Timeless...

While I was out walking the dogs I was struck by the apparent timelessness of this view across the Nene valley. The photograph is taken from the steep hill to the north of the river, and looks over flood meadows to the south and west. So far this year they haven't been under water, though today the river level was high, and the water a fast-flowing brown soup, containing silt washed off the fields in the recent rains.

It's true that many aspects of the view probably haven't changed much for several hundred years: the meadows, the course of the river itself, the traditionally laid hedge in the foreground which is just breaking into leaf and the newly turned out cattle (which include at least two belted Galloways).

But other less visible features are of more recent origin. Historically most of the flood meadows would have supported a mix rich of wild flowers, and been mown for hay before being grazed by cattle in the late summer and autumn. The meadows are now included in a Country Park, and use of fertilisers and herbicides prior to this means that the grass sward is now fairly species-poor.

Just out of view, to the south, there is a very large lake, the product of former gravel extraction. Much of the grassland in the Nene valley has been replaced by open water - good for wildlife such as dragonflies, ducks and cormorants but bad for grassland flowers and breeding waders of wet meadows.

My other alternative was a picture of Gemma, standing in a lake gazing into space with water gently dripping from her moustache which can be seen here.