Spreading a bit of light and pleasure to those confined by the current crisis. See post 1, here, for an explanation.

This is the 20^th post.

Our small village bears a name created via the brook that flows down from the hills, alongside the main street, and eventually underground through a culvert, following some fairly extensive flooding some years ago, to join the River Wye.

The ‘Lyd’ or ‘loud’ brook is made up of a number of small waterways, the main one of which, Greathough Brook, is itself the confluence of at least three tributaries that drain surrounding hills. This main contributor is now the site of an enclosed area where British Beavers have been released to breed and form water management dams. This morning’s walk took us along the lower stretch of the Lyd Brook, below the beaver enclosure, and now carrying water that’s much cleaner and more stable since the animals were introduced.

This part of the valley still carries small reminders of its industrial past; some iron pipes used then still run along and even through the watercourse, but nature has reclaimed most of the land. The recent winter was very wet, and windier than usual. As a result, many older, more fragile trees were brought down, either whole or in pieces, their trunks and branches now strewn across the floor of the narrow valley. It’s quite difficult terrain to cross, but we haven’t visited it for a few years and were eager to see how it had fared during the wild times.

There are a few small waterfalls along the length of the brook but most are now clogged with fallen boughs. Nevertheless, we found a few short stretches that had retained their pictorial quality. In a few years, the place will look different again, as many small ash, sycamore and even oak are now among the crop of trees naturally springing up in the damp fertile flood plain.

The walk was worth the effort, but we won’t be repeating it this year as bracken, briars, and the activity of wild boar will soon make most of it impassable. It was worth the effort for this one walk, however, and I place a couple of shots here to provide a flavour of the place.

Keep safe and well, everyone!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. It’ll help others enjoy this bit of nature if you could spread the word with the ‘share’ buttons below. Let’s all do what we can for each other during this testing and trying time, please. Thank you.