Rock of the day

Found last weekend during digging activities by Jonathon, another cobble of lias, with striations etched out along laminations and cleavage (?).

This weekend, Brockers recovered this fragmented stalagmite from within the sediment as digging progressed. The cave must have been open a long time for this to form. The image above was taken with LED illumination, the one below using subdued flash.

13th January 2018

With Brockers, Jonathon and Nick.

On the surface, prior to venturing underground, the drier bags were collected, shaken to remove any loose sediment, packed-up and dispatched into the cave, ready to be re-filled.

A rather subdued Brockers, suffering the consequences of a self-indulged malady, was doing the digging. Nick was clearing away the spoil, loading the skip to me, on the slope, from here I man-handled the bags to Jonathon. Jon, on top of the slope, stacked the filled bags and stones into the available space there.

When four packs of bags had been filled and stored, a brief discussion, shall we fill another pack, or should we empty those already filled? It was decided to head out and clear the cave. Jonathon went up to the surface, I was on the shuttle, Nick hauling the skip, Brockers at the top of the slope loading the skip. The bags and stone were quickly moved, the bags were hauled out to the surface, the stones left at the bottom of the entrance. The final task of the day was to empty the bags, 39 of them. Some were easy to empty, some were not and some of the bags had reached the end of their usefulness.

Satisfied with the mornings effort, we left for the farm and refreshments at the Hunter’s, where we were met by one of those that had fallen by the wayside.