Training Day

At very late notice last night I'd agreed to pop down to the park (for which I'm a committee member of the friends group) to go and meet a chap from the train depot that borders one side of the park, after contact with them about ways in which they could help (from a clean up of their boundary to a rather fab bird table they're going to make out of a spare / scrap axle and wheel. Ended up getting a two and a half hour tour of the depot which, despite not really being a train buff, was really rather interesting.

The depot itself has a 100 year history, celebrating its centenary in 2014, its inception coinciding with the advent of troop trains, as well as horse trains (apparently we might be able to get some pictures of some horses that were requisitioned for the war effort feeding in the park). We got to walk the tracks as 80mph mainline trains thundered by, had chats with the guys who direct the traffic on site, and the people who clean the seats, wandered around sheds with stripped out trains, and generally got much more if an appreciation for the work that goes into keeping these engines and carriages on the rails.

Then saw the park Kingfisher after we left.

Other than that? Baked a chocolate polenta cake, tidied up the kitchen after all the boiler issues (hopefully completely resolved tomorrow), got some washing on and hung up, started on a load of ironing, got the chooks out, managed to fit in a 13 mile blast on the bike after feeling totally lethargic waiting in all day yesterday, and.... ordered pizza.

Gid day.