Introduction
You may notice that, in some years, the Lake & Grounds area have relatively few posts. However, the photographic record was maintained and you can expect new material to be added when time is found. This means the new posts may appear anywhere on the site and not just in the current year's page. The best way to ensure you miss nothing is to visit the What's New page where you can find how you can subscribe to our newsletter.
2016
30 April 2016 - Lake Views For April
It turns out that I only managed to take two photos of the standard lake view this month. The first was on 3 April. It shows the willow well into leaf and the lawn on which the banana bench stands looking well. The other trees show no sign of life. A fortnight later, finds a little more water in the dyke and all the trees in more leaf. It's not just the different angle of the sun that makes makes you notice how much fuller in bloom the daffodils are.
13 April 2016 - Laying Grids To Improve The Path
Back in January, when snow as on the ground, I had completed shifting our wood chippings from the front garden to the path near the reed bed. But we knew that more needed to be done after the first winter the Green Team had been helping us. The path beside the lake had developed a groove due to the constant traffic of a heavy wheel barrow.
17 March 2016 - Finishing Touches For The Tree House
Yesterday the finishing touches were put to the Tree House. Reed and Trellis panels have been added. The idea is to screen the Tree House from the cottages, while also providing some protection from any wind. I realised that yesterday I had so concentrated on close-ups of the Tree House that I failed to put the subject in context. Today's image does that and we see the approach from the south along the Boardwalk.
11 February 2016 - More Chippings Are Laid
It's been nearly A month since I last did any work on the main path around the lake, but this morning I finally got round to improving the section behind the Ruston Bench. The plan was to use the boards recovered from the fishing stands that the Green Team had removed to produce an edging on the side sloping down to the dyke and dig up tree roots to create a path that would be level and not have any trip hazards.
31 January 2016 - Lake Views For January
Back in January, when snow as on the ground, I had completed shifting our wood chippings from the front garden to the path near the reed bed. But we knew that more needed to be done after the first winter the Green Team had been helping us. The path beside the lake had developed a groove due to the constant traffic of a heavy wheel barrow.
17 January 2016 - More Chippings On The Main Path
As, in spite of the cold, it was almost pleasant outside, having taken photos of the Frozen Lake and of the Board Walk on the island, time was spent moving more of the chippings that had been created in the front garden last November. It was too cold to spend too much time outside and I packed up just before 15:45.
17 January 2016 - A Walk To The Tree House
After a chilly Sunday morning things were still frozen a visit to the tree house was made. When we moved to Ruston House there had been a central spinal path on the island, with branches to various fishing stands that we removed. Soon the idea of creating a site on the island to have picnics and barbecues developed and that's how the idea for the raised viewing platform and "Tree House" came about.
16 January 2016 - High Water And Weed Worries
Weed levels in the lake behind the cottages were unusually high this winter. In previous seasons, I had come to expect all weed to disappear from the surface of the lake. Perhaps this is the result of staffing issues last summer when very little was done to keep weed growth under control.
15 January 2016 - Soft Hail, Not Snow!
At around midday I took this photograph, which you might take to be snow. However, what you see is the result of a sudden hail storm. It didn't last long so where the hail fell on our neighbour's field the stones got lost between the blades of grass, but on harder surfaces it remained visible. Hail floats, of course, and it was the strong northerly wind that pushed any hail that fell in the water towards the southern bank of the lake.
