Lots to do today so we wasted no time to go and chat in the office and headed straight down to the arboretum to install the modified steps into the bird hide. This should make it a little more user friendly for the not so agile bird watchers.
Surprise to say the least that the mounting holes still lined up so the steps were back in no time, then it was a bit of a struggle to put some blocks under the seat to raise it slightly and lastly the railing we fitted the railing.
When all was done I sat there for a few minutes and spotted Drongo, Cape Sugarbirds and plenty of lbj’s whilst also enjoying the birds eye view over the fynbos.
Interlude for tea and then to the main picnic site to clean up some more branches. We were very pleasantly surprised that Sisani had done as promised and burnt our previous stacks of branches, very neat and tidy and never mind that he left a clump of blue gum seedlings right next to pile. It was a difficult clean-up with gnarled, intertwined branches full of seedpods and we were not quite finished by lunchtime.
Quick inspection of the misting house confirmed that the ants have departed and a quick stroll through the nursery confirmed that it needs some tlc soon in the form of weeding, rebagging and sorting.
After lunch Rob and Cathy were off to Turtle Creek to tackle some wattle on the dam wall while I was conned into cutting a few Port Jacksons on the mud slide which turned out to be at least thirty with some wattle and other nasties for good measure.
First thing though was to cut down the Strelizias we had spotted on our previous Forest Walk happily invading the forest stream.
This brought us to a few places in the forest where one usually does not venture with its just rewards of some lovely plants on the rock faces.
We scouted around for the aloes which should be flowering by now, plenty aloes but no flowers yet except one in a very inaccessible and awkward place so that will have to wait for another day.
Back to the picnic site to complete our clean up and by that stage no time left for our usual finishing up cup of coffee. We even found the gate to the nursery already locked as the staff loses no time closing up in the afternoon.