I have said on many an occasion that I cannot figure out the logic of how Inert go about their restoration. I'm sure (well I hope) there is a perfectly rational explanation.

My Wednesday visit is an example of this. Inert have been filling in Manor lake west to east. As the lake is filled a large flat area is created, able to support the weight of heavy earth movers; which can drive onto this area and dump their soil reasonably close to the edge of the infill, whereupon the bulldozer has a short trip to push the stuff into Manor lake.

A game plan I can cope with.

Inert, however, in their indomitable fashion, have other ideas.

Firstly, the heavy earth movers do not venture onto the infill area. Instead spoil is dumped on its western edge. Our intrepid bulldozer driver then whizzes along the entire length of infill; backwards to get to its western edge, then forwards to push spoil along to its eastern edge, and thence into Manor lake!

Secondly, on Wednesday I spied a digger on the eastern end of the banking separating Manor lake and the Main Reed beds. Heavy earth movers would reverse along the length of this banking, from west to east, to dump their spoil!

I guess it makes sense to someone. All I can see is that this strategy uses huge amounts of excess diesel and prolongs the restoration...unless the restoration is nearing its end, and Inert are now tinkering, and Manor lake will not be filled in.

Anyway, be that as it may, water levels in Manor lake were very low indeed as our faithful pump was chugging away.

Firstly, a map of where Inert were working, before our usual slideshow

One major danger of my weekly stomp around the restoration is that I miss what has happened. Manor farm is quite large. I do not visit all of it. I have to deduce what Inert and Cemex have been up to.

This latest post in a case in point. The Colebrook, where it passes under the Longwater road, has been a bit clogged and overgrown of late. Certainly the stretch immediately after the culvert has been well overgrown. Last week I parked in the Moor Green Lakes car park, as my spot on the Longwater road was taken. This meant I missed the clearing of the Colebrook. I was able to park on the Longwater road this morning, and so noted what had occured.

On the other hand, Wednesday's stomp from the MGL car park, saw me noticing come contractors beginning work on Manor farm, just west of the footpath leading to said car park. They had two heavy pieces of machinery with them. A ride on mower, with a large blade. And a smaller remote controlled vehicle armed with a bulldozer blade and a stump grinder.

On Wednesday, I saw the man with the remote control vehicle get it to grind up logs, left over from recent tree clearance (another action I had to infer; quite easily due to felled trees and branches). I found it very odd that he should be tasked with grinding logs. Normally they are left to rot and provide a habitat for insects and animals. I don't think he was engaged in stump grinding.

The man with the sit on mower, cleared a path through the area. I discovered on my Saturday stomp that the path paralleled the Blackwater valley footpath (aka south footpath), along the south shore of the current Manor lake, to appear a few metres north of the Bailey bridge. Very curious as to what it is for.

Unfortunately, the contractor was tasked with cutting a path through the undergrowth; which he duly did.  Big problem. A lot of the undergrowth he cut down were brambles. While the brash was cleared, the brambles will immediately regrow; meaning this task will need to be done again in a couple of years time.

Other news. Inert are playing at building mounds again. After flattening pump station mound they are replacing it with a new mound on exactly the same spot!!! Why not simply bulldozer the stuff straight into Manor lake??? Unless, of course, this mighty mound is topsoil. I'm dubious. Inert just like building the ultimate sand (soil) castle.

They have been busy, pushing yet more stuff into Manor lake, but curiously building up the infill height. I am totally perplexed by this. They have pushed further east, along the north of the peninsular, but progress is slow.

Oh, our faithful pump was off, but water levels were really low in all lakes as, finally, we have had a long stretch of dry weather.

Another oh. The Met Office is warning of a Sudden Stratospheric Warming event, the fruits of which may hit us near the end of February. Mad, barmy WX Charts insists that the UK will be hit with a snow bomb (aka Beast from the east), with 2" of snow falling per hour an temperatures dropping to -11C.  Hmmm, we shall see.

A final Oh. Not only did Scotland thrash England last week at Twickers, they also went on to thrash Wales this week! The Irish stuffed the French. Only Ireland and Scotland have a chance of the Grand Slam.

Before slideshow, a map to show where strange new path was cut. It is feasible that the contractors cut another path along the east shore of Manor lake, but I didn't discover if they did as I didn't go far enough east. I'll find out on my Wednesday stomp.

I couldn't park on Longwater road! Both 'parking' spaces were taken i.e. north and south gated area to Fleet Hill farm) were taken, while it is impossible to park in the entrance area to the south footpath of Manor farm due to recently installed bollard. I had to turn round and head for the Moor Green Lakes car park.

This actually proved most fortuitous, as I bagged a huge number of fantastic photos of wildlife. I posted a quantity on the RSPB community website community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/282081/odds-sods-2023#pifragment-4285=13, and will post more as the week progresses.

I had to approach Manor farm from the west, which gave me the opportunity to photograph the new channel (which plumbs Moor Green Lakes with Manor farm) and the west side of Manor lake.

I did not walk up to the bailey bridge, but stopped just west of the peninsular. I could see all I needed to see from there, which was that the infill of Manor lake proceeds slowly, and that Inert appear to be indulging in their favourite past time of building mounds of soil. I'm still baffled why they don't simply push the stuff straight into the lake.