Although we have not had all that much rain since the thaw, & the ground is reasonably dry, the stones in the walls – whether round the fields or the sides of houses – are looking wet right through. The two felled sycamore trunks, left lying athwart the culvert, also look as if they have been soaking in a bath.
These trunks have puzzled me. After the giant sycamore fell down surgeons came to cut down some of the other trees, presumably judged also to be dangerous. All the branches were stripped off, & some of the trunks chopped up & carried away. These two were left, presumably for a purpose.
Save that they do not touch the ground on the uphill side they are almost like bridges, but surely of no use to any animal except a squirrel, & why should we want to encourage those pesky things?
The stream is still in almost full spate but today it was looking distinctly grey rather than muddy brown. I thought maybe it was grit, but the stream goes nowhere near a road till it reaches ours, so there’s another mystery.
I guess the walls are wet because they have just never had a chance to dry out after the snow, since most days have just seen an undifferentiated mass of cloud & mist, with no wind to speak of.
But, speaking of which, local radio has now started to give us an official wind report, after, but not part of, the weather forecast. Sponsored by a Green energy company. I did not know we had enough wind turbines in the area to make it worth their money, but I guess there could be quite a few small ones on hill farms.
Won’t do them much good today however. The wind speed was officially zero this morning, but with hopes of maybe 20 mph this afternoon.
Every little helps.
