Amid astonishing drama, Sunak was the only minister to achieve over 100 nominations to be considered for PM. Boris and his team were back to form by 'lying' that they had achieved over 100 nominations. Stock markets have zoomed up (despite HSBC dragging ftse 100 down due to appalling earnings), as had the pound. All this excitement was dampened by my site visit today. Inert were not to be seen on Manor farm. Instead, the entire team of diggers, bulldozers and heavy earth movers were all on Chandlers farm, busily working away. I guess there is a big push on to finish this part of restoration. As for Manor farm. It was a good move of mine not coming down over the weekend. Inert appear not to have done very much since I visited last Wednesday. Very disappointing. I do not propose to do weekend visits until I see that Inert have returned to Manor farm. I didn't manage to haul myself down to Manor farm restoration, this weekend.
Yesterday morning, saw me queuing up early for my Covid booster. A mightily slick operation at my GPs had about one patient being jabbed every minute or so. This was a far different operation than previous vaccinations. It showed how far we had come, losing much of the hysteria. We all formed an orderly queue to be let in. The only social distancing was that observed by us Brits in a normal queue. Doors opened promptly at 8:30, with a gate keeper filtering us to one of two receptionists. They ticked off our names, and we joined another short queue, where another gate keeper/usher would filter us to one of three medics. Actually, the medics wouldn't always wait for the usher, my medic motioned me over three seconds after she had administered a jab. My jab was given to me in about 20 seconds, where upon I was told to 'hop it'. None of this hanging around for 15 minutes stupidity, like in the past. Only reaction so far, a slightly sore upper arm where the medic stabbed me. Sunday morning's visit was cancelled due to tremendous rain and thunderstorms. The rain itself was on par with tropical intensity, which would result in very boggy conditions. I didn't fancy walking across a flat expanse, being the tallest object around, bearing metal cameras in the middle of a thunderstorm. The other huge news of the week, Loony Liz Truss resigned as PM. The shortest and most catastrophic reign ever! The Star proclaimed their Iceberg lettuce the winner, as it out lasted Lettuce Liz. So far Rishi Sunak is in the lead with over 100 MPs supporting him. However, barmy Boris (Johnson) has returned to have a go at being PM, and he and his team has immediately got back to form by lying that they have the necessary support of 100 MPs. Other big news, the other moron (Trump) has been slapped with a subpoena to testify before congress; while the Ukranian army is on the outskirts of Kherson, and looks to retake it soon. I doubt Inert have accomplished huge amounts since Wednesday. Had I gone down to the restoration this weekend, I suspect I would have taken piecemeal shots of progress, which looked suspiciously like ones I took last week. Better to wait see what Inert are up to mid week, and then see if the weather is clement enough to visit next weekend. By which time we'll have a new PM! A MGLG member, who visits the area frequently during a week, told me he didn't see Inert working on Thursday and Saturday, and possibly Friday of last week. I can only assume they were called over to Chandlers farm for an emergency fix, but they do seem to be slowing down a bit. This morning's stomp revealed a digger working away on the former east ridge, smoothing it down and, I assume, integrating the area into the established north east part of Manor farm. I couldn't tell from the south footpath. Capping soil appears also to have been extended south to the yellow road bridge, and I assume what was left of the former land bridge has also been removed. Further capping soil appears to have been applied to the north west corner of the new, long Manor lake. A bulldozer was extending the capping soil on the banking along the south edge of the main reed beds, which Inert had constructed some weeks ago. Heavy earth movers would approach the banking from the east and reverse along it until they reach the point where they need to dump their load of soil. Guess what, folks. Inert were shipping back onto Manor farm, all the topsoil they shipped to Chandlers farm! Other than that, it was difficult to assess what Inert were up to since Sunday. It looks as if they might be extending the banking further east, but it is hard to tell. Of greater import, the Marsh Harrier is still lurking around the site; which is great. I next to the grey transformer when I spotted in, sort of north eastward, flying over the completed marshy