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Six of us turned out this morning, with some of us looking very nicely tanned, so good holidays had been had. Marcus, Steve, Martin, Dave, Mark, and Paul.

We had a dilemma – do we replace the youth area under the bridge?

These are the things that we needed to consider.

1, what if it gets used for undesirable activities? Turned into a drug den?

2, what if it gets smashed up again?

3, we are allowing a very small percentage of youth to spoil it for the youth in general, which means this tiny element has won.

4, one of our founding pillars is “a path for everyone”, and we don’t really want to start excluding groups.

So we decided to tentatively go for it one last time.

Firstly, we made some super-strong benches out of 6×2 inch timber, with 120 mm screws through the top and steel brackets on the underside.

We then cemented them in place after lugging the bottom of the legs.

Whilst I hate to say, but if anyone tried to kick these in, there is serious risk of injury. So let’s all appreciate it for what it is, a place for the youth to sit, out of the rain, and away from annoying adults.

If it gets broken again, then that’s it. We are going to give this a 6-month trial, and if it works out, we will do more under the other two bridges.

We broke off at half-time for bacon rolls and a caffeine boost. The bacon rolls kindly supplied by Pauline via buy-me-a-coffee, and they were superb, so thank you very much.

The smell of the bacon seemed to bring everyone out. We had so many people either walking or cycling past today, and everyone was eyeing up our brunch.

We then strimmed the path back so people can walk in pairs and have an actual conversation.

We’re going to do some major thinning-out in the autumn.

Nowhere near enough sunlight is getting in, and consequently, nothing is growing. Even the nettles and bramble have given up!

We strimmed around the benches so people don’t get their legs chewed off whilst enjoying a sandwich and a cuppa.

And we cleared some of our entry points for easy access.

It just makes it as easy as possible for everyone, regardless of ability.

Someone has tried to have a small bonfire at one of our triangles.

I think a bushcraft course is needed. This was never going to work!!

The naughty squirrels have moved our Berrybanks picnic bench again, due to it raining or wanting to be hidden in the woods.

We might just leave it, rather than get into a game of cat-and-mouse with it. The more it gets dragged about, the more chance of it falling apart. Maybe we might install a bin in the little squirrel den??

I will litter pick around it and then see if the squirrels start using the new under-bridge benches, or continue to use this one. If the former, then we can pull it back to where it should be.

Lastly, the gift that keeps on giving is still being as generous as ever.

This is actually two weeks’ worth, apart from around the Berrybanks bench, so really I shouldn’t be complaining.

Next one is Friday at Dunchurch, doing a quick bench repair and then strimming. Then back in Cawston next week at the birdfeeder clearing, strimming southwards the first week and northwards the second week.

Until then!

Paul