Raining cats and dogs!.....

I can't believe it... raining still! It never stops. It's the middle of the day and you still need the lights on. My feet are beginning to web and I'm evolving gills behind my ears... In fact, it's raining 'cats and dogs'! And here's the proof!

Two months nearly it's been raining now, with barely a let up. The BBQ is rusted and almost fully overgrown.

Fed up I decided to go kayaking anyway, but when I got there I found the river was so high that it was dangerous to go in. The normally calm mill race at Alrewas was a torrent. An alarmed Mallard shot past spinning wildly on a mat of river weed and quickly disappeared into the distance. Further downstream on the quieter canal section things weren't much better. A long boat struggled against the flow, engine racing it barely managed to get to the lock and had to be tied in before they dared opening the gates. Long boats were designed to be towed by horses and aren't built for speed, but going downstream they were travelling faster than I could run. Many of these boats are hired by the week by holidaymakers and there were frightened faces as they sped past desperately trying to steer their newly acquired floating homes from the clutches of the weir. It looked as if the barrier had already taken a few hits and debris were starting to pile up against it.

There are several weirs along this stretch to spread the load but although this is a wide one, the waters were still rushing over at quite a rate. The photo never shows the extent of things, but the break wave was a good 5 foot high!

Defeated by the weather, I decided to go off to Ikea ( you have to be fairly defeated to go to Ikea on a weekend!), but on the trip back the sun popped out for an hour, so I stopped off at Barr Beacon. This is the view of Birmingham City 6 miles away.

The bandstand was back lit by the sun, which gave it a Stonehenge sort of a look.

The clouds returned, and England submerged into the gloom once again.

When will it stop raining????!

Cat Burglars!....

All was quiet in the garden...too quiet! The mice were hiding in the ivy, the birds were nowhere to be seen.... "You found it?", "Yeah, there's loads!"

"Shift over, I'm coming down."

"It's not very big is it? It looks huge from the ground." "You're on my tail!"

"You get what you can, I'll keep look out."

"Well who's that then, down there?" "It's just one of the 'uprights' from the big house, you know, the one thats always got that goggly eye thing all the while!" "Oh, he's alright, he won't tell, I'll smarm up to him later, he's a succer for that."

"Come here, there's some more, I can smell it!"

"I don't get it, if it's meant for us why put it in this cage thingy?"

"What ARE you two up to?!" "Nuffing......"

Drowning Dragons and swimming snakes...

I had a hundred things I needed to do. I'd been putting off servicing the car, using the bad weather as an excuse, but today it was so sunny.....Suddenly I found myself speeding down a country lane, the kayak already strapped to the roof. I couldn't miss a day like today, it had been raining for sooooo long.

The canal up by Dunstall was really busy with longboats and everyone seemed to be in a good mood, waving and shouting hello. All the wildlife was out too. Kingfishers, swallows, fish galore. The Mallard chicks were pretending to be invisible as the kayak approached and the Moorhen chick had to be shooed away and eventually led back to its home after mistaking me for mom!

As I passed through Hopwas into the wooded section of the canal, there was a commotion ahead. The water was splashing as the fish were showing a keen interest in something. As I got closer I could see what they were after, a huge dragonfly trapped by the surface tension.

It grasped onto the outstretched paddle with obvious relief. Transferred onto a dry sponge it proceeded to unstick its wings.

After a while it seemed much revived, and as I held him in the sunshine to dry I swear it had a grin on its face!

Some pre-flight checks and a quick wipe of the eyes and it was ready to go. With a clatter of wings it was off.

Just as one drama was over, another one unfolded. The wooded side of the canal has a shallow earth bank but the other side towards the river is a vertical steel edge bordering the towpath. I could see a snake lunging at this in a vain attempt to get out. Paddling over to see if I could help, I was quickly spotted. The little chap, (well I say little it was about one and a half foot long) decided to head my way and see if it could get out on the kayak.

Luckily, while I was debating in my head as to whether I wanted to share such a small boat with a snake, it decided to carry on past.

Then as I swung the boat around, it was off. I never realised they could swim so fast, a good walking pace at least.

Two flicks of a tail and it was home and dry.

On the way back to the car I spotted two more Grass snakes. Until this year I had not seen any since I was a kid, now I see them all the time. I assume it is the mild winters we have now that favour them. Nice to know that global warming isn't all bad....

A sunny interval!....

I gave Jenny a lift to work today, and as it was near Sutton Park and remarkably not raining, (It's rained pretty much everyday for over a month, wheres my summer?) I decided to go for a walk. I headed for this little tree overlooking Longmoor valley. It's quite open here, and when the weather's like this, likely to shower at anytime this fir makes a great regular bolt hole. Surveying the sky, I thought I'd venture further and ambled downhill, past the old world war 1 zig zag practice trenches and on to Rowtons Well.

Rowtons well is a natural spring. It is reputed to have been regularly used by the Romans who camped near here up on the hill. The wells waters were famous for curing 'inveterate, cutaneous and chronic ailments' in 1762. In Victorian days it was known for its purity and water was collected daily to be taken to Birmingham eye hospital. You can still see the rut marks left across one stretch of the moors from the wagon used. Ladies of the time believed it was good for the 'constitution' to bathe in its cold waters, and a flag pole was erected to warn when it was in use. The stream below this is full of wild watercress and was often taken by the locals to sell. Nowadays the water isn't so clean. I still use it to make a cup of tea while I'm out, but I give it a good boil first!

Further on I came across the old 'shooting butts'. This is where the targets were held up by soldiers hiding in the trench. This continued until well after the first world war, but ceased after complaints from members of the public suffering near misses!

