Streuth!!!

That week flashed past. Well it didn't but I did lose track of my blog.

So what is new?

On Wednesday I hiked along the river in the bottom of the valley near where I live. Unfortunately all the photos I have of it do not seem to be on my laptop so you will have to wait until I see if I can find the cd I put them on.

Anyroad the river is called the Browney and mostly I think it got that name due to it's colour. In the height of summer it does become quite clear and reminds me of the chalk streams I used to meander along as a child in Hampshire.

The route I take has been of some solace to me over the years. I have to cross a busy main road and run the gauntlet of a small field of caravans followed by the protestations of a very fierce sounding dog but, once over a second style I am in the countryside proper. I have to skirt around the edge of an arable field and then follow a small ravine made by the flow of a small spring. Some years there are a surplus of rabbits feeding along the edge of the ravine whom I usually disturb. Once a youngster even had to scuttle past me in the haste to reach safety. Quite cute for a major pest! Introduced by the Romans I believe.

Halfway down this field there is an escarpment where the gradient drops off quite sharply to the valley floor. Every time I reach this topological feature I experience a small frisson of excitement. All that is visible as I approach is the river itself some way off in the distance. The descent marks a sort of boundary layer. I leave the noise and confusion of everyday life behind me and descend into some sort of lost world that is all tranquility and scenic beauty. Maybe not so very scenic but we are talking relatively.

I have witnessed nature in ways that I never expected to. Wildlife mostly, A few hares bounding around, the odd deer and a quite a few heron's. I once caught a family of Otters noisily frolicking on the river bank. That was some experience!
At first I thought it was a rat and became alarmed when I realised their size. My cat could take on a rat but it would have shrunk from this one. In a slight sense of panic, as my brain tried desperately to place and organise any sort of coherent thought they noisily swam off down river. It was only after they had gone I came to realise just what I had seen. Sadly it has been just the once but here's to hoping...

At any time I am never more than a few hundred yards from the main roads but as they sit atop the valley they feel a hundred miles away. I am usually alone with my thoughts and the sound of wind through rustling leaves. A summer evening stroll through this setting has been the difference sometimes between staying sane and carrying out exceedingly violent acts on members of my workplace!