WOOLACOMBE AND MORTEHOE, NORTH DEVON

Its very rare Anna and I get a few days off together (other than booked holidays), so it was nice for us to spend two days (nearly) in one of my favourite parts of England - the north Devon coast, a few days ago.

We booked a room at a hotel (pub really) called "The Smuggler's Rest", in a sleepy little (almost model) village called Morthoe just north of Woolacombe Sands - where I've been to quite a lot over the years...

You takes yer luck with April weather. We rolled the dice and came up with a double six as far as I'm concerned - lovely sunny weather for one and a half days, and a band of rain when we left on thursday.

Its a strange year so far.

Snow (quite heavy you'd call it for Britain) AFTER the Easter celebrations, and staggered Easter holidays for the nation's schoolchildren have combined to really strangle the coastal tourist industry in the UK.

Do YOU celebrate Easter? (Other than breathing a collective sigh of relief for a quite ridiculous period of about ten bank holidays in as many weeks if you're an office worker).

As I've mentioned on BG before, the arcane rules governing when EXACTLY we celebrate Easter laid down to us by the Roman Catholic Church are a bit silly really - the first sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox etc... etc...

Easter this year was the earliest its been for about 95 years, and the earliest it WILL be for about 100 and something - and I can tell you with absolute certainty, the very early Easter this year, combined with the cold snap (remember last years April - hot and sunny ALL month?), AND the staggered holidays, will have put many businesses that rely on tourists, OUT of business this year.

I've been going to north Devon at various times of the year (high season and low), and I've NEVER seen it as quiet. Never.

On Wednesday, we had sun pretty well all day (with a cool sea breeze granted, but bright sun nevertheless) and there were maybe a dozen people on the 2 mile stretch of Woolacombe sands.

Granted there was no surf to speak of, so the "dudes" and "dude-esses" were not there either, but there was quite literally no-one in the pubs or restaurants.

Well.... Anna and I liked the privacy of course - no kids running around, very few dogs, no drunks.... very nice, but slightly unsettling, in a strange sort of way.

The Ewes have obviously just had their lambs in the south west - much gambling, sorry, gamboling, was occurring in the fields, and speaking of the fields, Devon is lit up at present with the wonderful yellow Gorse bushes.

The Swallows and Sand Martins have arrived in force over that neck of the woods - we were surrounded by them on our ten mile trek around Baggy point on Wednesday, and its always nice to see Stonechats and Ravens at the coast.

We were HOPING to see a Grey Seal or two - I've spent many an hour perched on the end of Baggy Point Cliff peering down at Seals, but I'm told its just a little early to see them there with any regularity.

What we DID see though, I haven't seen since I was eighteen - a wonderful bright green male Common Lizard, sunning itself on a molehill, and sloughing its skin at the same time.

I'm lucky enough to have seen both Common Lizards and Sand Lizards at Braunton Burrows (a HYOWGE set of sand dunes near Saunton sands - a mile or so down the coast from Croyde and Woolacombe), when I was about 17, but none since - that really made up for the lack of seals!

No Peregrines either (which I've seen in the area before) or Wheatears (strange that), but Sparrowhawks, Buzzards, Kestrels, Ravens, Fulmars, Herring Gulls, Stonechats, Swallows, Sand Martins, Foxes, Bees and Butterflies all were just what the doctor ordered. As was the wonderful light down there and the sea air. We'd love to live near the sea when we can. We'd never watch television again!

Click on any of the photographs above to enlarge them, or click HERE to immediately be transported to my online photo album where there are many more photographs from our two days in Devon, all in their original, large size, and all with explanatory text.

Before I disappear briefly though, I should point out the wonderful beetle in the photo above (as that photo is NOT in th online album).

Anna found that chap in the Marram Grass deep in the dunes behind Woolacombe beach - its a "Bloody-Nosed Beetle". Its elytra are fused together, so it cannot fly, and instead ha a defence mechanism which means if stressed it "bleeds" a quasi blood from its nose.

