It has been a bit of a crazy week. I've been trying to sort out things like doctors and dentists and while all is fine, it's a faff that I could do without as I always find it frustrating to sit on the phone while a recording tells me how important I am. I was also quite amazed to work out that, for the duration I was sat in the chair at the dentists, my dentist was earning about £150 an hour. No wonder he only needs me to visit every six months.
With Mel now back at work we are no longer walking along the river every day, but we were out and about at the weekend and decided to walk along the tow path that heads westwards and swings around to link up with the Wivenhoe Trail, which takes us east and back towards home.
Over the past couple of years, the Trail has been a source of contention between the local council and a firm that was looking after the area known as Ferry Marsh (partly enclosed by the two routes of the tow path and the Wivenhoe Trail). There was an argument about whose job it was to open a sluice that helped drain the marsh. When we were using the Trail during the summer, the water levels were high, which was nice because it meant secluded pools were being used by coots and moorhens and other birds that we wouldn't normally see.
During the winter we avoided the Trail because the canopy of trees meant that it never dried out properly. We were warned by friends in February that the water was now lapping over the path, which was constantly muddy. We also heard that, about two weeks ago, the council was taking back control of the area and was planning to open the sluices.
We left it a week or so to give the path a chance to dry out and on Sunday we took the opportunity of a sunny day to see what a difference it had made. And the difference was huge. Not only was the path almost dry, the water level had dropped a couple of feet. I dug out a couple of photos from March 2021, so this was not the Trail at its worst, but you can definitely see how bad it was a year ago.
I was scanning some westerns this week and I'll be working on a volume of The Steel Claw next, which is a bit of treat for me as it's my favourite strip!
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