After the November floods
The last week’s seen a burst for summer. Our recently planted oaks have pushed out their first leaves, the azaleas are expanding into flower and the huge beech in the forest above The Larches has now a waving mass of fresh green leaves. This morning a peacock and an orange tip butterfly perched lazily in the sun on the pot of pansies on the Breakfast terrace.
It all seems a long way from the flooded rivers five months ago (see my 23rd November blog posting,), which brought misery and heartache as families became homeless, bridges and footpaths were smashed and hundreds of small businesses were brought to their knees.
The good news is that substantial repair work has been done. At Little Braithwaite, the smashed side of the beck has been rebuilt with huge rocks and a massive bank of earth behind (see photo), while at High Hill in Keswick the Greta river has now a raised concrete containing wall with 6 inches thick facing stones.
The bad news here – according to one of the stone masons I spoke to – is that this is not high enough and it will have to be increased in height at least a further 10 inches when there is more money available. Oh yes and at Little Braithwaite there’s a problem too. The road bridge – which crossed behind the hedge in the middle photo – was swept away and will not be replaced before next year. You’ve probably guessed the reason by now!
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[...] always good to come clean when you get a story wrong! I predicted in April in my After the November floods blog, that a lack of money would make it likely that we would have to wait til 2011 before the old [...]