This beetle was great! It didn't bleed on myself or Anna I should point out, and we popped it back in amongst the Goose Grass, on which it feeds...

Please DO visit my "New Warren" (online flickr photo album) - to see more photographs, like I said - of a few spectacular sunsets and a vampire spostle, if nothing else.

Finally - I can heartily recommend the "Fillet of Gurnard Broth" that the "Ship Aground" pub in Mortehoe serve as one of their specials. Sounds a bit dodgy doesn't it.

Nope.

It was beautiful!

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HOSEHILL LAKE.

I'm writing this a little later than I thought. We're just recovering from a day spent in the pub yesterday, watching Anna's team win (Wales) and mine too (Scotland). What a turn up for the books - Wales could win the Grand Slam this year if they beat France next week, and Scotland could still yet win the wooden spoon, if Italy beat us next week, even though we've beaten England! I am pretty sure that event (if it happens) is rare indeed...

Annnnnyway....
On friday (gone) I took a train to a local lake, where I normally spend time watching the Peregrines and interesting Ducks - Hosehill lake (a nature reserve near Theale).
I think this was the first time I walked round this lake and hardly even looked at any birds - I was far more interested in photographing the flowers and views around the lake.

It was nice to see the Oak buds appearing. I have been worried for the past few days that we were in for an "Ash before Oak" season (you're in for a soak) rather than an "Oak before Ash" (you're in for a splash), as I'd seen the Ash buds out already.
The first large Oak I happened across though - and it had obviously been in bud for ar least as long as the Ash.
I've posted a picture of a "Marble Gall" on an Oak branch below. This was made last summer by a single female parasitic wasp, but it hs been deserted for months now, and turned quite woody.

I think we have something to the tune of 90 or so different types of Galls and Gall Wasps in the UK - and around half of those are found only on Oak trees.

I also think friday was the first day that all the midges hatched in huge numbers. I really could have done with some "Jungle Formula" walking around the lake - but I very much enjoyed watching some spiders "make hay" with these chironomid midges.
The Zebra spider I photographed above had just finished her meal of midge when I took her photograph.

It was also nice to try and learn a little more about our wild flowers which are now popping out of the ground all over the place - that book I bought t'other day is really coming in handy now! I fully admit my knowledge of flowers and plants is pretty abysmal - I've stepped on them for as long as I can remember, but am starting to really appreciate them now...

Finally - I thought I'd take some photographs of a grazing horse, which seemed very happy to follow me around. I like the photograph so much (above), that I'm thinking of printing it up nicely, and asking the horse's owner (who I don't know) if they'd like to buy it off me! What have I got to lose eh?!

Anyhoo - click on any of the photographs above to enlarge, as normal... AND click HERE to see more of my Hosehill lake photographs (and others) in the "New Warren" online photo album.

ANOTHER RIVERSIDE WALK AT DAWN...

I was a bit late (I hope?) to see the Owl today, so I took a few more pictures of other sights again...

Descriptions can once again be found in the "New Warren".

Click any image to enlarge as usual.

THE RIDGEWAY - SHORT-EARED OWL AND FALLOW DEER

Click to enlarge

That banana-shaped smudge is a Short-Eared Owl?

Those Cow-shaped things in the distance are Fallow Deer?!

Yes, and er... yes! (Take my word for it).

RIDGEWAY - TYPICAL SCENERY

Click to enlarge

THE RIDGEWAY

We took a walk (as promised) on top of the Berks/Oxon Ridgeway today - a long escarpment that borders these two counties, just south of Harwell and Didcot.
Its becoming quite a famed wintering ground for Short-Eared Owls, and we were incredibly lucky today to see a DOZEN of these beautiful birds, both perched in the bare thorn bushes adjacent to the Newbury Racehorse Gallops, and flying around us.
I'll post one of the photographs I took of this magnificent bird in the post above, to enable any readers of BG to enlarge it by clicking on the image.

