spring tides and missing cliffs

The past few weeks have seen mammoth changes to the beach at Withow Gap. Normally at this time of year, sand on the upper beach is scrapped back revealing the smooth, slippery grey clay, however, this year we seem to have a reverse of all things normal. And so it is that now, in December, the sand has never been so high. Ten feet of vertical, peaty cliff have been buried under tons of fine sand. Now, today, instead of a scramble down into Withow Gap, clutching wildly for anything to stop you ending up slipping ignominiously in the peaty morass & looking to all intents and purposes as though you have been mud wrestling, it is a case of a gentle, elegant hop, down on to the soft sand, maintaining ones decorum! l feel quite sorry for the summer visitors, clad in light summer shoes totally unsuitable for mud paddling, blame the ancient lake god's!

The Sand Dumping might be good news for walkers but it does bring other problems, the drain is now blocked and water is back tracking up the dyke, causing the water table to rise in the low part of the field, turning it once more into the kettlehole lake of days gone past. Great for wading birds. Flocks of redshanks, lapwing & greenshanks plus loads of small waders prodding the peaty soil for a meal! So far that makes 2 interesting results of the high sandy bit, now for the down side.... each spring tide has seen the sea come up over the 'cliff' top strewing flotsam & jetsam ever where and of course hastening coastal erosion.

Finally, the dog. Lucy-Piglet. We have a positive diagnosis. It is a post esophageal stricture. L-P is currently residing at the Animal Health Trust clinic near Newmarket under going treatment and with any luck she will be back here in a week. Gordon is bereft