Thursday 14/8/25  When we arrived at the mill two sunflower stems had fallen down and broken, so I hammered in more fencing staples, Eddie held the stems in place while I attached thick garden wire to support them. There are a lot more sunflowers out now, red and white cosmos are also flowering. Eddie got buckets of river water and we watered all the gardens and cherry trees, a red kite was flying above us.

Emma walked down and used long shears to trim grass at the edge of the outside display as well as weeding the upstream brick floor. Eddie and I took the water tank to the wildflower meadow and watered the oak saplings as well as the foxgloves, marigolds and cornflowers which were planted recently, cornflowers had a small white butterfly on them.

While in the meadow I fitted screws in the back of the insect hotel I repaired last time to hold the top of the back panel to the box. A post marking the edge of the meadow had been knocked over so I used the sledgehammer we were given recently to drive it into the ground after Eddie poured water down, as the dry soil felt as hard as concrete.

Andrew used the flail to cut the riverside track and entrance to the mill earlier in the week, which all looks good. The council hardly ever cut the footpath opposite the mill and it gets overgrown in summer, so we have decided to keep it cut ourselves using our tractor and flail which several people are able to use.

We had the nest cameras on all day and got a good view of the two stock dove chicks moving around the nest box, they have grown quite big now. There was a dragon fly above the river flying around today.

We had lunch outside again, Beryl gave us apples from the tree in her garden and Eddie brought cucumbers from his greenhouse for us all. In the afternoon Eddie and I filled the bird food including their water bowl. Emma weeded the bottom of the main trench, I strimmed nettles and weeds around the compost bay and woodstore, I also weeded in front of the wildlife habitat which was overgrown. 

The table made from a gear wheel in 2016 was going rusty so Eddie wire brushed it and repainted the top using paint left over from the bridge handrails, then used the rotary wire brush to remove rust patches on the bench next to it, made from spare water wheel buckets. 

Debra and Hector walked down, Hector went straight in the river so we threw a log in for him. Last week we saw the football which dogs play with had dropped down into the fallen river wall, Debra said Hector wouldn't be able to reach it, so I got the ladder and retrieved it. Hector saw the ball and came running over and started playing with it.

Thursday 21/8/25  Our first job, yet again was adding more wire supports for the sunflowers which are even taller and had fallen down again. More cosmos are in flower, there are pink ones now as well as red and white ones.

We saw three stock doves on the nest camera today, two chicks and an adult were moving around the box. Anne Marie weeded and watered the gardens and pulled dead leaves off the sunflowers.

Our green bench was not comfortable as the seat sloped downwards, so we took it apart and raised the main frame, Ryan bent up the angle brackets which the seat bolts onto. We put it back together and tightened the bolts and its better now. We plan to repaint this bench soon.

All four of us had our lunch outside, Ryan brought Greggs sausage rolls for us which we enjoyed, Eddie brought cucumbers for us from his greenhouse again.

Eddie filled the bird food then we loaded up the owl boxes made by Rob which he gave us before the last open days, we also loaded tools, builders band and wood for fitting them and went back to The Maltings to fit the owl boxes in trees there.

I got the forklift and cage and we went to the trees near the fishing lake. Ryan put the barn owl box and tools in the cage and I lifted him up, he cut branches off which were in the way and fitted the box in the tree with builders band cut to size in the cage. We then went to trees near the holiday cottages to put up the tawny owl box. Eddie loaded up the cuttings, we'll save the larger branches for our woodburner stove.

Ryan found another suitable tree on the far side of the field next to the river, so we went round and put the little owl box up there, Ryan had to pull lots of dead ivy from this tree. There were ducks in the river while we were working. Robin’s memorial bench nearby, next to the artificial heron had fallen over so I put it back upright. Eddie and Ryan took the cuttings and ivy to the fire site while I put the forklift and cage away.

Graham Bartlett  

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