18 July: Summer Saturday

It's been raining. And when it rains the rivers get full. We took a stroll down to the River Wear this afternoon - it had clearly gone down about 5 feet from its highest point.


The plants on the bank have all been flattened and pushed in the direction of the flow.

Several tree branches swept past us; one large piece of tree had got caught on one of the bridge girders -


The farm by the bridge was flooded. The house seemed to be OK, but the tractor in the yard was in a foot or so of water, and some children were going up and down past it in a rubber dinghy. From further up the hill we could see that the farmyard and fields were well under water.

Oddly, the river banks were above the water, separating the flooded fields from the rushing and swirling river.