Free Brie, Flybe and a Threeway Light Affair

Still here,

I've an expensive ear trumpet to pay for and the car didn't fare too well in the MOT so been busy bunging stuff on ebay.

With a two week period of isolation on the cards for most of the populace of planet earth, the potential for online auction sales has opened up immensely.





And at this point can we all remember the covert mantra of the mainstream media over the past few years – “If we’re not scared, they’re not doing their job”.

We had a brace of dry days at the beginning of the week and the water levels on the fields and in the river fell for a forty eight hour period.

Ditches are full and flowing and in some spots water is running down the road. On a visit to the stretch of the upper Itchen that I fall in out of, I came across a three way traffic light affair at Headbourne Worthy.

The springs had broken (the clue is there in the name of the village should anybody think this an unusual event) and water was running across the road.

The three way traffic light set up seemed a tad excessive and was further complicated by access to what all civilised people agree is the best farm shop in Britain (thanks in advance for the sample of free brie)


The Itchen was still behaving itself, but back in the Dever valley there is water running down the road that has yet to draw the eye of the traffic light wallahs.

Here is the road at Cocum, between Barton Stacey and the A30.

The water is flowing down the road before exiting stage right into the fields that lead down to Spring Bottom.







It’s groundwater flooding that isn’t going away anytime soon, and is a tremendous thing that bodes well for the impending trout season. We’ve a few dry days on the way before further rain is forecast.

In the quest to lengthen life via the medium of left foot, right foot. Weekend perambulations saw us push deep into the Anton valley before crossing the river to climb over the hill and down to the Test.

The Anton valley was relatively free of flooding

and the Test was bank high but reasonably prim and proper and behaving herself.




There was some standing water on Chilbolton Common, and for a hundred yards I had cause to bear Madam on my back, as yes, it was I who insisted that wellies were not necessary and walking shoes would suffice.

Oh yes, this

We draw a few fly tippers in the Dever valley.

In previous years our own parish has received the gift of sofas, carpets, fruit and veg, builder’s rubble, sump oil and much more besides.

The fly tippers currently seem to be concentrating their efforts on the outskirts of Winchester.

Has something happened to cause this antisocial behaviour?

We now have to register with our local council to use the local town tip, else we incur a five pound charge for each visit, is this the case in Winchester and if so,

could there be a link?




With water all through the wood and any movement with the tractor on the riverbank likely to create more work, we have moved to other areas of work. A bridge has been built from wood grown, felled and processed on site. A rustic affair, it breaks new ground in bridge design, although the requirement to break step when crossing cannot be emphasised enough. With a nod to sustainability we have planted forty odd golden willows through the wood. Now that the ash trees cashing in their chips at a remarkable rate there is a need for a fast growing tree to fill a few gaps. I’ve also another homespun bridge with a folksy feel to build when the water level drops a few inches.

The trout season seems to be rushing towards us and there is still much to be done. The river is rammed with fish, trout mostly, that will be super fit having overwintered in rapid flow. Tarka’s been about this week and either end of a double figure pike pitched up on the bank one morning. Graculus has also upped his presence in the area. Faster flow and deeper water may provide some succour for brer brown trout from Tarka, but it increases Graculus’s prospects of filling his boots. With an extra foot of water in depth of the flight pond the silver fish have taken a bit of a hammering.

Wither poor Flybe.

We had some tremendous times in their care pitching out from the world’s best airport at Southampton.

Ok, Ok the carbon footprint of flying,

but I plant a lot of trees (see somewhere above) and have done many things to promote biodiversity in my workplace and clean up as much air as possible. I also recycle like a fiend and would never dream of introducing a log to the burner with a moisture content higher than 20%, and anyway, most of Flybe’s planes have propellers and I was always led to believe that they didn't burn aviation fuel but are instead propelled by big rubber bands.

So forgive us a few flights from the world's best airport that is Southampton.

Fingers crossed another airline comes forward to maintain the routes from what is, and I'll say it again, the world's best airport.

Oh yes,

Only fifty days ago "Our Great Leader" declared:

“Be in no doubt that we see the importance of Flybe in delivering connectivity across the whole United Kingdom”

Funding was promised,

It didn’t come.

How many other tales have been told this past few years?