Traveller problems? Longwater road entrance fortified. 14th April 2019

I've been a bit tardy with this week's update. Decorating, you see. I wasn't looking forward to painting doors and skirting boards. Oil based gloss stinks to high heaven, takes ages to dry and can yellow quite quickly. Low odour, quick drying (aka acrylic) paints are a nightmare to apply - you can't get rid of the streak marks...until now.

I used Dulux trade paints, their low odour, quick drying high gloss white, and white undercoat. What a revelation. Their flow characteristics are amazing. Seems like Dulux have formulated them with a whole load of flow enhancers. You can brush over the paint several times as you apply it, even ten or so minutes after applying paint to surface, and it doesn't streak or lift. I even used a roller on the flat bits of doors! It's amazing to see the brush and roller marks slowly merge into a smooth surface.

Decorating the remainder of the house is no longer a daunting prospect of tempered frustration, fighting with acrylic paint that enhances brush marks.

Well, enough of my wittering on about decorating. What has been happening on Manor farm?

Hmmm, this is where it gets a bit tricky. My Wednesday visit revealed nothing. Chandlers farm was still a hive of activity, centred around the north west part of the site i.e. to the west of the Bailey bridge close to the Blackwater. A lot of stuff was being dropped by lorries, then spread around by both bulldozers and at least one digger. This leads me to believe (probably quite foolishly) that Inert may be completing the latest phase of the restoration of Chandlers farm.

Moving over to Manor farm.  I've been walking down from the MGLG car park, on my Wednesday stomps. Thus, I do not see what, if anything, is happening on the west side of Manor farm.  I did notice that the north gates across the Bailey bridge were open on Wednesday, but simply assumed Inert were fiddling about around the pump; which, by the way, was vigorously chugging away and reducing water levels - particularly in Manor lake north.

However, I had cause to drive past the Longwater road entrance on Sunday, and noticed changes around this area. I stopped briefly on my way home - I was actually in a hurry, as I wanted to watch 'The seven ages of stars' on tele.  Inert had blocked off the Longwater road entrance with a mighty mound of soil - and I mean mighty. It looked at least 6' (1.8m) high.

The only time you tend to see that is when travellers are about, and is meant to keep them off a site. There might be a more innocuous reason for the mound. A brief glance over the mound, from the Longwater road itself, did indicate some other mounds of soil or sand. All rather tantalising.  I'll find out more on my stomp tomorrow.

I'll have a bash at posting some photos, from last week, later on today. We do have the gas man coming to try and sort out a duff radiator, which means I may have to assist e.g. clearing mess out of the way.