I am so fed up with all this rain, I am thinking of changing my name to Noah! Even when it is not raining heavily it seems to be constantly damp and miserable. We have floods in various places, two caravan parks at Billing and Cogenhoe and some other properties have been evacuated. Sheep and cattle have had to be evacuated from flooded fields and in the park the lake has flooded and paths and benches are hidden under water.The ducks and water birds seem to be enjoying their newly enlarged lake, but for the rest of us the conditions are depressing. So why when we have more water than we no what to do with, do we still have someone from the government saying that we will be getting our water from standpipes in the street if we have another dry winter? It is all very well for the water companies to say it is the wrong kind of rain and telling us that it just runs away. Rain is rain, too much of it causes floods and creates havoc. Of course water soaks away gradually, but it us up to the water companies to collect it and store it, heaven knows we pay them enough!
This photo was taken yesterday looking towards Weston Mill from near Bedford Rd in Northampton. On the left is the River Nene, on the right is the flood storage area (usually you can walk on this land). That is a lot of water!
It is exactly 14 years since we had another very wet April, apparently we had 3.5 x the average rainfall for that month and according to news reports a whole months worth of rain fell in one day in April. On the night of 9th April there were terrible floods in the town and there was no advance warning. 2500 homes were flooded and 2 lives were lost. There had been no serious flooding in the town since 1939. The reasons for the 1998 flood were complex, but building on the flood plain certainly played a part. Since then a lot of work has been done to protect the vulnerable areas of the town. Without that additional protection Billing and possibly other parts of our town would have suffered serious flooding again this year. It does seem that 'the powers that be' have got their act together in respect of flood protection. Now we need the water companies to do the same in terms of water storage. It is a nonsense that we are up to are eyes in water yet we still have a hosepipe ban!
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| Photo by nirutha |
There are many tales of strange animals being spotted around Cornwall, but as this story involves Robbie it is a little stranger than most. For 200 years there have been reports of sightings of a sea monster in Falmouth Bay, known as Morgawr it is said to be over 20 feet long with an 8ft tail, scaly legs and a horned head. There have been sightings of the Beast of Bodmin Moor, a panther like creature since 1971 but it (or more likely 'they') have never been caught. So when Robbie told me that he had spotted a very strange looking animal while watching a television program set in Cornwall I was prepared to believe him until we used the rewind facility, the strange animal proved to be a sheep!! I was incredulous, he may work in Birmingham, but he grew up in a rural area so he must have seen a sheep before. His excuse was that he didn't know that sheep could have different faces!
This photo was taken yesterday looking towards Weston Mill from near Bedford Rd in Northampton. On the left is the River Nene, on the right is the flood storage area (usually you can walk on this land). That is a lot of water! 
It is exactly 14 years since we had another very wet April, apparently we had 3.5 x the average rainfall for that month and according to news reports a whole months worth of rain fell in one day in April. On the night of 9th April there were terrible floods in the town and there was no advance warning. 2500 homes were flooded and 2 lives were lost. There had been no serious flooding in the town since 1939. The reasons for the 1998 flood were complex, but building on the flood plain certainly played a part. Since then a lot of work has been done to protect the vulnerable areas of the town. Without that additional protection Billing and possibly other parts of our town would have suffered serious flooding again this year. It does seem that 'the powers that be' have got their act together in respect of flood protection. Now we need the water companies to do the same in terms of water storage. It is a nonsense that we are up to are eyes in water yet we still have a hosepipe ban!
