Friday 23/5/25  Our bird food supplies were low so I brought suet blocks and fat balls today. Janis and Keith walked to the mill on Sunday with a sack of peanuts and filled the bird feeders, they left the rest of them for us, so today Eddie put all the bird food in tubs and refilled the feeders. We switched on the nest cameras and watched Great Tit chicks being fed, they have grown, Eddie said one was trying to fly up to the hole.

Anne Marie brought Cosmos, Cornflower and Foxglove plants and put them in the new garden, then watered and labelled them as well as watering and weeding the other gardens. Lupins, Bistort and a white Aquilegia are flowering in the garden next to the low wall. Eddie painted the edges and screw holes of the boards on our bridge with wood treatment to protect them against the weather. 

I brought an Oak sapling from my garden so Jan and I went to the wildflower meadow to see where to plant it, I watered an area and let it soak in as the ground was very hard. We saw a Bee going in and out of one of the slots in the Bee box we made.

It was sunny so we all had lunch outside, I put the parasol up which we repaired recently to test it, it seems fine now. Oona has given us a copy of the Swaffham Newsletter with a brief mention and picture of the bone mill in an article about Swaffham History Group. Jan and Anne Marie walked back after lunch.

Fred has removed the bough of a tree which had fallen and was leaning over the bench seat on the footpath, so walkers can now relax on the bench without the tree hanging over them like the sword of Damacles!

The inner door of the visitor centre would not lock, so Eddie and I packed out the lower hinge which made the lock line up with the latch plate, so it now locks securely.

The parking signs used at the open days were all falling off the posts, so we took them to the mill in the trailer for repairs. Eddie and I fitted the boards to the posts with new screws and stapled signs back onto the boards.

Eddie dug a hole and we planted the Oak sapling in the wildflower meadow, as one of the others seemed to be dying. I got a post and hammered it in to mark and support the tree and Eddie watered it. I tied the tree to the post with garden wire.

Eddie and I had a last cup of tea outside, Eddie spotted a Muntjac in the field next to the mill and I saw a Lapwing in the other field again. We took the refurbished parking signs back to The Maltings ready for the next open days on 20 & 21 September.

Thursday 29/5/25  This morning I got an email saying we have not been awarded the grant to build a bird hide, see the project page for more details.

Emma and her baby Grandson Ivor joined us today. Anne Marie brought Aquilegia and other plants and put them in the garden in front of the building and by the low wall.

There were a lot of weeds with very large leaves in the wildflower meadow, we all had a joint effort pulling, digging and strimming them so the leaves don’t starve wildflowers of light. There is one Cornflower among the Buttercups, Ox Eye Daisies and Corn Chamomile, these are all in the area we re-seeded last October. White and Red Campion are also in flower in the meadow.

Eddie treated the rest of our footbridge with wood treatment so all the screw holes and edges are now covered. He then went round with a wheelbarrow picking up our cuttings and putting them in the compost bay. 

I strimmed a large clump of nettles on the slope then cut down tall weeds in the new area we created at the far end of the meadow. Emma noticed birds had pulled out canes from an insect hotel again, so I put them back and cut a piece of wire mesh to size and stapled it over the canes which should stop them coming out. I showed Emma the eggs and pollen in the Bee box we made which is in use.

We had lunch outside as it was sunny. Ivor was crawling on the grass and pulled up weeds and gave them to Emma, so we think he may become a volunteer in a few years. In the afternoon I went across our bridge to see the bench seat now the trees have been cleared around it, the area is much brighter with a better view of the field. 

Back at the mill, Cherries on our tree are beginning to turn red, so Eddie and I covered one branch with wire netting to try to keep the birds off, so we can eat some of the fruit ourselves. Eddie filled all the bird feeders, Goldfinches had eaten all the Nyger seed.

We checked the oil and water in the Gator truck, then I raked up my cuttings and loaded them in the back with the tools from gardening and bridge work, I put the tools away in the shed and tipped the cuttings in the compost bay. There was debris in the river so I got the ladder and went down to pull it out with a rake. My last job was using the push mower to re-cut paths through the wildflower meadow.

Throughout the day we watched Great Tit chicks being fed on the nest camera, one was flying up to the hole and Eddie saw it fledge from the box in the afternoon. They will probably all be gone by next week. 

Graham Bartlett  

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