Sherbourne Pond

No, folks, I didn't realise that yesterday was my 730th Blip! Thank you, thank you, thank you all, for the stars, hearts and comments! I was called into work last night so loaded the blip in haste... lost the write up twice and gave up.

Two years with a, forced, month off... I honestly didn't think I'd get to two months, let alone two years!

I'm afraid you're going to get an overdose of Silent Pool and Sherbourne Pond which it runs into. The scenes of this period have never been witnessed before and, hopefully, will never be seen again. It makes sense to blip the changes that are occurring so rapidly.

The winds have felled trees that have stood the best part of a century and the path, which runs around Silent Pool, has now caved in in a couple of places as the water forces new springs out of the rock. I was ready to blame the dogs when a huge chunk of the bank collapsed in front of me but, they were behind me and nowhere near the spot.

The flow of the water into Sherbourne Pond, via the waterfall and the side slip augments by the hour and both ponds have burst their banks. I'm helping with the battle to keep the sluices clear but the volume of water is greater than either of them. The sandbags that are trying to contain water running into my neighbours garden are becoming useless and the road that runs over the flow into the farm is looking perilously caved where the main body of water runs.

Although the water in the upper pool is normally a beautiful blue, the lower is more often than not, a little murky. Not now. Both pools are clear and the chalk bottoms are being scrubbed white by the flow. Unfortunately, a non native weed, New Zealand Stone Crop, that has infested the ponds is also being ripped up and is flowing rapidly with the water, downstream where it will root. It's environmental disaster and unlikely it can be stopped now.

It was dark when I was invited into my neighbours garden to see the waterfall that has formed there. It will be my blip for tomorrow!