including the human skull, then cleared up the visitor centre, Eddie put empty crates back in the loft and the building is now much tidier. 

Just as we were locking up before we left, we saw a Blue Tit eating from the Nyger feeder, they usually eat mixed seed, its normally only Goldfinches, Redpolls and Siskins that eat Nyger.

Graham Bartlett  

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