After some early windscreen scraping practice, a squad of six volunteers met at Coed Gwilym Park with the promise of a warmer day ahead, to get a few more tasks underway.

There were towpath railings to be painted, three of which had been prepared at a previous session. Each section will be half black, half white for visual impact. The black has been done, so Gill and Gareth got to work with a tin of Hammerite and completed the white section of the first railing before tea break. Whilst it dried they cleared the remnants of muddy puddles from the area in front of the Heritage Centre.

Ronnie was again keen to work on the obelisk plaques, which she had refreshed with a new red background in January. Today’s task was to highlight the raised wording in white paint, no easy task given the small size of some letters and the sheer amount of text on the two plates. But the first coat went on well and with a second coat to follow, and some minor touching-up, the obelisk will soon be resplendent once again.

Meanwhile Mike F, John Grav and Alan T warmed up with a little light spade work. Following the successful creation of a planted border behind the canoe store, we are enlarging the existing garden area bordering the towpath. A new stone wall will be built to connect the two existing walls, which will be backfilled with soil and planted up. Today we cut back the turf and envisaged the line of the first course. In coming weeks we will bring in more stonework and commence the formal build.

Gordon joined us briefly for a cuppa at 10.30, before heading off to another appointment. We’d done all we could by midday, but it had been another worthwhile few hours, taking on tasks which help to relieve the load on our regular, busy Tuesday work parties.