Short-Eared Owls are probably the most likely Owl one can see during the day.
They fly like Harriers, "quartering" relatively low over the ground, searching for voles, as their diet consists of these rodents in the main. SEO's populations fluctuate in accordance with vole population - massively so. In a good vole year, there'll be many Owlets fledge, when the vole population crashes, there'll be a corresponding crash in the SEO population.
I'll tell you the answer at the foot of this post, but have a stab in the dark at this question (without looking at the answer first)!
How many voles per day, can a Short-Eared Owl eat, if vole populations are such that the Owl can hunt, find and eat its fill? Have a guess. Answer, like I said, at the foot of this post.

Along with the dozen Short-Eared Owls,we managed to see lovely views of Stonechats (photo above), Buzzards (the "Telegraph Pole Eagle"), Kestrels, Grey Partridge (a covey of about 8), Yellowhammer, Corn Bunting and Fallow Deer in the distance (photo above).

We also had a VERY close encounter with a huge Hare. Typically, this Hare crouched in its scrape in tussocky grass, until Anna had literally stepped a foot from its ears - then suddenly it EXPLODED out of its hiding-place, and pegged it across the meadow. Thats the closest we've been to a wild Hare!
Unfortunately we didn't see where it hid again, so couldn't sneak up on it, and take a photo - you'll have to take our word for it (and look at the photo of its original hidey-hole above).

Anyway - a wonderful day, in beautiful winter sunshine, looking down from the top of the world with the beautiful Short-Eared Owls....






By the way....
16 (SIXTEEN ) voles a day.

EARLY AUTUMN?

Autumn seems to be coming early this year? The blackberries were ripening before we went to Greece, in late July, (weeks early?), the fruit harvest is early and leaves are turning yellow and beginning to drop already.
I snapped the photo above this evening - our Lime Tree is turning very golden...

NB. 12/09/07 And two weeks later, the leaves are dropping from our Lime Tree faster than you can say: "the leaves are dropping from our Lime Tree"!

The garden is covered in crispy brown leaves now, and has been for a week I guess.

PITTS SPECIAL

During a particularly ridiculous blokey pub conversation once, I remember saying that two favourite noises of mine were "An outside generator" and "A Bi-plane carrying out aerobatics"...

These were two of the slightly more left field suggestions, I admit, but there is personal reasoning behind them.

Generally, if I hear either of these noises, it means I'm outside, its probably a sunny summers day, and I dare say I'm at an event of sorts, almost certainly with a beer and burger in my hands - now that's heaven to me.

What with the Reading Festival on this weekend, what with the weather being beautiful this morning, and what with the huge park on the Thames next to the office turned into a carpark complete with burger vans etc... the noise of outside generators is in the air outside the office.

Not only that, there is the noise of a plane carrying out some pretty impressive aerobatics high in the sky about a mile away.

I looked for it on a quick walk along the river (I'm at work this morning) and watched a fantastic PITTS SPECIAL Biplane loop-the-loop for a few minutes in the very blue morning sky.

Pitts specials were first designed in 1944 and versions of them are still being built today! It is regarded as the benchmark by which all aerobatic planes (bi-planes in particular) are measured against.

I haven't been to many airshows - just one if I remember correctly, at Duxford in the early 1980's, but I do like to watch bi-planes in aerobatic flights - I know each flight will be choreographed perfectly and taken very seriously I'm sure, but to me, watching far below, an aerobatics flight looks like flying for the sheer joy of it all, and I really appreciate that...


NB.26/08/07.
Yesterday evening brought home to me what I've been missing this summer. A glorious evening, with hot air balloons, sparrowhawks and two helium balloons (very high), drifting across the warm, pale blue sky. Now that's summer!

