Starting from number six there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.
Clumps of snowdrops, Hothfield, Kent. Jill (Epping)
Konick ponies on Hothfield Heathland. Jill (Epping)
Nuthatch on bird feeder – sorry for poor quality, taken through window! Jill (Epping)
We have a Stream or you may call it a Brook that meanders its way from one end of the Farm to the other. It has for hundreds of year if not for ever. It was one of the criteria when we were looking for a Farm property. In the Summer other than when there is very heavy rain it gently meanders it way through the Farm. In the Winter it can become a raging torrent that on one occasion the two foot wide stream became a forty metre river that came down the Valley like a monster wall, flooding all in its way including the Holiday Cottages. Fortunately it is classed by the Environmental Agency as a one in a hundred year incident.
This Winter with the heavy rain and snow there was a lot more water coming through the Farm than when we had the Flood, so the Agency were probably right and we will never see the like again. At one point the Stream goes under a country lane than that splits the Farm in two, flowing into pleasant pastures that we planted Marsh Marigolds, Flag Iris and other Water Plant along the side of the Stream. It makes a pleasant Summer walk after the hay is made. This year the heavy rain and melting snow has caused a great amount of fast water, that has brought with it a lot of river bedding of stone and sandy soil. Eventually it has caused the tunnel under the Lane to block causing the Stream to flood the lane, although not particularly deep the flood did cover a large area of the lane.
Last week we had a visit from the Council asking if they could enter the Pasture Fields to clear the river bedding and sandy soil from the tunnel to stop the flood. We inspected and agreed on the work that would be required, with last Friday or Monday gone being the day that a digger would do the necessary work. The digger never arrived so I believed that I would be told of an alternative day.
As we pass through the Farms gates we can see into the Field where the digger would be working. Although it was right in my line of sight, I truthfully did not see it as my eyes were directed to what only be could called an unsightly carbuncle a hundred yards long on the side of the Stream. I could not believe what I was seeing, there was a bank of at least a hundred yards of river bedding and sandy soil eight feet from the side of the stream and nearly a foot deep that had covered all of the plants that were starting to come above the soil. On reaching the Stream it only got worse for the digger had dug into the side of the bank making the Stream to look like a land drain that you would expect to see on a flood plain. The Stream in that Field was now a small river.
To say that my language to the digger driver was blue would be an understatement, I wanted to hurt him for the damage he had done. He told me that is what he was told to do. Even an idiot would have known he was making an environmental mess. I told his Boss when he arrived what had to be done, but as I am writing the Diary I reckon that I could well have made a mistake. Part of the river bedding and sandy soil will be put back into the Stream with the remainder being flattened on both sides. I now realise that this will stop any rain water from draining from the Field into the Stream. I will need to look at it in the morning, but on thinking this is not going to solve any problems and the Council are going to be in for a costly job to put the damage right. If it can ever be put right.