Thursday 28/8/25  We took our tools back to the mill that we used to put up owl boxes at The Maltings last time, as well as branches cut from the trees to make room for the boxes. We also took two lengths of wood from the fire site which I loaded up.

The steel bench we repaired last week was dirty and rusty so Eddie cleaned, sanded and painted it, there was just enough green Hammerite paint to finish it. We'll repaint the black parts another time.

The garden beside the wall is flowering well, there is montbretia which came from Eddie’s garden, larkspur and dianthus which Anne Marie planted earlier this year, I pulled bindweed off the larkspur stem. The garden in front of the visitor centre still has sunflowers and cosmos in flower, there are white foxgloves there as well now.

The stock dove chicks in the barn owl box were not seen today, apart from one which Eddie saw at the front of the box when he switched on the camera, we think they will fledge soon. There were red kites, a cormorant and buzzards flying overhead today.

I strimmed the oak tree area as well as the corner of the lawn around the plant pots. We then had a visit from three road maintenance men who are staying in Barge Cottages, they looked around the mill and were interested in the finds and history of the mill, I showed the video of the water wheel turning.

I laminated headings for the mill workers and 10th anniversary displays and stapled them to the top of the boards, these will be displayed in the gazebo at the open days on 20 & 21 September. Afterwards we will put these printouts in display books.

I also laminated an open days poster so we went across our bridge and stapled it to the gate frame arch on the footpath. The poster will be put on social media nearer the time, please feel free to share it to publicise our open days. We took cards with us to top up the card box on the notice board as it was empty.

Back at the mill, I got the saw horse out and logged up branches which Ryan cut off the trees when putting up owl boxes, I put them on the log pile to season ready for use on the woodburner stove in the wagon.

Eddie watered the plants and we filled up the bird feeders and saw a blue tit eating the suet block and peanuts while we had a last cup of tea outside. On our way back we saw a partridge along the track. The field next to the mill is full of sheep, they watched us going past.

Thursday 4/9/25  The gardens are still looking good, the cornflowers have been in flower since June. We didn’t need to water anything today as we’ve had plenty of rain including this morning, but it brightened up later.

The windscreen wiper fell off the Gator truck at the last open days, so Eddie got a replacement but we had to take off the wiper arm, drill a hole in it and fit a screw to hold the wiper blade on, then refit the arm on the windscreen.

We are just over two weeks away from our next open days so Emma weeded the site to get it tidy, including the top and side of the pier next to the water wheel. Emma also checked stocks of tea & coffee in the wagon and will top up our supplies ready for the open days. Eddie strimmed all around the site, then filled the bird food.

There were a lot of weeds both sides of the water wheel at river level, so I got the ladder and went down to pull them up including tall weeds in the river and on the brick floor in front of the wheel.

I noticed Google satellite view of the mill has been updated as the fallen wall, shed and timber store are now shown. The images must have been taken during Mills Weekend as the gazebos and parasol can be seen.

Graham Bartlett  

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