The following photos of a walk we took along the river yesterday, the day had started crisp and frosty, but by mid-morning the paths had turned to mud. It had been raining the night before, and the river was high, its muddy waters almost spilling across the path. There was a lot of activity, and we later learned that the banks were getting their annual clear up by volunteers. A dozen or so large willow trees had also been cut down and had been replaced by tall saplings at their side.
The man in the yellow machine chatted away to us, and said, that the willow trees were all going to be made into cricket bats, and they would be sold world wide. Not quite trusting him, I looked at the internet and true enough it is a company in Great Leighs that cut the willows here and also somewhere along a Suffolk river. Sad to see these trees go, their gray-green leaves rustling in the breeze but I suppose they will have some glory in winning the Ashes cup. Selling the trees pay by the way for the tidying up of the river, what worries me with all this beautifying is that the land has been earmarked by a large company for a 'waterside park', though building on this land which floods regularly would not be a smart move....
 |
| Could not bring myself to photograph the cut stumps close-up |
 |
| Hard core on the path, which the little machine is shuffling along |
 |
| The Mill |
 |
| A slightly blurry picture of the tumbling mill race |
Interesting Thelma to actually see cricket bats at their inception.
ReplyDeleteThat river looks pretty high - the rivers here are in that state too and as we are going along the river side to Cumbria on Friday we are keeping a close eye on our river.
The trees are about 20 years old, and apparently willow has that 'spring' in the wood for bats. Not a bad thing for the rivers to be high at this time of year, as it does fill the reservoir for the summer droughts...
ReplyDelete