This week the rain has fallen and fallen and then fallen some more. The ground has been soggy holding moisture in the most unexpected of places and the river has come perilously close to breaching its banks. It’s an incredible sight when the water is high, but at the same time it’s scary as hell. The energy held in the torrent is something quite hard to fathom

Unsurprisingly it’s this heaving river this has inspired this prompt.

I would like to invite you to choose a body of water on the site that you have chosen. This could be a river like I have chosen, but equally it could be a puddle, or a birdbath, or an ocean….

Once you have chosen your water give yourself some time to observe it as closely as you can. Then take time to think about the following questions:

·      How does the water move?

·      How would you describe its energy?

·      How would you describe the sound that the water makes?

·      How does it feel to be close to this water?

·      If it is safe to put a part of your body into this water how does it feel? And if it isn’t safe how do you imagine it would feel for it to touch your body?

·      Where do you think the water has come from and where might it be going to?

·      What other creatures might inhabit this water, if any?

·      Anything else that you would like to share about your water.

And then the rain came.

An afternoon walk to see the river after all of the heavy rain

The water is high

Astonishing quantities rushing by but still some way from going over

Only the bravest bird will go near this deep and furious water

One duck takes the chance and lets the current carry them along

Light and delicate on the surface like a helpless floating cork

We see a kestrel fly high overhead

Hiding in the rushes and reeds on the lodge we hear birds that we can’t identify by ear

Calling out to who knows what

Maybe a coot is in there staking its claim and marking its territory

Determined not to be seen

We stand by the edge of the lodge and look back to the river. Where the meadow once was there is now nothing more than a narrow strip of land. Maybe there is fifteen or twenty metres left to be carried away by the river.

We ask how long it will be before these two bodies of water meet and become one.

Maybe five years?

Maybe less?

Driven away from the river by its current size a dipper pecks and bobs just below the path on the little stream

The water is clear and fast but you say how it often smells of coal. Of industry. Then you move the sediment around with your toe and perfectly on cue that very smell is there. No matter how much the wild reclaims this place, its dirty past is never hard to find

This post was originally published on Substack on 15th January 2023