area of Manor farm. After sculling around for a bit, the beastie flew westward toward Finch pond, where a murder of Carrion crows arose to mob it. Though the crows didn't seem to have their heart in it, and the Marsh Harrier flew off lazily towards Chandlers farm. Light conditions were poor. It was difficult to get a lock on the Marsh Harrier, even with my lens at 600mm, as the beastie was a fair distance away. Sigh. Before we start: Loony Liz throws crazy Kwarteng under a bus by sacking him. How ruthless! Markets stabilised a bit, but not much. Jeremy Hunt (I had to type that carefully) is new chancellor - though many say he is PM in reality. Sunak is having a right laugh at the whole situation. Calamity Clarke postulates removing tenant protection laws! Also remove need for builders to construct social housing! Cuckoo Coffey wants pharmacies to dispense antibiotics!!! The government are full of lunatics. They want to return us to the middle ages, bringing back work and alms houses. Sheesh. On the bright side, NASA have invented a solid state sulphur-selenium battery that is safer than lion batteries, 30%-40% lighter, holds a greater charge, and can be charged in about 5 minutes. A battery that uses cheap, readily available chemicals. Bet the government invest in a Gigafactory ustilising lithium technology rather than this new, sulphur-selenium technology. Hmmm. It is rather difficult to put a finger on exactly what Inert have been up to this past week. Some bits are pretty obvious. Other bits less so. Frustratingly, I've probably missed other little jobs that Inert have accomplished on Manor farm. I only visit the area twice a week, currently. My second visit is like a forensic expert, looking at evidence on Manor farm to try and piece together what Inert has achieved. Let's start at the top, north end of the site, and state what I know. As reported on Wednesday, the last, tiny remnant of the eastern North embankment is gone. The whole area is reasonably flat. However, the area still has an unfinished quality about it. Inert, or another crew, will return to fettle. Moving swiftly down to the yellow vehicle bridge and the west edge of what will be the new, long Manor lake. A few weeks ago, digger operators beautifully crafted the 'bulge' on the west end of the new, long Manor lake, and gave it a bit of banking. A couple of weeks later, the digger operators were then told to dig the area out, as it wasn't deep enough. The poor digger operators dumped all the spoil on to the lovely crafted banking. This last week or so, the digger operators were back again to remove all the stuff they had piled on the south side of their 'bulge', craft a beautiful, gently shelving curved bank, and then smooth the entire area - again. Water levels have risen around the yellow vehicle bridge. Inert do this a lot. A small piece of the banking that runs alongside the south (aka Blackwater) footpath has also been cleared. No idea why the whole lot isn't flattened, unless it is to be used to cap the banking along the south edge of the main reed beds. No further progress has been made on the banking around the main reed beds. Moving east to the new, yellow pump. Inert have extended its outlet so that it reaches over the narrow bank of earth in the channel that leads to the current Manor lake. This means water from the main reed bed can actually be pumped into the current Manor lake. DOH. Water levels in the current Manor lake have dropped considerably since our old, faithful pump was turned on. At least two feet of water has been pumped out. I don't know if this is sufficient for the digging of the new, long Manor lake to commence safely. Our old faithful pump has been turned off. Inert have done a couple of curious bits of work around the west edge of the current Manor lake. For what purpose eludes me. I can say that Inert were working on Chandlers farm on Wednesday. Presumably more stuff arrived for the site. Though they were dumping it on an area marked on maps as being completed. Anyway. It appears that Inert area at it again. Having made a major push, they have now gone quiet or quietish. This might be due to having to work on Chandlers farm or possibly staff sickness or a breather for assessment of what they do next. I was a little surprised that they hadn't started on digging out the deeper parts of what will be the new, long Manor lake, and plumbing its western side into the current, eastern side. But then, I've always said that Inert work in ways mysterious to my ordered engineering/scientific mind. In my last weekend update, I referred to a track leading from the east end of the former eastern North Embankment to the Lower Sandhurst road. I never was too sure who owned this track, and never walked along it.
