A bit of a weird one this week where I need to take you back to 2020 when me and Kerrie, my wife, put in a little pedestal bench with views across the heath.

In June of last year we had a freak storm and a large tree smashed the bench quite badly.

I did a makeshift repair with every intention on getting back to it, but never did, so it ended up broken some more a few weeks ago and back in the repair shop.

Today we replanted it where the Berrybanks picnic bench used to be, after fixing some leg extensions to it.

Super job from David and Matt. The repair was with random bits of wood from my shed so all it cost us was £6 for the bag of Postcrete.

It’s a big tick for the reuse-recycle-repair ethos that we have.

There were actually nine of us today. Matt, David, Marcus, Reece, Steve, Martin, Dave, Mark, and Paul. Martin did a good litter pick whilst everyone else strimmed. However, the bench story, unfortunately, doesn’t end here.

The original picnic bench, which we kinda gifted to the youth in their little den, has been broken.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. It seems utterly stupid to smash one of the seats off. I just don’t understand why the dots don’t connect that if there is no seat – there is nowhere to sit. Anyhow, I am not doing anything with it, if at all, until after September when the kids go back to school.

I’m sure someone has been handing out the stupid pills this week.

Someone decided to have a BBQ. A bit risky with it being so dry, but then to not realise that you have to take the thing out of the cellophane and cardboard box, and place it on a non-flammable surface… Come on…

I hope you enjoyed your sausage!!

Anyway, enough of the woe is me.

We tackled the stretch from Berrybanks to the underpass with the strimmers and pushed back a lot of wet grass. We had rain last night, despite the flood plain being pretty dry.

It’s hard to imagine that this was a deep pond only a few months ago.

We pushed back the width and all the time kinda having one eye on the cutting back season, which starts on the 1st September.

We have plans, and to keep us on the straight and narrow, I have put them in the tab above called September Jobs so we hit the season running. There’s a lot to do…

We broke for coffee and cake. Someone gave me a farmhouse fruit cake and not really being a cake sort of person, I brought it along.

We had lost Martin at this point, but we found him later on with a big bag of litter.

A good haul.

The wildflower glades are struggling a bit this year, but there are little pockets of goodness.

We probably need to grub out the bramble roots and agitate the soil a bit.

I visited a Forestry Commission reserve last weekend and this is their idea of laying a hedge.

No mercy spared here at all…

In other news, we have had a new buy-me-a-coffee subscriber. Thank you so much, Simon.

After a busy morning, we retired to the Bear Pub and enjoyed a lovely lunch, and more planning.

It’s all good stuff.

Next week we are attempting to fix our schoolboy error at the park bench.

I will not lie, it’s been a bit of a challenging week with the benches. Let’s hope it’s just a blip.

Until next time!

Paul