Inert take a breather? 4th December 2021

Well folks, as Boris bumbles his way from cock up to cock up, the doomeister 'experts' on SAGE reiterate their tiresome calls to lockdown the country in the face of the omicron variant non-event, I was hard pushed to work out what restoration took place this last week.

I did figure, last week, that unless Inert did something fairly dramatic (i.e. continue infill of Cormorant lake south) that I would be hard pushed to discover the next phase of restoration. This proved true. I may be slighting Inert et al, but the only piece of work they appear to have done is worked on the banking separating the south footpath (running alongside the Blackwater river) and the south vehicle track.

This banking is normally a riot of vegetation that screens Manor farm from the south footpath throughout most of late spring, summer and early autumn: most annoying. Inert have either scraped the top of the banking free of vegetation or piled a thin layer of soil on top of it.

Other than this piece of work, I can't see what else has happened this week. This is not to say that activity has simply transferred to another part of the site (e.g. Chandlers farm) or that Inert have worked hard on Manor farm but it wasn't obvious to me. However, I have seen this before, where Inert flit from place to place - normally after a sustained piece of work in one area.

Now it is my turn to be a doomeister. I have a feeling that the new, planned, mighty Manor lake, stretching from the pump station to the copse, will not happen. I can't see where all the spoil that is on currently Manor farm will go. The mighty mounds, the embankments have to be flattened, in addition to the lakes being excavated. Shame, the new long Manor lake would provide great views, especially from the viewing are on the spit of land currently sticking out in to the middle of Manor lake (south).

As they say, time will tell.

I did clamber to the top of  the mighty pump station mound, which has shrunk a little over the past few months, for a 360 of the area. Might as well take the opportunity before it is flattened.