This visit proved to take a lot longer than expected. After leaving home at 10:30 am we arrived at Marc's Shrine at 12 noon with the Smart Car boot full of things needed. This meant Fee would need to visit the garden centre opposite Marc's last house at some stage to buy the Bark chippings, or rather to be accurate, the 'Play Bark'. This is more expensive, but it takes a longer to break down to loam, so it is better value-for-money, something TAG is always mindful of.

THE SITE WHEN WE ARRIVED

It is a shame about the addition of glasses, devil horns & 'Hitler-Moustache' to Steve Took in this 'Unicorn' album cover image :-(

SOME OF THE THINGS NEEDED TO DO TODAY'S WORK

As well as changing the two steps, repainting the steps, viewing platform, notice board & frame and the wooden slats which were already on the 'to do' list for this visit, Fee also bought new 'decorative chips' for around the PRS Memorial, although this did mean digging out not only the entire steps and viewing platform as planned, but also the old chippings from round the Memorial.

Above you can see the things needed for this work, followed by TAG Chairman Kevin Warner digging out the step infill so that the bottom two can be changed. You can clearly see how rotten these two steps were (especially the bottom one). You can also see how the soil needed to be dug out on either side of each of the bottom twp steps so that the fixing pins could be accessed. As they had been in situ for over ten years the crow bar and quite a lot of skill was needed to extract them. You can see them laid out on the steps side in the penultimate photo above. The final photo (above) shows how the first step split in two as it was removed.

Meanwhile the photos below show the things ready to start work on the Notice Board and frame. First of course all the messages needed to be removed so that the board and frame could be wire-brushed prior to coating with wood treatment. The rust at the bottom of the notice board was also chiselled off to give a more durable and visually pleasing result. Before painting the notice board with black wood treatment, the messages written on the board itself were photographed and the photos appear at the end of the gallery. The hand written messages were also photographed and when they were returned they were placed in clear plastic wallets so they would last longer. We also treated the Wooden Skirt around the Tree although this was treated last time we visited. Two visitors came along and leant a hand and a lovely local lady took pity on us as dusk approached and went home to make us a cup of tea each.

As you can see above, all the infill for all the steps and viewing platform had to be dug out as well as the decorate chippings from around the PRS Memorial. With all this dug out it was easier to paint the steps properly. They were coated with an undercoat of green wood treatment, followed by a coat of 'Dark Oak' wood treatment as requested by the residents. One advantage of using two different colours was that it was easy to see if any bits had been missed and the wood treatment was worked well into each step to ensure 100% coverage.

Then of course we had to wait for it to dry before the steps could be filled in with New 'Play Bark'. This is more expensive than 'Bark Chippings' but is safer and lasts longer before it is transformed into loam.

Below. Finally all the messages could be put back on the Tree and Notice Board. Unfortunately by then it was close to 9:00 pm and too dark for good photos. We used flash and the car headlights to help to 'fill in'. You can also see that before the new decorative chippings were put around the PRS Memorial, the log roll behind it was also coated with 'Dark Oak' wood treatment. We did find a New Testament hidden away which we returned along with a glow-in-the-dark rosary which are of course reminders that Marc's dad might have been Jewish, but his mum was Christian and Marc was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium which contrary to 'folk law' is not a Jewish Crematorium (the Jewish Faith frowns on cremation as the body must be whole for the day of resurrection). Golders Green Crematorium caters for all faiths ... even Atheists and Humanists.

It is a shame that some people are so thoughtless to engrave their names, or Marc's into the wood - especially in the case of Susu!

The bill from the Garden Centre came to over £60 and of course that didn't include the Brand New Hardwood Sleeper we brought with us which cost over £35.00, or the wood treatment (Green and dark oak for the steps), or the paint for the Notice Board frame or the wood treatment for the Notice Board and to add another coat to the wooden slats on the Tree, or the crow bar, or paint brushes, paint rollers, paint trays, thinners, etc also needed. In all the things to do the work came to in excess of &150.00 - just for this one day.

It is lucky that no one in TAG charges for their labour of what would turn out to be Nine Hours of hard work with no breaks for food, drink (other than the coke and water we took with us to sip) and fortunately as we didn't really drink anything, we didn't need the loos either.

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