Tumultuous week in politics. Inert trundle on, slowly. 14th December 2019

I am still quite perplexed as to this restoration process. As noted several times in this blog, I have noticed Inert go through a process of Pile, level and gouge. For the past few weeks, Inert have largely concentrated on the pile stage i.e. piling up soil. Though, in their defence, they have been pushing sorted soil into Cormorant lake.

The extent to which Inert have been piling stuff on the east shore of Cormorant lake and around the pump station has been lost on me, as I have been keeping clear of most of the recently bulldozed material. Rainfall continues incessantly, making ground conditions somewhat lethal for foot traffic. Even some areas of Finch pond infill are still quite treacherous. I did venture on to this infill for the first time in months when I decided to climb onto the ridge. I had hoped that the soil would have consolidated itself over the past months. But no, it is still the consistency of epoxy-porridge, with sink up to your knees patches.

Anyway, getting back to the narrative. This week I wandered over to where Inert were working on Wednesday i.e. around the pump station and east shore of Cormorant lake. I actually had to walk all the way round to get to the pump station i.e. walk east to the Bailey bridge, turn north to the pump, then turn west to walk to near the scrape. I couldn't cut across from the vehicle track to to west of the pump station as the ground was so muddy and cut up.

Inert have created large piles of soil, which tower over me. Regretfully, there was no obvious sign of what the digger was doing last week.  In addition to building soil heaps, Inert have been pushing stuff into Cormorant lake (south) along its east shore, around the scrape. But it is hard to fathom if the infill extends further north. I haven't been on this bit for some weeks; partly as Inert were mainly working on the west shore of Cormorant lake, but mainly as the whole area was just too boggy to walk upon; especially when carrying a long lens around my neck.

Our stalwart pump was chugging away, working hard to pump vast quantities of water dumped by the incessant rain we have had, which is set to continue; according to the Met office.

Something was happening on Fleet Hill farm on Wednesday/Saturday of this week and Saturday (or Wednesday) of last.  Week before, I did spot a bloke on a red quad bike on the north part of Fleet Hill farm, riding up to the north Longwater road entrance. He was quite leisurely, and appeared to have business on the site.

On Wednesday of this week, I noticed a large white van, parked inside the north Longwater road entrance. Hi-viz clothing bedecked the van, while the two gates on the north Longwater road entrance were open. I didn't pop over to investigate what was going on as I had to head home.

This Saturday, on arriving at 8:00am ish, I noticed two men, in orange Hi-Viz suits, trekking eastward on the footpath that runs south of Stone Crusher lake. Again, I did not investigate; in main because it was drizzling. In fact, 20 or 30 minutes after I got home after my stomp, the heavens opened up.

I may investigate on Wednesday.  However, as I have not visited Fleet Hill farm in some time, it may be difficult to assess what, if anything, was done. This will not be a wasted visit, as I do need to find another tree or trail to place my trail cam. The one I am using currently takes too many photos of a brown rat. It was also visited by a dog, this last week. Not a problem, as the dog was well behaved and came when his master called; I saw both on Saturday. My main concern is if a dog (investigating my bait) does not come when called, and its owner has to go and get it, and so reveal my trail cams. Most all owners would leave the trail cams, but with my luck I'd get the one dog owner who nicks my trail cams.  It is much quieter, the further west you go into Fleet Hill farm.

Here's a special for you. In trawling the internet, looking for old photographs of the farms before they became a quarry, I came across a site of the company that built the conveyor under the Longwater road, between Fleet Hill farm and Manor farm. Canning Conveyor Co. Ltd. kindly gave me permission to reproduce the photos.  The photos showed the end of erection in spring 2010.