Spring Is In The Air

Mum and twins

A roebuck peaking out coyly from behind the trees

The does, not coy at all!

Thank goodness the winds have stopped howling, the torrential rain has abated. The river levels are dropping and floods subsiding. The paths are drying out, there are wild flowers in the woods and everything seems so much more vibrant. The sun rising at 7am and setting at 6pm cheers things up too.

The wildlife has broken cover (some less timid than others) and the sheep on the downs seem more content. A few lambs skipping around certainly adds to the air of optimism.

My heart certainly goes out to those householders on the Somerset Levels and in the Thames Valley who are now faced with the 'clean up' after the flooding. Let's hope it doesn't happen next year in the same way, and if the rain does return the situation is handled a whole lot better.

At the moment lessons are being learned from this winter's near catastrophic flooding. The rainfall was the highest since records began, but it is becoming obvious that more preventative maintenance on the waterways and investment in water management would certainly have reduced the impact but not prevented flooding altogether. We had better learn very quickly that we should not build on flood plains. Our village and the others in the Wylye valley are fortunate that our historic water meadows are still intact and 'doing their job'.

We'll have to leave the water management issues to the experts (or perhaps the problem is that we don't leave it to the real experts), I'm off up the hill for a walk.