South Swindon Green Corridor Walk

Last November I wrote about the development of this walk by South Swindon Parish Council in a post, and on Tuesday this week, we walked part of the walk again to see what has been achieved since we last took a look. Oliver Saunders, South Swindon Projects Officer, has been looking at what needs to be done to look after the Croft Wood area.
Jane Milner-Barry and I set off  to meet parish officers and councillors, walking past the wonderfully wild Pipers Way bank on our right got side tracked by the splendour of the flowers along the bank, and suddenly noticed another pyramidal orchid, here we are:
I'll go back this weekend and see how many different sorts of wild flowers I can identify.
We met up slightly late at the at the car park, after our wild flower foray, by the Nationwide roundabout and set off along our walk:
 Our first stop was to look at the Wish Hounds, written about by Angela Atkinson in 2015 in  her blog. They are fantastic to photograph against the blue sky.
 From there the next stop was the pond which will be cleared of some of the weeds
 From there we walked deeper into the woodland, before reaching the path to Ladder Lane. Here's Oliver talking about thinning out the woodland, and putting in drains to help with the flooding in winter.
 From there we turned left before the M$ and walked along by the motorway, venturing now and again into areas of woodland where we'll have a clearing for wild flowers,
 I think the area below is a pond in winter
 We went by Casso's Wood and discussed the merits of cleaning and leaving the stone memorial to Cassandra Clunies-Ross carved by Sarah Chanin in 1992, with thanks again to Angela for the information.
It was a very hot afternoon, and really the best thing seemed to look up at the trees, and marvel again at the wonderful woods we have right on our doorstep in South Swindon. There will be benches, signage and lots more to encourage us to walk along the route when it's finished. Maybe a ribbon cutting  when it opens?

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