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

5 day weather forecast

As l turn to the BBC 5 day weather forecast, hubby races into the office as whoops of excitement radiate around the house. 'look' l shout, wildly jabbing finger at screen then grabbing the print out of the 5 day forecast... 'look'' l gasp again, 'no rain for at least 5 days! look! sunny symbols for EVERY day! Look! 25'C!!'

OK this is a wee bit sad, but to be quite frank with you, this will be the first forecast in months that has not had black clouds with rain drops coming out the bottom. A quick finger count & l reckon it could be April since the forecast looked this sunny. oohh.

Boy have we had some rain in the past months. This is the part of the UK forgotten about by the press & politicians. Our floods happened 4 weeks ago but to show the fear that still prevails around the the words 'heavy rain', a neighboring village, which had been under 4 feet of water, last night had its villagers barricading themselves in their homes with sand bags because heavy rain was forecast. We had none............

So with any luck it looks as though August will be a return to summer, or perhaps l should say the start of summer? Hopefully the flood, [pictured left] standing in a long drained kettlehole lake, should soon recede or perhaps even evaporate, tram lines in the wheat 'side oupp' & combines be able to roll without being tugged & pushed by tractors. What a flipping year.............