Channel gone. Inlet gone. Finch pond gone. 28th Sept 2019

A reminder about tomorrow's soggy Sunday Moor Green Lakes open day walk.  Kicking off at 10:00am, and finishing at 4:00pm, I'm sure you'd all love to dodge showers and cow poop to have a guided tour of the reserve, along with other activities depending on the weather.

For once, Cemex/Inert have kept to my script :-) :-) :-) A colossal amount of progress has been accomplished, which the post title does not convey. In addition to filling what little remained of Finch pond and the 'Inlet', the boys have :

- Filled in the channel (as mentioned) but extended the infill into Cormorant lake (north) along the gravel bank

- Built up the land level on the north part of what was Finch pond. In many places up to the finish level. Whilst they appear to have built up half of the 5' (1.5m) high slope just north of the copse: very impressive.

- Work has recommenced on the east shore of Cormorant lake (south), with an extensive amount of infill pushing northward.

- There are signs of general clean up and grading all over what was Finch pond. What I can't work out is if the terracing it to remain. From volunteer work on Moor Green Lakes, I would say yes. however, I have been proven wrong before.

- More stuff, i.e. large lumps of concrete, have appeared next to my mighty mound (aka former location of Yellow bridge). I'm not sure if this will be bulldozed into the lakes as is (it is classed as inert material) or if some effort will be made to break it up a little.

-The brand new, shiny chalk/limestone track has been thoroughly chewed up by the lorry traffic. A lot has been ground up to the consistency of quicksand. It is truly yukkie stuff, looking like concealed porridge, and it sticks to my wellies like epoxy.

- I'm sure there are other pieces of restoration Inert have been up to on Manor farm. My short visits do not reveal this.

As I prepared my photographs for posting, I began to realise just how much had been accomplished this week. It is quite impressive.  The question now is will this continue or will the lorry count be reduced to the normal three to four?

Oh, I forgot. My nemesis (mud) is back.  The pump appeared on mid week, but seemed silent this morning. However, this might have been due to the wind direction, carrying any sound of it away from me.  Water levels, despite the numerous down pours, seemed acceptably low.