Catching up with other news

Because I have been so bad at keeping my blog up to date just lately I haven't even posted some of the pictures I took from the floods a couple of weeks back. Just as the snow melted so the rain came and the river and fields were very flooded. We were quite worried after our near miss with the floods last February but it didn't get any where near as bad for us even though we learned that the river was at its highest for nine years. Those floods we had a year ago must have been partially due to the blocked culvert down the road - well, that's what we're hoping anyway.

Here are some pictures of the floods from a couple of weeks ago today.










The river is right back down again now which is always a relief. Some of the shops were flooded at the lower end of the high street but the water receded pretty quickly. We couldn't walk the dogs over the fields for a few days as the stream which feeds into the river also broke its banks and so it was just too risky to take the dogs there. Instead we had lots of walks on the Ashdown Forest. It was very wet up there but not flooded like our fields. The dogs got pretty filthy and it is so exhausting cleaning them all up before they get back in the car. Still, the weather has improved (I hope I don't regret saying this) and for the last few walks all we've had to do is wipe slightly muddy feet. We have found a new quick way of doing this by using a very damp e-cloth and then a dry one. If they're not too muddy it saves soaking their feet and does a really good job of cleaning them up. God, what would I do without e-cloths!