Manor lake infill continues, slowly. Tiny bit of footpath banking removed. 15th January 2023

I feel, dear reader, as if I have grown gills or webbed feet, it has rained so much of late. Ground conditions are soggy, muddy and soft in places. Lakes and rivers are bank full. There appears to be a glimmer of dry weather for five days, followed by one day of rain, with a possible further week or two of fine weather to follow.

I ventured to the Manor farm restoration on a sunny Wednesday morning. The footpath was flooded near its Longwater road entrance, and around the sewage works. It places the water was so deep, small dogs would have to swim through the puddles. One enterprising Moorhen had taken up residence in one particularly long, deep puddle, running by the side of the Longwater road.

What of current restoration progress. Well, Wednesday revealed two bulldozers working on the infill of Manor lake. When I got there, the bulldozers were concentrating on the western and north western edge of the infill area. Piles of spoil had appeared.

Not sure why, but Inert seem to enjoy building huge piles of spoil, before pushing them into a lake. They even built a couple of 'chasms', which I have seen them do before. This, instead of pushing the stuff directly into a lake.

Whatever their strategy, my Sunday morning on site stomp revealed that Inert had pushed infill further north, east and a little way south.  The southeast corner of the infill looks a little lower, and so it should be as it is much higher than the peninsular. The north edge of infill is approaching the existing banking around the lake, reducing the wide channel to quite a narrow one for drainage purposes. I think the east edge of the infill is wrapping further eastward around the peninsular.

A large gravel bank has either been flattened or removed. While the curious large hole on the northeastern edge of the infill has now been filled in. I also noticed that the yellow pump is now fully plumbed in. Though I find it curious why Inert would still want to drain what little is left of Cormorant lake into Manor lake.  The water is supposed to drain westward, therefore the remaining fragment of Cormorant lake should be plumbed into the new, west flowing drainage system.

In an even more curious move, Inert have removed a tiny piece of banking which runs along side the Blackwater footpath. A MGLG member notified me of this. I think I would have missed it if he hadn't.

I don't think Inert will complete filling in Manor lake before the breeding season starts in March. It remains to be seen if they continue the infill, much like they did with Finch pond or if they will accede to the MGLG demands to cease work until July. Sigh.

Finally, our old faithful pump was not pumping. I guess water levels are low enough in Manor lake.