Having pulled my finger out and actually examined the latest plans on the WBC planning website properly, I see that this track will become a bridlepath. Well, I hope there will be some means of keeping vehicles and motorcycles from using this bridlepath to gain access to the reserve. I have observed motorcyclists getting past the kissing gates on the Fleet Hill farm portion of the reserve and tearing up to Finchampstead village, past the old Alpaca farm. I'm just wondering if it makes sense for the bridlepath to follow the route of the proposed footpath and continue on to the Moor Green Lakes car park, where it can join up with the existing bridle path. Though personally, I'd like to see horses and pedestrians kept separate. There is sufficient space to do so, as shown by the existing path from Moor Green Lakes to Blackwater river. Though, even here you can get horse riders using the footpath part of the track. Indeed, you also get pedestrians using the bridlepath part of the track. People just can't read signposts. Sigh Firstly: I spotted the Marsh harrier. Peter (MGLG member) told me, when I met him on the start of my stomp, that the Marsh harrier hadn't been spotted for a week. However, as I was retracing my steps from the Bailey bridge towards my car, the beastie flew south east, over the Blackwater footpath, heading for Chandlers farm. It was being half pursued by a Carrion Crow. Peter was hot footing it towards the grey transformer (he had hopped over to Fleet Hill farm) wondering what had spooked all the Lapwing resting on the east part of the main reed bed. Secondly, the last, tiny fragment of the once mighty eastern North Embankment is now gone. The area is totally flat. Thirdly, that large mound of soil which Inert dug out of the west corner of the new, long Manor lake, and dumped on its beautifully crafted south west corner, well Inert were removing it on my morning stomp. A digger was loading the stuff on to a heavy earth mover, which in turn shipped it over to Chandlers farm. Daft buggers. I did keep saying they had brought too much stuff onto Manor farm, and would have to dig bits out again. Fourthly, our old faithful pump was chugging away, pumping water out of the current Manor lake to the settling ponds on Chandlers farm. It is a noisy beast. No idea if the yellow pump was also chugging away, as it is very quiet. I reckon this pumping is preparations to dig out the new, long Manor lake. Reduced water levels in the current Manor lake will make it safer for plant to be operating in this area. Can't have a tidal wave swooshing down the new lake once they connect the two halves together. Though Inert still have an awful lot of stuff to remove. I think I have the numbering wrong on the titles. I post each part in the order that I wander around the site. However, anyone reading this does so in reverse order. Hey ho. This last section contains some arty shots of Manor farm. Sunrises haven't been spectacular, but at the same time they haven't been that bad. My bridge camera is pretty old technology, has lousy low light performance, and doesn't take as good sunrise photos has my other bridge camera - I should charge it up. The new Finch pond is nowhere near as photogenic as the old, mighty one. The same is true of the once might Cormorant lake - though the new main reed beds could be quite neat, if they do not get clogged up with reeds. In any case, here are a few arty, sunrise shots of Manor farm. Inert are completing in a day what previously would seem take them weeks. Also, whilst there is a slight degree of flitting around the site, this time they are more or less starting at one end and working their way to the other. However, they still get up to actions that both leave me puzzled and are difficult to identify precisely what they were up to. Remember, I am like a forensic scientist. As I only visit the site once or twice a week, I have to figure out what Inert have done given any evidence they leave. Often they leave no evidence, and I assume they have done less than they actually did. What Inert are up to around the area around the former pump station and mound is puzzling. I reckon, they have to dig out a huge amount of stuff they spent trucking into the site. This assumes the plans I have are co Only rrect. Who knows how much they have changed. Thus, Inert have done a lot of bulldozing and digging around the former pump station and mound. Piles of soil have appeared; I don't know if shipped in or simply dug out of the area. I suspect the latter, and can only assume that the stuff remains on Manor farm as the heavy earth movers have been preoccupied with flattening the north embankment and removal of the former land bridge. Regardless of what is happening, I can say that Inert have, in typical fashion, made an almighty mess of the area. Piles of spoil everywhere, odd channels dug, chunks of land bulldozed. We shall have to see what happens over the next few weeks to be enlightened. Inert have removed the pontoon that used to support the inlet pipe to the pump. Sad to see it go as it has been like an old friend. They have also plumbed the new yellow pump into the