HOT AIR BALLOON(S) 2

I'm sitting in the office, looking north over the river Thames, and for once this summer, the sky is quite clear!
We've had the most miserable summer imagineable and its wonderful to see that this weekend is set fair and warm (nice for the revellers at the Reading and Leeds Festivals) - it may even reach the dizzy heights of 26c here in the southeast of England tomorrow, and I hope the weather forecast for sunday is correct - Anna and I have a big barbequeue to go to in Finchampstead.

There are two hot air balloons slowly drifting westwards a few miles away (it looks like they took off from around the Henley area or nearer Wycombe possibly) - a sight I always like to see - a real sight of summer in the UK, and one I've missed this year since April anyway. (Or actually March 13th - See my first post on Hot air balloons).

Hot air balloon companies must have had as bad year as the farmers this year, lets hope September is warm and settled...

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

In early July, this year, one of my twin sisters Pippa trekked through part of the Rocky Mountain National Park with her soon to be husband, Mike.

Rather like Nicola (my other twin sister), she has kindly forwarded me some photos taken on that trip, so it is my pleasure to draw up another "Guest Entry" on "Blue-Grey".

NB. This trek was taken between July 6th and 8th 2007, but as "Blue-Grey" is stuffed to the gills on those dates, I'm posting it on todays date, about 6 weeks too late. (Just as long as you are aware).

The Rocky Mountain National Park is located in the north-central region of Colorado, USA, northwest of "Boulder", Colorado and not too far from Denver. I am led to believe that the entire park is divided between two owning families - the Carringtons and the Colbys... (ok, that bit is untrue).

The entire area features magnificent views of mountains, forests, lakes and a whole host of wildlife including (if you are EXTREMELY fortunate): Moose, Mule Deer, Cougar, Grizzly Bear, Bobcat, Porcupine, and Coyote.

I am told that July and August are the best times to visit, temperatures during this period of the year can reach the 80s, although thunderstorms (and hailstorms...!) are common.

My sister walked through a large part of the park, as I've said, and stopped off at a wonderful lake called "Nymph lake" pictured below. These wonderful photos (almost pc wallpaper standard I suppose!) shows the grand natural beauty of this lake and its mountain backdrop. I am led to believe the conifers at higher altitudes in the park are mainly "Douglas Firs". Good job.

Now, Pip, correct me if I'm wrong, but a little research on the interweb has led me to assume that the two mountains in the background (separated by Tyndall Gorge? at around 10,000 feet a.s.l?!) are Hallett's Peak (the flatter appearing one to the LHS) and "Flat Top Ridge" (the more jagged appearing mountain to the RHS? (although the Flat Top IS flat behind these jagged peaks!).

Nymph lake is situated a walk away from other magnificent lakes such as Emerald, Dream and Bear Lakes.

Pip saw a lot of great "critters" during this trip, including the three described below:

Mule Deer -

named because of their Mule-like ears. These were seen at very close quarters right on the roadsides, nibbling the shorter grass. These deer exhibit classic stotting or pronking behaviour when alarmed, ie bounding away in leaps, all four feet landing on the ground at the same time!

A very nice photo of one too!

Gray Jay -

Much like our European Jay, Pip says - very comical, almost tame in fact. These birds are also known as "Camp Robbers" or "Whisk(e)y Jacks", because of their cheeky thieving behaviour. They do store food in a cache, like our own jays, but need cool temperatures for this, to stop the food spoiling, and because of general warming temperatures (climate change etc...) the Gray Jay is dwindling in the south of its range, and moving further north generally.

Moose -

Now then. This is where it gets a tad complicated. The Moose is the largest species of Deer in the world. If you are American, its a Moose. If you are European, its an ELK. The ELK however in America is the second-largest species of Deer in the world - a species almost identical to the Red Deer in Scotland.

So... to summarise:

MOOSE (USA nomenclature only). Largest species of Deer in world. Lanky legs.

ELK (USA). 2nd largest deer (rather like Scotlands Red Deer).

