If I had a pound for everyone who said “can’t wait for autumn”, I’d have a slightly fatter wallet.
However, the grim reality is rain, followed by more rain, and then some more. Plus, it’s cold.
Throughout the morning it was threatening 94% rain, but it didn’t actually come down in sheets. More a little bit of drizzle here and there. It rained all afternoon though, and we have Storm Austen hitting the west coast on Thusday/Friday, followed by Storm Boelo on Saturday/Sunday.
Nobody is getting off scot-free.
One of the good things about autumn is that everyone gets their countryside waxed cotton jackets out. I rather like the farmer look. Custodian of the land and all that.
This is how I think I look…
And this is how I actually look…
But anyway, I digress.
Twelve autumnal adventurers turned out this morning. Matt, David, Martin, George, Reece, Dave, Andrew, Mark, Ian, Marcus, Steve, and Paul.
We had three main tasks on the agenda.
Mile Marker Posts:
We put in the last two posts. We now have a series of posts that run from north to south.
These posts were every quarter mile when it was a working railway and identified specific parts of the line.
It’s a nod to the line’s heritage, bringing a bit of that history back into today.
Massive thanks to Martin and his team for getting them all in.
Nesting Boxes:
We have three nesting boxes made from a timber donation from Pat, two made by Cawston Brownies, and a ceramic starling box donated by Dave.
Life on the end of a ladder is not the best when the wind is getting up, but we got them ready for the new year. It just gives the birds a chance to get used to them being there, and hopefully, they will be used in the first season.
The first photo is of me in my waxed cotton jacket, in case you thought I was joking earlier…
Thinning The Trees:
Muggins here forgot to take a “before” photo, but we thinned out a lot of the trees that don’t want to grow vertically.
Doing this gives the trees that we leave a fighting chance of growing to maturity.
Coffee and a random mixture of biscuits came round, and we sheltered beneath the underpass.
We had lost Martin, David and Matt at this point, but they did reappear moments later.
We cracked on with more tree thinning and general vegetation cutting back.
Ian got our hedge back under control.
And basically, that was the morning done.
When the sun comes out again, we will have pools of sunlight on the ground, so all will be good.
In other news…
World Map Update:
Our reach continues across the globe!! This, according to the blog stats, is where people are in the world, who have looked at the blog!!
Svalbard (the bit middle top) will never turn blue because they use Norway’s internet country code, which is .no; the country code for Svalbard is .sj, but Norway refuses to release it for some weird reason.
Everyone in Estonia also refuses to look at the blog!! Try as I might, nobody will take the bait.
(If you have a VPN like Surfshark, please don’t create a click from a country in white. That would be cheating…).
We’ve Been Published:
Local author, Alice Lenton, has created a book with things to do in the area.
It really is superb, and we are in it.
Have a look here, order a copy, and get out with your kids exploring.
Strava:
I did the whole circuit, which is 6.1 miles.
It really is a nice walk along the greenway, bridleway, and through the woods.
Dunchurch Bridleway:
Me and Lorne just worked on getting a bit of width to the trail.
We had a wafflicious coffee break.
Before cracking on.
Whilst trying to preserve the wildflower bits on the path edge.
To finish:
Usual weekly litter-pick.
And to be fair, half of this was our own rubbish from putting the posts in.
Mental Wellbeing:
Focus on the things to be grateful for, rather than the negative things.
Put a plan in place to change the negative things – you just need to change 1% per day.
Journal to keep a record of your progress.
In 90 days, you will be a new person.
It really is that simple.
Thanks for reading if you got this far.
Until next time!
Paul
