Thursday 3/7/2025 There are a lot more Cornflowers in the garden in front of the visitor centre this week and the Sunflower plants have grown much taller and were starting to lean over, so I put staples in the building wall for Eddie and Anne Marie to run garden wire along to support them.
Anne Marie put in Dianthus, Foxgloves and Pink Campion plants which she brought today and watered all the gardens. Anne Marie also brought Wildflower and Tree identification books which will be useful.
We moved the swinging footbridge round and Eddie painted the other handrail with green Hammerite. I fitted a washer under one of the screws on a bridge board as the floor was peeling up causing a trip hazard, I took the sign off the handrails so Eddie could paint the uprights.
Anne Marie and I pulled up some white Yarrow which has taken over the wildflower meadow, we cleared an area for Foxgloves and Pink Campion which Anne Marie planted and I cleared more away from where Poppies and Cornflowers are growing. Yarrow is perennial so pulling it out removes the roots and stops so much coming back next season.
The large purple Poppies near the compost bay had finished flowering and the seed pods had dried out so I cut them off and saved them for re-seeding the meadow and other areas.
We were going to scrap the broken butterfly box but I found a piece of thin plywood to make a new back panel and roof sections which I cut with my tracksaw and screwed to the box. There were missing canes from the top section so I cut and fitted replacements, then fixed the box to the stand and put it in the wildflower meadow.
At lunch time we all sat outside again and had some Norfolk Shortbread made by Anne Marie which she brought for us, which we really enjoyed with our tea. The birds have eaten all the Cherries from the tree.
In the afternoon Eddie finished painting the handrails on the bridge, I replaced the sign when the paint dried. Anne Marie and I loaded up the Yarrow we pulled out and I tipped it in the compost bay. There was a Cinnebar Moth Caterpillar in the meadow.
My last job was filling the bird food and water while Eddie cleaned the rug from the wagon by beating it against the outside of the wagon to get the dust out. We saw a Blue Tit eating peanuts from the feeder just before we left. On our way back we saw a Kingfisher flying just above the river.
Thursday 10/7/25 Anne Marie watered all the gardens including Foxgloves put in last week on the river bank. Sunflowers have grown again so Anne Marie put another wire along to support them and hold them away from the dormers of the building. The Cornflowers and Coreopsis are still flowering well.
Our nest box camera cables run down the tree and up the river bank, then underground to the screen in the wagon. Last week I noticed animal runs have eroded the soil and exposed cables at the top of the river bank, so today I brought trunking to run the cables in. Eddie cleared soil away and found the end of the trunking coming up the river bank. We cut a piece of trunking to fill the gap, put the cables inside and fixed the cover on. Eddie got a barrow of soil and covered the trunking, then watered the soil. I switched the cameras on to make sure they are still working.
Eddie got buckets of river water and filled our tank which we took to the meadow and watered the Oak saplings, Cornflowers and Marigolds as well as the Foxgloves which Anne Marie planted last week on the edge of the meadow.
It was 28 degrees today but we had lunch outside as it was cooler at the table in the shade, than in the wagon. We saw a Pied Wagtail on top of the water wheel and a Goldfinch flew down to the Nyger feeder which we had filled up. We watched a Red Kite flying in the field.
A Hollyhock is in flower beside the Cherry tree, one came up there last year and Eddie pulled the dead stem out today, this year a dark red one has flowered which I wired to the tree to support it. We watered the other gardens again as the soil had dried out by the afternoon, we also watered the Cherry trees.
Our bridge floor panels are peeling up at the joins so I brought a metal carpet cover strip today. I cut two pieces to size, Eddie filed the sharp edges off and painted them black to match the bridge floor. The paint dried quickly so we fitted them to the bridge, this holds the edges down and gives a safe level surface.
Graham Bartlett
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