The wooden treads of our bridges are covered with chicken wire to prevent people falling into the stream. So why had we not thought to cover the boardwalk with wire? Perhaps we thought there was no need because there was a small distance from the boards to the ground - always horribly muddy and smelly.

Anyway, we have now dealt with the problem with several metres of wire and what seemed like trillions of small staples to hold the wire. And for good measure we dealt similarly with a bridge on which some of the wire had been damaged.

After a few days on holiday we made a small detour to visit the RSPB nature reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk. Partly, I was curious to see where our Sussex Wildlife Trust reserves officer, Alice, had worked before coming to us. And guess what? Partitioned sections of the car park were hedged with a bright glory of gorse! You will remember that a couple of months ago in my article I had tackled Alice about our need to rejuvenate our gorse, so I was delighted to see the Minsmere hedges and expect to see a super gorse hedge on our top ride in a couple of year's time.

And then I will be able to tell her that she was right! There's nowt like experience of that sort. And, oh yes, a reader appeared with three right-hand gloves following my losses on the reserve! Quite why he lost his left-handers, I missed because I was so delighted. But it think this must go to show the power of the press!

John Hall © 2005