ELK (EUROPE). What North Americans call a Moose.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Just for your information, the actual word "Moose" comes from the Eastern Abnaki word "Moz". (Eastern Abnaki is a language spoken by the ancient Penobscot Native Indian Tribe of the Maine region of the USA, whose last speaker died in Maine in the 1990s).

Adult bull Moose (NOT Meese like Geese!), can weigh up to three-quarters of a ton - you don't want to run a Moose over - it will die, and so, possibly will you!

I've posted a wonderful photograph sent to me by my sister - her and Mike watched this adult and calf graze on trees nearby.

That's the Rocky Mountain National Park in a tiny wee nutshell for you. I'm sure one could write a whole blog on this (obviously) fascinating, awe-inspiring wildnerness.

Maybe one day Anna and I will get to see it, and I can do my Grizzly Adams** impression...!

** James "Grizzly" Adams DID actually exist, and DID roam about (mid 1850s) the mountains of California, mainly, getting friendly with Grizzly bears called Ben.

I've got no idea whether he did look like Dan Haggerty of the 1970s film and tv show though.

NB. If you are a soppy old get like me, and you'd like to hear the theme tune to Grizzly Adams again, click on the word Grizzly (above) and follow the link. (just don't blame me if you start blubbing...).

Me... I'm off now.

I'm filling up.... sob sob!

"WINE DARK SEAS" (OF HOMER)

Just a shot of the almost navy-blue colour of the deeper sea around Kephalonia, immortalised in Homer's 'Odyssey'.

This photo was taken from Sami, an important port on the northeast coast of the island, although a rather dull and uninteresting place we found, unlike the very picturesque Agia Efimia just up the coast.

Ferries run to and from the neighbouring island of Ithaca (the kingdom of Odyesseus / Ulysses) and Sami (referred to as "Same" in The Odyssey (although Homer referred to the whole island of Kephalonia as "Same" in that work).

The mountains of Ithaca can be seen in the distance (top right) of this photo.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

MOUNT AINOS

A rather large, famous mountain named "Monte Nero" (talked about before).
A wonderfully green mountain, thick with Kephalonian Firs, incredibly dense on the ground and quite eerily spooky in the cold misty clouds, with the odd cry of an Eagle or Long-Legged Buzzard in the mist, Alpine Swifts flying through the cold, foggy clouds and giant Long-Horned Beetles wandering ponderously across the rough stone track which virtually leads to the summit.
Anna and I drove our hire car as far as we were allowed, stopped it, and then the water tank exploded in a shower of steam, boling itself dry in the process. Luckily the reservoir hadn't split and we had packed 6 litres of water for ourselves anyway - so it was a simple matter of leaving it to cool down for a few hours while we strolled though the clouds up the mountain (we couldn't have a better spot on the entire island to cool a boiled over resevoir down!) and re-fill the radiator with 2 litres of mineral water on our return.

What did we expect though? We drove a 1litre Fiat up the highest mountain on the island and it blew up!

I really appreciated this day. I do like my trees and forests, and this part of the island is SO different to the hot, sunny coasts - it was almost like we hadn't even gone abroad at times.
We were hoping for better views - top tip -climb Mount Ainos for an evening view if you want views - by that time the cloud built up during the morning might have slipped back down the slopes, but with or without views, it was a really great, different trip to a normal mediterranean holiday.

NB. I'll talk about various animals we encountered up Mt.Ainos later...

Click on the photo to enlarge.

AGIA THEODORIS LIGHTHOUSE

This beautiful (if somewhat squat) lighthouse was re-erected in 1953 after the aforementioned earthquake.
Agia in Greek (pronounced Ayia) means saint, so this lighthouse is "Saint Theodore's lighthouse".
It was sympahtetically re-built (with the classic Doric pillars) on a spit of land jutting into the Lixouri / Argostoli gulf - which certainly has "Wine-Dark" waters, all very romantic really, especially in a sunset.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