channel that connects the west area of the site to the current Manor lake. Only problem is, there is a ridge of soil across the channel, forming a barrier preventing water reaching the pump from Manor lake! Finally, as I hoofed it back along the south (aka Blackwater) footpath, I noticed that a couple of trees had been planted on a couple of mounds in Finch pond south. I do not know if this is intended or if some kindly Inert personnel had rescued these trees from the embankments. When I visited on Thursday, I thought Inert had not accomplished much. The main reason for this thought is that I am restricted to the south (aka Blackwater) footpath. Can't see much. Well, the on site stomp on the weekends, when Inert are not around, showed that Inert had accomplished a great deal. I saw that a digger was operating on the north end of the former land bridge. There's only one left - the original one that ran through the site. Well, as Inert work their way across the site, they kind of clear up behind themselves, digging up the old trackways and land bridges, and using the spoil from them to build banking around the main reed bed. Sunday's stomp revealed that Inert had dug up large portions of the northern end of the former land bridge, had tidied up the surrounding area, and spread a capping layer of topsoil gleaned from the eastern North Embankment. The whole area around the north end of the former land bridge and west side of the main reed bed banking is looking a lot trimmer and neater. The same cannot be said for the area around the southwest corner of the main reed bed and they yellow vehicle bridge. This area, although drained of water, is looking very messy. Inert have continued to pile stuff (which they have dug out of the area) around the south shore alongside the south vehicle track. The banking on the southern edge of the main reed bed has not been extended. I feel it has been tidied up a bit. The channel along this banking, has been cleaned up, and sports some really clean crisp edges. I didn't attempt to cross the channel, when I walked to the eastern end of the banking under construction. I know only too well that the bottom of the channel can have the consistency of quicksand. I'm not sinking up to my knees in mud again. I was forced to backtrack along the banking. Last week I was able to hop across the slimmer channel. Now comes a curious bit of banking Inert are constructing. On Thursday, I surmised that this banking was part of the southern edge of the main reed bed; where it curves slightly northwestward. I'm not sure any more. IF the plans I have are correct (which I doubt) then this banking is one that bisects the main reed bed. It is correct place, kind of. It heads off in the correct direction, kind of. Unfortunately, it is the wrong shape. It curves instead of being straight. Well, all we can do is wait and see what Inert construct. We already know that what Inert are constructing bears a passing resemblance to the 'latest' plans on Wokingham council's planning website. Unfortunately, Loony Liz is still PM. She's done a U-turn on scrapping highest rate of tax. She might U-turn on capping benefits. She now has an almighty fight on her hands with attempting to scrap environmental controls and laws. I still haven't seen anything from her to stimulate growth. As for potty Putin, his woes get worse and worse. Enough of world affairs. Back to important stuff. To my utter astonishment, Inert have flattened what little remained of the eastern North Embankment. There is a tiny, miniscule fragment left of this once mighty edifice. Instead of capping the banking around the main reed bed with the bit that was left on Thursday (as I had surmised), Inert have spread the soil around the western shore of the Higher reed bed, the west side of the banking around the main reed bed, and the north end of the former land bridge. Though I am getting ahead of myself here. Inert also appear to have flattened some of the east ridge. This structure was never particularly high. It did provide a higher point for me to photo the site, also provided me with entertainment as I tried to walk along it. The whole ridge was covered in thick, tall bracken which was a nightmare to fight through. I would look out for badger and deer trails to follow. Sad to see the once mighty eastern North Embankment go. Its elevation did give a wonderfully different perspective on the site. Inert have cleaned up the northwest corner of the Higer reed bed. They had dumped, some weeks ago, some spoil here. Then did nothing with it. Now it is all gone. Unfortunately, I have no idea what Inert did with the stuff. Oh, one of the more curious actions that Inert or Cemex did was to plant a tree on the curious horseshoe shaped structure that was built near the east end of the western North Embankment. It is really odd to see. I don't know if the tree was purpose grown in a nursery and forms part of a tree planting program or if Inert personnel rescued the tree from the north embankment and decided to plant it. |
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November 2025
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