Fixing the Ford

Another frosty start to the day. A dog-walker friend told me there was a pretty good ground frost... minus 5.7 C in his front garden. It certainly felt like that.
However, I was very pleased to find heavy machinery at the ford. Repairing the damage caused by last week's heavy rain was well underway. It was badly damaged this time around even though it has been carefully designed to scour out in times of very high flow.
The concert pad nearer to the far bank is unscathed but the river has been roaring over the concrete and also scouring out a deep channel on the true right bank.
It was interesting watching the machinery in action. The operator was extremely skilled. I reckon he could pick up a mug of coffee in the bucket without spilling it.
Here the deeply scoured out channel has been filled in and the operator is adding extra shingle dredged from the stream bed to the top layer in order to make a smooth transition across to the concrete pad.
So tomorrow morning the dogs and I will be able to cross to the other side of the river in order to walk our usual route upstream.
I will need to be wearing my "Muckboots" (Wellingtons) as the river water continues to flow over the concrete pad.
No doubt the machinery will need to be called back for repairs again later in the winter when we get our next heavy rain event!