The end or just the beginning?

So it finally arrived.  D-Day for the visitor centre team. The 'D' being digging out every last bit of stuff from the stock room and the store cupboards, in fact every nook and cranny of the building, and moving it somewhere else,   A mammoth task as anyone who's ever moved house will know.  

Starting first thing Monday morning,  hundreds of items were boxed, bagged or binned as the clock ticked towards the deadline we'd been given for the contractors to come in and the redevelopment project begin for real.  

By end of play Thursday, and 55 boxes of binoculars, bird seed and books later, it was job done - leaving Visitor Services Manager, Scott and Assistant Retail Manager, Glenis in desperate need of a shower, a cuppa and a rest (in that order).

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There were mixed feelings looking around the empty room - the excitement of what is to come being tempered by the memories of  what has happened  in the past within those four walls.    Glenis, has been at the heart of  the reserve as both a volunteer and a staff member for over seven years.  She recalled some of the people who had passed through the doors:  staff who have since moved on, volunteers who made their mark,  the thousands of visitors, some returning year after year and also the friends who are no longer with us.   They are all part of what has made the reserve such a special place for so many people.

As with every move, there's always something you discover hidden away that you didn't realise you still had - or didn't realise you had at all.   Enter the mannequin with the most!    This has stood innocently displaying  an every-changing range of wet weather gear for what seems like forever.   Minus its waterproof clothing however its body proved more sculptured than Batman's - much to the delight of our Visitor Services Manager.     Rumour has it, he'll be wearing this to the pub quiz in the White Horse for the foreseeable future. 

Finally,  the shutters came down and the door was locked.   And like an insect in a cocoon the centre now lies dormant awaiting its transformation.    We can hardly wait.