Thursday 6/2/25  On our way to the mill we looked for two Owl boxes which Jonathan, who visited last week, has put up in trees along the opposite river bank, he's licenced to check nest boxes so he'll let us know if they're used. We didn't find the boxes as the sun was in our eyes but we did see a Little Egret fly up from the river.

Eddie gave the bench seat we repaired another coat of wood paint, then used Hammerite to paint the metal end pieces. I burned the Teasels we cut down a few weeks ago in the incinerator. A pair of Red Kites flew over while we were outside.

I found one of the lantern seed feeders on the ground, the string holding it in the tree had broken again so I made a hook to replace it from thick garden wire that Helen gave us. I filled the feeder and put it back in the tree, 3 Blue Tits were soon eating from it. I put the suet block that Howard gave us in the square feeder and hung it on the feeding station with the other bird food which I refilled. We saw Blue tits eating the peanuts.

Emma joined us and we discussed the 2025 open days, we'll display the bone mill workers research and celebrate the 10 year anniversary of restoring the mill which started in March 2015 with the HLF grant. Emma also looked at the gardens and noticed Daffodil bulbs are coming up in the grindstones and gardens.

At lunch time we sat in the wagon and ate our hot sausage rolls. I told Eddie about the section in the Industrious Rivers book covering the River Gadder water mill at Oxburgh Hall where he also volunteers, Eddie took the book home to read. We now have 3 recent books, as we also have the KL magazine with an article about the mill and ‘The Birth of Brookville’ which Oona gave us about the Methwold Colony.

Debra and Hector the Labrador walked down, Hector found the football which we got out of the river two years ago, we kicked it for him to retrieve. We had a nice chat to Debra about various things. On our way back along the track we found the Owl boxes which Jonathan fitted, he found Owl pellets under the trees, so they are about.

Thursday 13/2/25  Eddie painted the metal strip from the centre of the bench seat he has been working on and finished painting the metal bench ends. We brought another bench seat to the mill today which we will refurbish for Beryl. Eddie repaired the loose centre leg by drilling dowels out and replacing them with screws and making brackets from builders band to hold the leg. I cut and fitted a piece of wood to support two loose seat slats. We will repaint it soon.

I crossed our footbridge to view Snowdrops on our bank, Anne Marie told me she saw them in flower on her walk past the mill, she plans to join us again when the weather warms up, as its too cold for gardening, the ground is often too frozen to dig.

This time of year the chainsaw gets a lot of use clearing fallen trees and cutting firewood, but there is not enough sun on the shed solar panel to charge the tool batteries, so I fitted a socket in the visitor centre for charging from the other solar panel as well. I made a battery cable with crocodile clips which connects to the cigar lighter socket, drilled a hole in the ceiling and fed the wires from the battery through, then fitted the socket in place with a piece of builders band.

I plugged the other inverter into the new socket and charged one of the tool batteries, the inverter fell over so Eddie made a clamp from builders band which hooks onto two bent nails (from an assortment box of nails which Eddie’s mum gave us) to hold it in place. We will now be able to charge two batteries at once.

Howard is a keen birdwatcher and spent the day at the fishing lake, as there are always plenty of birds there and in the river and trees nearby, he carried out a bird survey for a potential new project and recorded 22 species. Howard walked down for lunch with us as Eddie heated sausage rolls in the oven again.

Emma bought us a sack of bird seed which Eddie emptied into our container, he then filled the feeders. Birds had eaten the suet block Howard gave us which we put out last time so I’ll get some more. Beryl gave us a good selection of biscuits today which we all enjoyed with our Coffee in the wagon with the fire alight.

In the afternoon I drilled holes in the legs of the butterfly box stand we made recently and hammered ground stakes through them to hold it in place. We saw Long Tailed Tits eating peanuts from the feeder just before we came back.

Graham Bartlett  

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