The day at Bridge 8 started off both well and badly: the good news was that the weather was bright and dry but the bad news was that the key to our store at the Swansea Canal Centre had gone AWOL so we had no access to the kit needed to reinforce more of the bank.

Undaunted, we threw our main effort into pointing the bridge. Alan took charge of mixing the lime mortar and Lance, Rowan, Sharon and Chris got stuck in to the pointing. After tea, Lance and Rowan repaired a large hole in the parapet.

Gordon and Andy routed out the old mortar and hacked away yet more weed in readiness for pointing next week, weather permitting.

Mike and Duncan cleared the canal wall leading up to the bridge ready for rebuilding it once we gain access to the store.

Moira, Andrew, Dave and Alan successfully balsam-bashed the entire stretch between Bridges 8 and 7. They disposed of a number of dense clumps along the treeline and several smaller patches and individual plants along the canal edge.

Tea was taken with delightful refreshments both sweet and savoury provided by Ronnie. Chris, there’s no need for that attitude!

The dynamic duo of litter-pickers extraordinaire were on parade as usual.

A group from Glandŵr Cymru joined us to outline their plans to control invasive species.

Although we had to amend our plans somewhat, the day turned out to be very productive. It was great to be able to continue with the pointing of Bridge 8 at last and the balsam-basing was a much needed task.