Thankfully the day dawned warm and dry, as we had two important jobs we wanted to tackle. Behind the Men’s Shed, alongside the Mond lock, the community council are installing a splendid full sized horse sculpture made entirely of horse shoes. The area around the lock has got rather untidy recently and needed a bit of sprucing up before the formal unveiling on Wednesday 25^th.

We like a challenge and our volunteers were on it! Gordon led a team of Duncan, Chris M, John and Christina G, Moira, Sharon and Mike F, who did a great ‘black and white’ job on all the railings in an incredibly short time, and how good do they look! Gordon also hacked back a large Buddleia that was growing from the remaining old lock gate and the area was much improved when he finished. Well done the team! The sculpture arrived by lunchtime and we were lucky enough to get a few photos of it being installed as we left.

Bob had other things on his mind and got his brush out to repaint the black bottom of the big boat in Coed Gwilym Park, which is slowly returning to a usable condition thanks to his tireless efforts over the summer.

At the Canal Centre in Hebron Road, lots was going on too. We’re very grateful to Janet and Ronnie for generously donating some lovely plants for the wildlife garden. Martin, Janet, and later Christina, Moira and John G did the digging and planted the variegated grasses, rudbeckia, geraniums, daffodil bulbs and Japanese anemones in the freshly weeded soil. Andrew mowed and strimmed the grass around the stone barge and was proud to create a few stripes! The whole area looked great when they’d finished and we’ll try to keep it that way ready for the formal opening of the Canal Centre in late October.

We had coffee and Ronnie’s rolls and cakes in the Centre, taking advantage of the new hot water urn, and tables and chairs to rest our weary backs. Very civilised compared to some of our tea break venues!

John Gw, Rowan and Lance put up some bilingual signage on the front wall of the building, announcing the Canal Centre and recognising our generous funders. Lance and Rowan brushed another coat of stain on the front gates, and did a bit of internal clearing up in the workshop area.

All in all it was another day of varied tasks at various locations, but every one was well worth the effort with a great result!