After several weeks of graft we decided we needed a day off. Ian had left, Mike and Mark were still with us and Steve Hinde and our Hon Treasurer Dianne Charles are due on tomorrow.
We decided to have a stroll over the mountain to make sure it is still there. The weather has been fantastic over the past few weeks. It has enabled us to get on with both indoor and outdor works. Paint has been drying rapidly in the warmth, and we have even been able to give some areas two coats in a day.
Pwll Cain and Carreg Fawr
Last summer was the driest I have ever known in 14 years on the island. Not only did the streams dry out, the well at Cristin had woodlice running around the sandy bottom in the autumn, and Pwll Cain (the pool by Carreg) was a baked mud-flat! I even managed to have a site meeting in July with Gareth Roberts, CCW and the RSPB standing on the dry 'lake-bed', hard to believe as it is now under 4 feet of water! The dry summer did have its advantages though. It meant that after years of hoping the we could dig out the ever diminishing pond, a JCB digger was able to get in there and dig out all the years of silt, build up some of the weakened earth banks and make the pond a little bigger. Eventually in November it began to rain and the pond began to fill. Thanks to the work that the RSPB, Gareth Roberts and Steve Porter put into the wetland we now have a superb pond/flood in the centre of the island. Just a shame no-one has told the Gargany about our efforts!
Our first view of the mainland for about a month
The south end in the afternoon sun, several weeks of beautiful weather - but...we could be running short of water by mid-summer if it continues!
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