One Garden: swimming pool

Remember that trench S was digging on Sunday? Well, this is what it looks like now, after the river invited itself into the garden. A little dispiriting.

We don't get many rainy days here, but when it does rain, it doesn't do it by half measures. It's been raining continuously for over 24 hours now. We didn't bother with the market in the morning, but perversely decided to go out to Fabrezan for lunch. The roads here have deep ditches running along both sides which appear entirely superflous in summer, but have their uses in winter. Before we even got out of the village we met a local authority lorry using a digger to scrape debris out of the ditch to aid the flow of water off the road. The main road was somewhat flooded, but not enough to stop us getting to Fabrezan.

After lunch in the pizzeria, we walked down to the river, where several other people were inspecting the water flowing under the bridge. Fairly spectacular given that there are normally only about 20 cm of water here, but nowhere near its danger level -- in 1999, the water roared over the top of the bridge, carrying trees and other debris with it. The bridge was officially closed today, but that didn't stop people driving over it and zigzagging round the barriers.

The rain had slackened off a bit while we were eating lunch, so the road back was no more flooded than it had been on the outward journey, and we splashed safely home -- pausing at the garden on the way. It may be hard to believe from this photo, but the river is normally about 150 metres away from the garden. Still, the water level is two metres lower than it was in the flood of 1999 :)