CYCLOPEAN WALLS

Much of Kephalonia's ancient structures came a tumbling down in the 1953 earthquake as I mentioned before, but this wall may never come down.
I do like my ancient history, so made a point of leaving the main roads on an excursion one day to find this ancient site.
This vast wall was erected around 1200BC, a fortified ring of stones covering a huge area, and crossing hills and dales, to protect an ancient acropolis, remains of which have been found in the scrub covered plain below.
Rather like the pyramids, no-one is quite sure just how the ancients got these stones in place - they are VAST - some are 9 foot across and 3 foot high - incredible stuff.
Legend has it that the wall was erected by the race of one-eyed giants of mythological fame, The Cyclops (one of which was famously blinded by Odysseus on his way back to Ithaca which enraged Poseidon, 'The Earth-Shaker' so).
That, then, is how these walls (there are several over ancient Greece) became known as "Cyclopean Walls" - a great story.
We had to have our wits about us to locate these walls though, blink, and we'd have missed the narrow entranced long dirt track through rock and scrub to find them
Well worth the effort though.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

MYRTOS BEACH (4)

Click to enlarge.

MYRTOS BEACH (3)

More Myrtos Beach photos - click to enlarge.

MYRTOS BEACH (2)

MYRTOS BEACH (ENGAGEMENT)

This is reputably the most photographed beach in Europe. Upon seeing it, it is not hard to understand why. A long beach of very pale sand (and a small amount of wave-bashed smooth shingle)surrounded by huge 500' jutting cliffs, on the northwest coast of the island, with the most incredible coloured turquoise water - the like of which I doubt very much we'll see in a hurry again.
We visited the beach twice - firstly when there was a fair amount of surf thrown up by a northerly breeze, and the final time when the water was far quieter with very little waves to speak of.

The first time we went, the choppy waters had churned the pale sand up so much, that the sea had turned milky and opaque. The almost fluorescent aqua-marine colour mixed with the milky salty sandy water produced what I assume was an optical illusion of immense proportions. The water was SO bright blue that ones eyes quite literally couldn't take any more blue, and once out in the warm sea (past the breakwater), in the 6' swells, the sky appeared to be bright red. Incredible really, no words or photos can do it justice, but I'll post a couple of unedited photos to try.
I was particularly proud of Anna this first time, as she has had issues with confidence in the sea in the past - this was a SERIOUS sea to go out in and she managed it twice, albeit being shown by a large wave on her return to the beach for the second (and last) time, that the ocean was in fact in control, and dragging her up the beach, filling up her bikini bottoms with pebbles.
I'm lucky I suppose, that I've had a little experience with waves in the past, and being somewhat bigger than Anna and almost certainly more stubborn, managed to get out and back a good few times, although I certainly didn't take the sea that day for granted.

The second time we visited the beach, the water was almost flat-calm, and certainly Anna was relieved! The water was crystal clear this time also.
It was on this day (August 4th - NOT the date of this post) that we took a walk up to a quiet part of the beach, under a goat climbing 100' up a large rockfall, and I proposed to Anna.
I don't think she suspected anything until I asked her to close her eyes, dug the engagement ring out of my shorts pockets and went down on one knee.

We hope to return to Myrtos Beach sometime in our lives, for an anniversary of sorts, maybe in a decade or two.
Until then, it will certainly remain in our minds....
Mind blowing colours and the pictures (above) are completely unedited.

THE RIVER

I thought I'd better give theThames a quick mention.
Those of you that know me, and know what I do for a living, might begin to appreciate I'm, (how can I put it politely? I can't!), BLOODY busy at the moment.
The Thames is on flood alert, my road is on flood alert, Reading is on flood alert, and even my office is on flood alert.
I have had one day off in the past 17, and this week, when it ends for me on Thursday morning at 7am (ish) I will have done well over 90 hours work, all at night.

