Ditches and Streams

I've always enjoyed mucking about in gullies and ditches – from my early days living on the farm at Bratton, where I used to spend several hours walking along small streams, under bridges and past overhanging branches, seeing just how far I could go without encountering a block or obstacle – a sort of miniature explorer I suppose!

In those days hedges and ditches marked the boundaries of fields – these delineations were set down many years before, all clearly defined and named on old maps. They either separated your own land into manageable sections, or provided a border with the next farm and had to be well maintained to prevent cattle escaping... My father was a keen tender of hedges and ditches and part of his annual farm maintenance was to check that they were all OK, no gaps or weak areas and the ditches cleared of debris. Sometimes this meant he had to 'lay' a hedge all over again, and I often accompanied him around the farm, helping to sort out the wood and branches into different piles to be loaded onto his trailer and taken back to the farm. Bean sticks, pea sticks, trunks to be sawn into logs – all were collected, bundled neatly and carted away – originally by a horse and then by tractor. The whole process was an important part of yearly farming routine in the 1950's and '60's.
It also started off my love of wood – but that's another story...

So, many years later in France, it wasn't surprising that I quickly discovered the pretty Colmont river running through the valley down the hill from our house. We saw it in all weathers, at all times of year, and it was always a delight to walk beside or cross on the Pont a Buty.

Big rivers, although impressive, have never appealed to me in the same way – I can admire and gaze at them, but for me they lack the charm and personality of their smaller tributaries.

Cycling along beside the Mayenne river, walking through the woods by the Colmont, or splashing about in my wellies all those years ago – these are still my favourites and appear in my photos to accompany this Blog.

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