The diggers are in their element
The water meadow is now looking pretty earthy with very little water at all.
The old mill pond has been drained to reveal a shallow muddy bottom – it turns out that it was pretty full of silt. If we’d left it for a few more years, it would have become no more than a bog. Through the ages it will have been dug out before – perhaps every 50 years or so. But I suspect that it wouldn’t have been such a speedy process.
It’s going to look even more speedy when we use time lapse film on our Go Pro to show the hungry digger munching through the mulch… And then, what do we do with the nutrient rich soil, we’ve extracted? We’re planning to use it on our vegetable garden – a delicious Autumn feast. Just wait for next year’s produce!
There’s a caterpillar shaped mound at the bottom of the field… That’s waiting for some fledgling trees to be removed and then replanted on a bank. The idea is to make sure that even in the winter we won’t be able to see our Wessex Water neighbour – even a glimpse…
And then there’s Hen Henge – referred to in my last blog. The circular mound is beginning to rise from the ground – using the sub soil from other parts of the field.
Next week the focus will be on the stream below the pond, which we’ll be making into pools. And we’ll be replanting some trees on the top of a newly made bank…
Clearly, the excitement is largely in what’s to come. We have to make a bit of a mess first. But I can see it in my mind’s eye and am already imagining the time when I’ll be sitting under the tree and watching the vibrant pond life. With dragonflies, frogs, shrimp and birds skimming the water…
