Here we are in the last week of summer. This time next week, we will be in autumn. How mad is that?

Nine of us turned out. Marcus, Steve, Ian, Martin, Ram, Dave, Andrew, Matt, and Paul, and we had two tasks to be cracking on with.

The first was pushing the sides of the path out.

Ram seems to have adopted a policy of “Go Large or Go Home”…

We just kinda went with the flow. We even strimmed around the picnic bench and added to the ever-growing habitat piles.

What can I say? We love the feeling of space and freedom.

One thing that we did learn is don’t try to cut tree branches down whilst clearing scrub. One or the other. Trying to mix it up just doesn’t work because we found that we had the wrong tools for chopping up the branches once they had come down. We need them to be in smaller bits to create habitat piles.

We broke for coffee and Oreo biscuits; yes, they are still half-price at the local shop.

A welcome break to just touch base with the guys putting in the second Mile Marker Post.

Because this is a mile post, rather than a quarter, half, or three-quarter, it needs to be bigger. There was a lot of digging.

But the lads got it in, and luckily, there is only one more big one to do.

Looking at the “after” photos, it all looks pretty good.

To make sure that we are on the right track, me and Kerrie (wifey) went to a place called Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, which is run by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

When our wildflowers grow, the path part of the trail will shrink back to about this size.

I feel confident that we are on the right track.

Buy-Me-A-Coffee/Patron:

We had a super generous buy-me-a-coffee donation of £25 from Monika, Wilson, & Angels Elsa, Norman & Sam. Monika and Wilson live in Colorado, and I enjoy reading their blog, hopefully as much as they enjoy reading mine.

Mental Health/Wellbeing:

Monika and Wilson’s friendship leads me onto the prickly subject of making friends, and more importantly, blokes making and maintaining a male friendship circle. I’ve got a lot of experience doing this, but I don’t know if this is the place to share it.

Let me know in the comments below if you would like me to touch on this thorny subject every week.

I would love to open our arms and say that anyone can join in with us, but we have to limit numbers due to the number of tools that we have and the amount of work to do.

Anyway, I hope that this blog is some sort of an example of how to develop a group of friends and kinda keep it moving. It’s so easy for us blokes to let friendships drift until they become just casual acquaintances at best.

However, I will leave it there.

Moving on, we have a tree that is in a bad way.

We need to work out how to get this out because it’s just going to get worse and worse. Nothing we like better than a challenge!!

Lastly, I did a litter pick after the workday.

Loads of half-empty beer cans around the quadrant. Maybe youngsters realising that lager tastes like pee….

Until next time!

Paul