The blue 'Grundon' has gone. 7th October 2017

As we slip disgracefully into October the weather has been kind, with no nasty frosts to clobber my garden plants.  This weekend is a little busy for us. My daughter had an open morning today kicking off at 9:15. She got the parents from hell to show around the school - they talked to every teacher for 20 minutes each.  As a result of her early start, I had to go shopping at 7:45am. I rushed back from dropping my daughter off at school to firstly get my flu shots (I will react and show flu symptoms) before my partner and I stomped around the reserve.

Frantic cooking for the week ensued in the afternoon, as my daughter and I are volunteering with the Moor Green Lakes Group tomorrow (Sunday). Another early start to clear willow and scrub from Grove hide and view screens.  My daughter will be doing her pyrotechnic duties, while I shall be lopping with loppers and slashing with my trusty bill hook. Alas my partner cannot join us. She has broken her finger. A rather nasty compression fracture.

OK, back to the interesting stuff.  Cemex have been subtly busy i.e. there are definite signs of a lot of activity (churned up and flattened ground), but not all of the actual results. The obvious bits are shown in the slideshow.  The rest may become obvious once vegetation is cleared.

I've mentioned the Longwater Road a lot in this blog. This week I thought I'd introduce you to this unremarkable stretch of road.  I've also photographed the outflow from the filtered water pumped out of the lakes.  I reckon Cemex filter the water through three settlement ponds. If you look at the google earth images, you will see three rectangular ponds to the south of the Blackwater river.  I feel the lake water is pumped into the west most lake, where the coarse sediment falls out. The surface outflow from this pond into the subsequent ponds has finer sediment dropping out successively in each, before the water overflows into a channel and thence the River Blackwater.

Another aspect my partner and I noticed is that the Fleet Hill farm reserve in particular is getting increasingly clear and open. This is apparent with the ponds being visible from the Longwater Road. We think this is a combination of leaves dropping from trees this autumn and Cemex clearing the scrub.

I did notice that there is a lot of small industrial debris mixed in with the soil in various places. Not sure how this is going to be cleared, if at all.  Just be prepared to dig up bits of wire, plastic, iron rods, etc in the future.

Oh I will also introduce you to our bovine helpers on the Moor Green Lakes part of the reserve.  They are tiny little sweeties.