We are now the excited owners of a 27 year old Defender 90, in badly flaking Hammerite black with white roof. He needs a bit of care and adjustment, but Ant has already stripped out the four fold-down buddie seats from the back, had a tinker with his bits and pieces and jet-washed his engine. So with a new name and new locking wheel nuts, "Raymond" took his first trip to the wood and sat proudly in the 4x4 spot whilst we lugged fresh water and supplies down into camp.I cleared another stretch of the stream; from Toads, half way to Holly bridge before I slipped one too many times down the bank with arms full of debris and had to stop to put in some more steps. I love working in the stream and managed to get past the bend where the bath-pool is and only stopped when the Rhodies were replaced with brambles... My sensible head told me that an impending posh hen do means I should come armed and wearing something suitable for it instead - I'm going to struggle to pull off a "Lady" at ladies day as it is, without my arms and legs in shreds too. After lunch Tracey turned up to help with Becky, and together we cleared the last of the Rhodie on the south valley clearing - felt damned good to get that one out.
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| Creeping Thistle |
Dug out some more of the clay slop from under Toad bridge for Tracey to cover a little more of the end of the bridge and for me to load up the bank on the other side. We are hoping that little by little we will be able to dig out some small pools in the stream to encourage more wildlife down to live in/by the water.
Clocked another 3 new wildflowers on the way out too, so all in all another magical day with the splinter count now on 6 (3 removed and another 3 just irritating) no doubt the counter will have increased by morning as my fingers swell with the as yet unseen ones. Amazingly though, the bite counter did not move this weekend... Marmite doing its job :-)