I am liasing with all the emergency services, the armed forces, the met office, ministers, local and national media (including the very 'smashy and nicey' Howard Hughes from Smooth FM - he's a hoot!) and of course, very, very concerned members of the public, about the Great Floods of The Summer of 2007, I'm even advising residents on our street in a non-professional way, if you follow my drift.
It is generally accepted now, that these are WORSE than those of the winter of 1947 - that's really saying something.

Parts of Reading have started to flood this afternoon, and the levels are expected to peak at 04:00am tomorrow morning - when I'm alone in the office.
Anna and I have moved most of our possessions upstairs, weighed down the manhole cover in the back garden and bought some 'sandbags' (compost sacks), with which to protect the doors. All that remains is to pop plugs in sinks and weigh them down too.

In common with most incidents like this, the media have wanted their story and have sensationalised this out of all proportion. Allegedly a "huge surge of water is roaring down the Thames, ready to lay waste to Reading tonight".
The coppers haven't helped either, telling people in Oxford and Abingdon recently that they are "about to die" (quote - honest!) and then of course, there are the local councils and their staff, which are about as much use as bicycle is to a fish.


Well. I'm not going to give anyone a professional opinion about what will happen tonight.
I'll give you a personal opinion though.

Parts of Caversham in Reading will flood. Some (around 50? max) properties will take on a few inches of water. Kings Meadow and the flood plains around Reading will flood - thats for sure. My office will not though, even though it's built on the side of Kings Meadow.
The large volume of water travelling down the river (its taken this long to filter down from the Cotswolds) will push the low drains, drain covers, manholes and sewers right to capacity alongside the river, but I don't expect any backing up of drains etc... where we are, a mile from the river.
Some people have sandbagged their front doors on our road, and we'll do our back door before I leave for work tonight, but that is purely preparing for the worst, yet expecting the best.

I'll tell you what I can see on the river at present. I won't include any photos - they don't do it any justice - unless I had 'comparison photos', which I don't.
All the waterfowl are on the banks. All apart from the Swans that is, as they are just about powerful enough to swim against the flow - just.
The river looks in full spate. Milk chocolate brown and flowing very, very, very fast indeed. I'd normally not have a problem swimming against the stream, (I've done it many times), but not at the moment. I'd be swept away in a second.
The Caversham Weir is fully open, and incredibly high, and around the lock (where my office is), I reckon we've got approximately 3 foot of slack. (But then again, that could disappear overnight).
I haven't seen large lumps of debris racing by though. Not like I did in the 'Fens', when I remember another flood on other boating holiday. No trees, sofas, caravans etc...
Maybe that will happen tonight.

The simple fact is that with such a large amount of water in the Thames and her tributaries at present, the river authorities, have no option but to control the flow in stages downstream, effectively flooding different sections of the river over a period of time. Nature has the ultimate control of course, but measures can and are being put in place (like they always are in times like this) by the Lock Keepers etc... to keep damage to a minimum.

It is all rather impressive, and somewhat exciting, although to be honest, I'm ready to stop on Thursday and disappear to Kefalonia for a fortnight, to toast some marshmallows on their forest fires.

Thats what I see, anyway, although if I'm wrong, do turn on the news tomorrow morning, and watch me (only me I'm afraid), get evacuated by Sea King Helicopter live on air!
I've never been in a helicopter....

WALTHAMSTOW RESERVOIRS

Two arty-farty shots from around the reservoirs.

The first of a crystal clear stream (off the Lee) running into the largest of the Thames Water reservoirs at Walthamstow (east Warwick), full of bright green water plants.

Good for Pooh sticks also!

The second of a secret (flooded) tunnel linking that largest reservoir to a hidden, secret reservoir with great reed beds full of Warblers (see other posts).

If you look really carefully at the puddle at the bottom of the tunnel, you'll see a reflection of a bank the other side, with a flight of steps leading to the secret (west Warwick) reservoir. This is a raised reservoir, you'll see an orange lifebuoy reflected at the top of the bank, and standing next to that Lifebuoy.... Anna! (after seeing a dead fox at the bottom of the bank... see other post!)