Thursday 25/6/26  Its been seven weeks since we cut all the grass at the mill, so I took our mower and saw swans in the river on the way, they are still a family of six with one white cygnet. The riverside track had been cut by James with the tractor & flail, he also cut a large amount of grass at the mill, which saved us a lot of work today.

Fred has removed a dead tree from the far corner near the small oak tree, this now gives vehicle access all along the river bank for environment agency trucks and makes it easier to cut grass on the track and footpath with the tractor & flail. We removed and burnt the rotten bird table from this area recently to prepare for this work.

It was very hot today so I started working in the shade cutting the end of the lawn by the trees where the flail couldn’t reach. I then cut the far side of the covered brick floor around the cycle rack, steps and Perspex panel. I also cut paths through the meadow.

Eddie switched on the nest cameras and saw two stock dove chicks in the barn owl box. Eddie strimmed around the trees, mowed the small patch of grass where the tables and bench seat are and strimmed weeds from brick floors and other areas.

Anne Marie walked down and put a tall cane in for the sunflower plant which has grown. Cornflowers were falling over again, they were tied up so the flowers can be seen. Anne Marie noticed hollyhocks in flower around the tree, then watered all the gardens.

An insect hotel had been knocked over by the flail which broke one of the legs, so I made another leg from a piece of wood which we fitted to the stand. The top of the meadow next to the grindstone had been cut down with the flail, so flowers can no longer be seen from the footpath, but there are still flowers on the sloping bank.

Last week I setup the trail camera in front of the water wheel pointing at the fallen wall as birds are nesting in holes there, we had seen a wren fly out and we suspected martins were nesting there too, but the camera didn’t capture any birds and we didn’t see any today when working on the opposite bank. 

We had lunch outside under the cherry tree again, the cherries are darker and riper now so we had more of them again today. In the afternoon the broken bench on the Nar Valley Way was in the shade, so we loaded up tools and wood to repair it and went across our bridge. Eddie strimmed long grass around the bench and I cut a piece of wood to fit to the back of it to hold all the parts together and added extra screws. We had a last cup of tea in the railway wagon and then came back.

Anne Marie walked along the Nar Valley Way on Friday morning and sent pictures of two different swan families, both with four cygnets. The white cygnet was at the bone mill and the other family with larger cygnets were downstream towards King's Lynn, we think these are from the nest we walked to in April. 

Thursday 2/7/26  We keep our mower in a secure building at The Maltings and drive it two miles to the mill and back when needed, which is a waste of petrol. The mower could be towed to the mill in the trailer if two seats are removed (we'll replace them for open days). So we put two damaged parking signs in the trailer and took it to the mill.

We switched on the nest cameras and saw two stock dove chicks, but not their parents. We had a cup of coffee with some of the new biscuits which Beryl gave us today.

Our first job was taking two bench seats out of the trailer, one of us worked in the trailer holding a spanner on the bolts and the other person was under the trailer undoing the nuts. One bolt had a stripped thread but we got it out by hacksawing through it. 

I got two levelling wedges from the compound which I brought to the mill after I sold my camper van, they can be part of the loading ramp to get the mower into the trailer if they are needed. We planned to use our scaffold board beside the water butts for ramps, but its too short and rotten, so we’ll get a better one and make the ramp next time.

Anne Marie watered all the gardens. Cosmos and chamomile are now flowering in front of the building, daisies are in flower next to the wall. Anne Marie weeded the river bank and saw a trout again by the corner of the river wall. There were large blue and green Emperor dragon flies darting about above the river.

We had lunch outside again but it was quite windy, the birds have stripped the tree of cherries. Someone has cut the grass between the fences next to the damaged walls since last week, we don’t know who, but they made a good job of it. Our bird table had blown over as we forgot to stake it down, so I put it back and hammered in the stakes.

Eddie fitted new screws and washers to the broken parking signs and put them in the trailer to take back. We crossed our bridge to staple the wagtail sign flapping in the wind onto the gate frame and replace cable ties holding the side tables to the arms of the bench seat, as some had broken. We sat on the seat for a while watching kestrels flying around, we think they are the ones from the nest box near the bench. While we had the stapler, we also fixed the fencing tape to the fence posts around the trench wall as it had come off, we noticed cornflowers were growing on the brick floor there.

We moved the picnic bench in the meadow so Eddie could strim a clearing for it while I removed the insect hotel from the stand, as the canes have come out again, so I’ll try to repair it better. Poppies and cornflowers are still flowering in the meadow. Eddie took the strimmer head apart and removed lots of tangled grass from the spindle. We had a last cup of tea, then brought the trailer, parking signs and insect hotel back.

The 10 Years Ago link at the bottom of blog articles has been changed to 5 Years Ago, as there were hardly any blogs from July 2016 to May 2017, but we started planning our grant funded projects around 5 years ago. The Activity link can still be used to see what was happening in 2016 or any other year.

Graham Bartlett  

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