Thursday 6/3/25  On our way to the mill a Kingfisher was flying along the river, we saw it several times between the fishing lake and mill, but I couldn’t get a photo. At the mill I noticed the single Crocus beside the grindstone had returned this year and two purple Anemones were flowering on the river bank.

We bought green paint for the bench that Eddie donated as we didn’t think it looked very good painted all black. Eddie painted the wooden slats green which will need several coats, but it looks much better.

I worked on Beryl’s bench using the brown stain which suits this bench well. Eddie mixed the stain with filler to repair two broken areas which dried quickly as it was a warm sunny day, so he sanded them down.

We had a visit from Gail, Tracy and Lindsey from Marham and Swaffham, they were walking the Nar Valley Way and looked around the mill and visitor centre, I told them about our open days on 10 & 11 May which they hope to attend.

I brought some suet blocks and put one in the square feeder, we filled up the other feeders with peanuts, seed and premium fat balls which Beryl gave us last time. I topped up their drinking water.

We had lunch outside and saw Long Tailed Tits eating suet balls and a Great Tit eating peanuts. A Pied Wagtail was on our visitor centre roof and we saw a Blue Tit go into the nest box which we repaired recently on the opposite bank. Eddie spotted a Great Egret flying behind the mill, which landed in the field.

In the afternoon Eddie gave the bench an extra coat of green paint and I got another barrow of mole hill soil and spread it on the sand in the wildflower meadow where we filled the hollow dip last time, we’ll spread wildflower seeds there soon. I also cut up the rest of the logs we brought back two weeks ago.

Beryl was given a new bird nest box, so we took some tools back and fitted it to the garage wall where it can be seen from her window, as birds will start nesting soon.

Thursday 13/3/25  Daffodils were flowering in the grindstones but we’d had a lot of rain which made them fall over, so I put garden wire round them and hammered a stick in to hold them up.

I brought my damp meter which Eddie used to sort out the logstore, anything below 20% moisture can be used on the fire, anything over needs to be left to season. The logstore now has all the dry wood and the pallet next to it has the newly cut logs for seasoning. Eddie lit the fire in the wagon today, he brought sausage rolls again to heat up for our lunch, he also brought more logs in from the logstore to keep the fire going.

I took a rake and the tub of wildflower seed to the new area we made recently in the meadow, I raked the soil over and spread seeds, then trampled them in. Eddie did the same on the small area next to the trench. These should flower in May. We noticed the Oak saplings all have shoots.

Eddie filled the bird feeders and I repaired the seed feeder which was missing a perch. I used a bolt with sleeving on it which I heated with our weedburner to shrink it on, this gives birds claws better grip. I screwed the bolt into the feeder which I then filled with seed. I also put the mixture which Beryl gave us on the bird table and feeder tray, put another suet block in the square feeder and topped up the water.

We got Beryl’s bench out of the visitor centre to rub down, but it started hailing, so we put the bench back indoors and Eddie sanded down the filled areas. When the hail and rain stopped Eddie painted the rest of the bench outside with stain.

The solar panel on the railway wagon which powers lights had stopped working as a wire had come out of the terminal block due to high winds, so I reconnected it and screwed the block to the wagon and clipped the cable in place to stop them blowing around. I used the LED strip light left over from the shed to replace the lights inside the wagon as one had stopped working and they were not very bright.

Wildlife seen flying today were Grey Wagtails, Swan and a pair of Geese. A Moorhen was walking about outside the wagon, and four Swans were in the river on our journey back when we also saw a Little Egret fly up from the riverside track.

Graham Bartlett  

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