Foal

On the bank of Fletchers' Water I saw my first foal of the year. Quite and still one moment, next rolling around wildly and kicking out, the foal was clearly loving life; after some cajoling from its' mother it attempted to stand, unsteady at first, it soon straightened up finding its' legs. Isn't nature a marvel.

Fletchers' Water

 

Dank day on Fletchers' Water

Fletchers Water

 

I've got grainy video of our children swinging out over what was a fairly broad, and for the most part straight, forest stream, deep enough in parts to make swinging out over it safe-ish, though not deep enough to pose too much of a risk. We spent many happy hours wandering and exploring it's banks and wider environs, often returning to the car wet. Then ten years ago they restored Fletchers Water to it's pre-Victorian course; I'll admit that at the time I wasn't happy about the change, though now naturalizing so beautifully, it's a really lovely stretch of forest stream.  Agreeable as the old Fletchers Water was, you'd not recognize it as the same place. 

Gone but not forgotten

There's lots to be learn from a landscape, the lumps, bumps, dips and lines all tell stories, although some things you'd never guess. Take this line of deciduous trees cutting across a forest lawn, their linear nature is quite incongruous for their surroundings. They may represent an old boundary or something, the ground looks undisturbed with uniform vegetation, there are cows grazing here now. Unless you'd known this area of the forest 10 years ago you'd never guess that until 2011 the trees marked the course of one of the forests longest straightest drains, Fletchers Water. Back in 2010 there was a near ruler straight drain through here, at roughly 2m wide, with sheer sides 1m or so deep and flanked by dense carr/hedgerow shrub Fletchers Water ran straight for more than a mile until it merged with Highland Water some way above Bolderford Bridge. Today you'd really never know, even I could doubt my own memory, so good a job was done. Today Fletchers Water meanders again along it's pre-Victorian course amongst the oaks and thorn along the edge of Fletchers Thorns; it's now shallower, broad in places, narrower in others, and flanked by diverse flora.

Here's a post I made in 2011 when the work began

Crocodogodile

Many of the forest streams are parched, their naked gravelly bottoms on display. They still flow out of sight though, underground and unseen. Although 'flow' is probably not an accurate description, more seep from puddle to puddle.  Take the remodelled Fletcher's Water as it runs along Fletcher's Green approaching Highland Water, it's more winding gravel path with puddles than stream. I wondered whether climate crisis is making these events any more frequent or intense, it looks more dramatic than it is I think, I remember the forests streams always doing this to some degree. I suppose it's the duration of these events that is the crux, and how the forest critters will fare when even the puddles dry out. I spotted a Crocodogodile in one of the puddles, now there's a thing you don't see every day.