There was a slightly surreal quality to the Station this morning – caused by the climate plus other activities at the Racecourse:
Dust bowl conditions I’m afraid for this inbound passenger! And I’m not sure it did much for the volunteering environment either.
I missed yesterday’s Monday working party due to other commitments but I noticed that some emergency watering of pots and plants had taken place; it’s beginning to remind me of 1976 with some pretty bleached looking lawn areas!
Still, it was an ideal time to continue Phase 4 of the Platform 1 embankment renovation – the long term goal of a smooth path from top to bottom remaining some distance away. However, having chopped off the major elements of the overgrown vegetation (Phase 1) – namely hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble etc, we have now replanted a new hedge line (Phase 2) and removed the largest offending stumps from the path line (Phase 3). Phase 4 is to level the ground somewhat and remove the current crop of weeds and then Phase 5 is to put in something by way of a path – either just compacting the soil and keeping it weed-free or by laying some hardcore chippings we have available (or a bit of both). Obviously some footfall also does wonders for making it look more like a path!
Anyway, after Steve’s latest strimming it looked like this:
And after some hard labour with the adze-like tool it now looks like this:
A path of sorts I guess. However, for those with short memories this is what it used to look like (albeit a bit further down):
So we’re getting there. And there are less weeds when it doesn’t rain!
Alas no train pictures today – there was only one arrival whilst I was there and that seem to be having some trouble departing! Too hot for steam engines perhaps?
Tim
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