Spring surprises!

An American invader 

Nice setting for Chedworth overflow car park

Sherborne allotments close to the 'stone site'

Arrived at Sherborne in good spirits on a warm, sunny Spring day with the hope of an opportunity to finish off the rail fencing at Clarks Close begun last week. A few surprises were the flavour of the day ,  this included the much improved spring weather.  As is often the case the planned work for the day was to be amended to respond to a more urgent task at number 33 in the village. While Mike and Pat made a start on the new task to remove a large amount of stone from the site at 33, I joined James to pay a visit to the Chedworth roman villa to take down a temporary fence setup in the overflow car park. The countryside on the journey to Chedworth is pretty impressive, especially helped by the great weather. As the temporary fence line at Chedworth, set in a meadow leading down to the river Coln, led down to the riverside, James and I took the opportunity to survey the river prior to starting to dismantle the fence. With great aplomb James surprised me by dipping his hand into the water and pulling out a signal crayfish which was quite a handsome {but troublesome invader} beast. It didn't take long to dismantle the fence and tidy up so we were soon back at Sherborne to help in moving the stone. This took 2 tractors, 2 vehicles and 5 men so no mean task. 

The final surprise of the day was the fact that another pair of mute swans were nesting in the upper part of the Broadwater above the weir with the resident pair nesting down by the boat house in their usual location. Should be interesting how this works out and how many cygnets we get this year.