Four of us today, swinging pickaxes and mattocks. Oh boy, I can feel my shoulders and arms starting to ache already.

Marcus, Paul, Steve and myself made it today. A good turn-out seeing as there was the Cawston Summer Sizzler BBQ this afternoon. We found the lowest point on the whole of the section adjacent to the golf club. The land falls away quite quickly to the west of the path, into the spinney, but there is a high retaining bank that we needed to scrape a channel through.

You can see how deep we had to dig that channel to get the water to drain. I am hoping that any standing water along this section will find its way down the bank via this outlet. I still think that we need to remove the canopy above the path and let sunlight dry it out. That will be a job for the autumn.

Wildlife and wildflower finds today…

A tough day today but we made great progress. The easier option would have to just stuck to the narrow ballast path, but to waste this lovely wide boulevard just seems criminal.

Next workday is this Wednesday placing a picnic bench near to Potford Dam. How I am going to get the bench up onto the railway line is anyone’s guess, but it will happen by hook or by crook.

We have Debbie from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust joining us and teaching us about tracking and recording hedgehogs. This will open up another avenue on the blog and give anybody who is reading, another hook to get caught by and get involved. You will notice that I have started a Grasses tab. An avenue that I got hooked on, by reading a wildflower forum. I don’t quite have the head-space to start recognising them yet, but it is a start.

Well done everyone today.

Paul