Sunshine Shade

Three of us spent today making temporary repairs to footpath in the northern woods with Tim Ryan (warden) and Andy (long-term volunteer). The Nationalt Trust's Cheshire Countryside Wardens have taken over the land management of the estate and a priority is to drain and repair sections of footpath that have become waterlogged and boggy.

We started the day by "shovelling slop off the path" - to quote Tim - and wheelbarrowing it to one side. Next we dug a drainage ditch across the path and finished by edging the path with two large beech logs. In due course the edges of the path will be defined with more logs/fencing and the path surfaced with stone chips.

At 2 o'clock the heavens opened and we had a torrential downpour for 30 minutes. It didn't dampen our spirits too much and we saw proof positive that our drainage channel worked!