Once again, the volunteers assembled in the Buried Lock site. There was some rain in the air but it soon cleared away and we carried on with the tasks from last week.

The building team was led by Andrew on the mixer, as usual. Duncan, Alan W & Sharon returned to the by-wash wall. Gordon chipped away old concrete so Alan T could lay good quality stone on the giant blocks. Gordon himself raised the diverting wall.

Insects were tempted out today by the sudden emergence of a warm sun after the early rain. The fruiting ivy on the back wall of the garden was covered in wasps, honeybees, bluebottles, hover flies and ladybirds as the strong scent of the ivy at this time of year attracted hungry pollinators and fellow flyers.

Rowan and his mum, Carly, were with us again after providing such help in the garden last week. They helped Martin plant more Lucifer crocosmia and Rowan even had time to do some much needed weeding of the sedum beds. Our thanks to both of them.

Weed was carted to the compost heap by John Gw & John Grav, who recklessly chose a manual barrow. Andy generously offered to deploy the second motorised barrow – this didn’t go too well as it immediately ran out of fuel. Dave, Chris, Moira and Paul cleared the towpath and Gareth was helped by a friendly passer-by to pull out yet more weed.

Tea was taken with delicious savoury & sweet treats provided by Ronnie.

Another grand day’s work. It’s time for an Open Day in the Buried Lock site next Tuesday.