After the long hot summer, the railway room finally cooled to a bearable temperature. Indeed, the main lines imitated the real thing by distorting despite what I'd regarded as adequate expansion gaps ... So scenic work on and adjacent to the removable section has finally been resumed.

The base of plaster-covered polystyrene was first of all covered with a static grass mat cut to shape and this has provided the base for further embellishment using good old flock powders, lichen and yet more static grass. It's beginning to look reasonable to my eye but there's still scope for further improvement. The large trees shown in the photos were cobbled together from stalks of heather sprayed with mounting adhesive and enhanced with bits of lichen and flock powder. Each tree is made of several sprigs bound together with thin wire (from a picture-hanging kit) and with the "trunk" then covered with fire cement.
The lineside fencing is made from matchsticks drilled to take redundant guitar strings. Once planted in the ground, a bit of Colron wood dye is used to stain the wood a dirty brown colour.

As usual, the camera is a harsh judge and picks out the imperfections, not least the gaps at each end of the removable section. In reality, the gaps are barely noticeable and anyway, the trains draw the eye!