Mighty mound appears near pump station. Still wet. Not much done on land mass this week? 20th February 2021

Yet more rain. I swear I'm growing fungus in my feet.

I did a mid-week visit, early on Thursday morning. No sign of anything working on Manor farm. Indeed, the gates across the bailey bridge were firmly closed to vehicular traffic!

I am not sure if Inert worked on the land mass this week. It didn't really look so. I did spy a mighty new mound of spoil between the bailey bridge and pump. Intriguingly, I also spotted more spoil had been added to the already huge spoil that has existed on Chandlers farm since I started this blog.

While Inert may been missing from Manor farm this week, there were lots of banging and crashing on Chandlers farm. I can't see this activity from the south footpath, but it does indicate that Inert are cracking on.

Whether they return to Manor farm this coming week, remains to be seen. I hope they do not stop work until August because of the breeding season. Nothing is going to breed on the mess that is the land mass and infill.

I did not make it to the pump station on Saturday. You see, after visiting the north end of the land mass, I decided to eschew the vehicle track and strike out south east across the flattened infill. The area has had time to settle, and I hoped it would be firm.

Well, in racing parlance, the going was firm to very soft, so long as I kept moving.  Unfortunately, just when I got to a slightly more boggy bit, I stopped to photograph a Grey Heron passing overhead, and I began to sink into the mud. Trying to reverse my direction of travel only made matters worse.

I thought, should I spend five minutes, trying to remain upright whilst extracting myself or should I crawl out?  I decided to crawl out. I took my hat off, put my camera in it, put the two on the mud, then proceeded to crawl out.  It is amazing how little you sink in the mud - barely made a mark on the stuff.  Took me all of 30 seconds to crawl to firmer ground. I must have looked ridiculous, but I didn't care as it was effortless.

Only now my hands were muddy. I should have put my gloves on.  Anyway, I wiped as much of the mud off as possible, grabbed my camera and set off.  The remaining mud on my hands dried very quickly, and transferred itself to my camera and lens. Arrgh! I had to beat a hasty retreat back home to clean the equipment. Sigh.