Five hour heavy rain. Inert build more banking. Part 1 28th August 2022

It started to rain heavily at about 6:20am on Thursday. Not torrential rain, but a nice heavy, persistent rain, that had a fighting chance of soaking into the ground. I opened our back door and stood there, reveling in the rain and cool air.  The rainfall continued for five hours. I reckon we got about 1 1/2 inches of rain. Wonderful.  My poor, parched, dry, desert looking garden, with withered, brown plants, has bounced back. I actually got some runner beans!

The affect on Manor farm was quite dramatic. Water everywhere.  Finch pond was full. It had burst the little dam Inert had built, and was flowing down Colebrook channel and through the culvert under Longwater road.  There was standing water, elsewhere. I was glad I donned wellingtons. I had to wade carefully along various tracks, where long, deep ruts had been formed by heavy plant.  My nemesis on the south vehicle track, between the copse and my mighty mound, had returned, forcing me to wade gingerly around its edge.  Other channels, to be part of the site's drainage systems, were also full of water, forcing me to take detours, particularly along the banking for the Main Reed bed.

This site is going to be tricky to walk over, what with all the channels and banking, unless foot bridges have been planned to cross said channels.

We start our four part update looking at the north west part of the site. No surprises there.

Inert appear not to have touched the Finch pond complex. It is possible they may have smoothed off a couple of small heaps of soil, but nothing dramatic has changed. Sincere apologies to Inert if they have done a lot.

They have, however, nibbled at the western north embankment. The western most chunk, which the digger was sat on during my Tuesday visit, is now gone. They have, for some obscure reason, due out a fair size crater on the former edge of the embankment.  Also, the long line of spoil, neatly arranged south of the embankment has been partially flattened. It's all very peculiar.

The going on the site was remarkably firm, given the five hour deluge we had on Thursday. I really expected the area to be quite boggy.