This whole valley is rich with history. First world war prisoners of war were held here and discovered flint arrowheads, post holes and an ancient wooden trackway across the marshes while digging peat. The Romans built a road and a section of it has become encompassed in the park. When the Romans left, this road was ignored and not used by locals as it only went from one old fort to another and served no useful route. Because of the unique nature of the park, (given to the people of Sutton Coldfield in a Royal charter for use as agistment, pannage and estover etc) this area was never built on, and so the road survives intact. As you can see the road presents itself as a raised strip, proceeding straight as a die all the way to the still remaining fort at the village of Wall.

In some places the surface stones are still in place. 1600 years on and this is still a good dry track across the marshes of Longmoor and in better condition than some of the local modern roads!

To each side of this are lines of Sweet Chestnut trees. These were introduced by the Romans as a food source but were cultivated extensively in Sutton not only as food but for the wood which was particularly suitable for splitting into fencing pales. These fences were used to top the mounds above the ditches around the deer park and royal chase from the 1100's onwards.

I was uncertain what the weather had in mind, and the cows were being no help. Lying down is supposed to mean rain. Some were standing, some lying, one stood up (hooray, sunshine), but then lay down again (boo). I surmised rain with sunny intervals!

The railway line cuts straight across the northern part of the park. It should never have come this way, but was pushed through by surrounding rich land owners hoping to make a quick buck. The poorer locals were promised cheap coal, which did come, and then continued on past in order to supply the industrial revolution in nearby Birmingham!

I waited ages for a goods train to come so that I could take a photo, but nothing. As soon as I stood on the level crossing to take this shot I became paranoid that I was going to be run down.

On this side of the park there is a herd of wild ponies. They are the same breed as found on Exmoor. At weekends they hide away from people in the less accessible areas, but during the week they venture out closer to the fence line where the ground is dryer and the grass greener.

Sleepy and relaxed they let me get quite close. I love these chaps, their coats change season to season. In winter they go pretty fluffy and much darker.

You might think they're dozing, but they've always got an eye on you!

I ended the walk with a flask of coffee while swinging in my small hammock. Gosh I look severe in this photo.....I'm having fun, honestly!

Two become one.....

It was the tiny twins 1st birthday on Saturday ( see them hatch and grow at http://russandmax.blogspot.com/ ) and we were all invited to a party.....
We've had rain for days and days, but Maxine ordered some sunshine and it arrived an hour early!

There were plenty of helium balloons, but not quite enough to achieve 'zero gravity' for a small child...shame!

The twins received loads of presents. Shiny paper, twinkly ribbons, brightly coloured bows....all their favourite things! Some of them had stuff inside.

All children had to be 'spun' regularly, it was the rule. Or so they told me. Safety was paramount, all hands were applied with sticky chocolate cake to avoid slipping.

I was glad when Jon and my brother Russell arrived to take over the fairground duties as my war wounds were beginning to play up.

The paparazzi were out in force. The twins lapped up the attention, playing to the cameras.

Although I set the shutter speed to 'Max', she proved difficult to capture on film. Trays of yummy food magically appeared, spillages were wiped and all by the blur known as Maxine!!

I had an informative crawl around the garden with the twins. The stone steps were a bit hard on the knees, but we found some bad plants we shouldn't eat and some good plants we could. The Rosemary smelt odd, but we rubbed it on our noses anyway.

Sometimes when it all gets too much, Daddy makes it alright again. "I'll hit him with this brick, then he'll know that I care."

The peaceful game of garden Jenga inevitably descended into civil war. Wooden blocks were violently exchanged as tiredness and 'e' numbers distorted young minds perception of fair play. A peacekeeping force was brought in and an uneasy ceasefire was maintained.

Chris loved playing the 'slam the door shut' game, honing his skills for his teenage years.

A great tiny tots teatime toy time time was had by all!

Not a dove, but a coot with a twig...

The flood waters have begun to recede. This is at Hemlingford Bridge over the River Tame near the village of Kingsbury. The view shown was previously under more than 6 ft of water as far as the houses in the distance. Not far from here is Kingsbury water park, a wildlife sanctuary and leisure destination. Originally a gravel quarry, the workings have been allowed to fill with water and naturalise. Most of the paths were still flooded, and there were huge puddles everywhere. The ground was littered with the pale slimy corpses of thousands of drowned earthworms and you had to pick your way carefully through so as to not slip on them!

The puddles seemed to be rippling and on closer inspection I realised that they were teaming with leeches! There were also fish, mainly Perch. I rescued as many as I could, throwing them into a stream that headed for the Tame, but there were too many to save every one.

What is it with the coconuts???! Whenever I'm kayaking and come across a bank with debris, there is always at least one coconut! It's not as if this is the Caribbean. They obviously come from upstream, but where?!

As I ventured further into the flood zone I began to notice a really bad smell.....Then I realised. There were dead animals everywhere! Mainly mice and rabbits, but birds and squirrels too.

It was mostly young rabbits that had drowned. The crows had had a go at many of them and now the sun was out the stench was awful.

On some of the more isolated trees you could see a tide line, and above that the bark was stripped clean. I can only presume that this is where squirrels have become trapped and have been forced to eat anything that they could find.

Many of the pools are used for sailing, jet skiing and power boating. This is where the sailing boats are stored on the bank mounted on trailers....Empty, not one left. I spoke to a guy from the club house and he told me that the waters had been so high that they had floated off, trailers and all. Some had ended up in other pools, some in the river or left high and dry in fields and several had made it as far as the M42 motorway 2 miles away!

The owner of this powerboat had been lucky. I spotted it far off, half on and half off one of the little islands of one of the many pools. Not sure whether it is attached to the trailer still!

Tired and despondent I plodded back to the car along what little was left of the road. All the death and destruction can get you down...

....but then this little chap cheered me up. He/she wasn't giving up, there was a new nest to be built and a new life to be made. Good for him/ her...it!