Sooo good

Last week’s not-quite record attendance is, I am told, the envy of groups which have difficulty getting people to turn out for an AGM. 

Today numbers were slightly lower; and after last week’s exertions by/in a Chilterns chalk stream, this week we were firmly on dry land, with tasks which were (mostly) physically less demanding and garage-orientated.  These, we were assured, were very necessary, and promised to be quite satisfying:

cleaning, marking, and organizing our tools and storage in the garage.  We have some donated shelves and new tool storage fittings to put up and affix in the garage.

In the course of this, various items were extracted from the back of the garage, and removed to where they were meant to be.  Thus it was possible this morning to come across a Green-Gymmer who had apparently been given the command to pick up his pallet and walk:

If, futhermore, you came across the same Green-Gymmer later walking through woodland apparently carrying a roll of carpet …

you could be assured that, “It may look like carpet, but actually it’s pond liner” – for the Big Pond project, early autumn.

In the paintshop, tools were being marked with a distinctive red stripe to show they belong to ACCT (Anne Carpmael Charitable Trust):

Meanwhile, our pair of dedicated restoration-experts (who didn’t know they were industrial archaeologists until they joined Green Gym) were continuing with their self-appointed task of saving and refurbishing the Saunders’ boat winch.  To this end, extra pairs of hands were pressed into service from time to time.

First, however, there was the matter of thinking about what exactly did need doing.  Here, from his position on the bridge, the Tools Officer gives his opinion:

It was thought a little tidying would be a good preliminary move.  To that end, the Tools Officer called at the garage, asked for a brush, and was given the separate pieces from which to make a working broomstick – no magic allowed:

This never happens in the wizarding world

It worked well enough, provided the user brushed in only one direction:

The winch, remaining pieces of, was then moved to its new home, where the remaining engineering problems could better be attended to:

Not least of these is the challenge of getting various bits to move, which have done no such thing for something like a century:

If repositioning the winch proved to be a rather easier job than expected (and one best done when there were plenty of willing folks around to lend a hand), breaking up the remaining unwanted concrete proved rather harder.  “I can see that’s definitely a man’s job,” remarked one fellow-Green-Gymmer incautiously, before one of my colleagues pointed out that ‘C’ had been taking her turn wielding the heavyweight sledgehammer.

Clearing the area turned up the usual crop of ‘finds’.  “Anyone here an expert in porcelain?” called out one Green-Gymmer.  The reply came instantly, equally tongue in cheek: “Oh yes, I think I can roughly date that: Woolworths, 1953.”

“Found in the north trench”

Thus we (Green-Gymmers and our international visitors - G’day! Willkommen!) passed
a delightful summer’s morning, at a site which has a glorious mix of natural and technological interest:

Tea-break beside the Wildflower Garden.  Behind: the study centre.  Behind that: Network Rail