We thought the rain had gone this week when we went to work at the station but just as some of us were off to take the long trip round to the Down platform the rain came down again – and with a cross wind. So some of us sat and sheltered in the bus stop and watched one of the erstwhile group brave the weather to scrape the weeds away from the pavement edge and then all returned. Sadly the lack of steps makes it a long trip round.
Soon after that we all gave up and went for coffee @Sues!
Last year was a year of lots going on not just because of 200 years of railway existence as you well know from our annual report and this year is starting well too. As part of the Blackmore Vale Community Rail Partnership we are delighted that the postcard competition has been shortlisted for an award from the national body of Community Rail Network. The Chair Derek Beer will be attending the awards day to see whether we win anything. Speaking personally I enjoyed sending postcards to far off corners of the world and was delighted to win a South Western Railway rucksack. Volunteer Frankie managed to get enough postcards to win a water bottle but it wasn’t the prizes it was the taking part that was good. It was very popular with other travellers on our line too. I’ve attached a photo of the volunteers holding some of the postcards outside the station for a post to the Blackmore Vale Facebook site.
We are busy now planning for the summer planting. The weather has been so awful that the spring flowers are only just appearing in the platform planters but the primroses on the platform bank and the daffodils on the car park bank are looking good. We will be putting some shingle loving plants in our new shingle bed in the carpark , probably plants like hardy alpines and sempervivums. As usual we will be looking for insect attracting colourful flowers and drought resistant perennials in the Planters. We thought a blue and gold theme would be good. We have entered the South West In Bloom ‘Its Your Neighbourhood’ competition this year.
The window restoration of the Pumphouse last year was a particularly proud moment for us and this year we are hoping to get some designs from community groups to put on a banner to cover the breeze block wall beneath the window. If you haven’t seen it do have a look. There is one of the old banners we had made for the other side of the Pumphouse up there now.
Also part of the 200 year celebrations is the launch of a book about the history of the stations along the line written and produced by volunteers at each station. The launch is on March 25th and I’ll let you know more about that and how to buy a copy then.
I have attached a photo of us inside the Pumphouse showing how light it is and featuring our new Chair Mark Kibblewhite at the front and also one of us working on the down platform. Have a look at our Facebook site for more photos.
