Waterfall under the Heavens

I missed the best of the sunshine today, being rather lazy, before going out shopping at lunchtime. I had hoped to go and take a specific picture of this waterfall, knowing there would be strongly flowing water in the streams. I hoped the setting sun in the west would shine right into this spot, between the leafless trees. Normally it is very shrouded here. Sadly the sun remained well hidden late this afternoon.

Helena and I set off down the path beside the house, which leads down to the Lime Brook lying about one hundred feet below our garden. It flows down the short length of The Horns valley, before running at right angles into the River Frome at Bowbridge, about a quarter of a mile away. We crossed the brook and went straight up the hillside to the ruins of the very old Wayhouse, which I look out at from my desk, and can see when the leaves have fallen.

Crossing over the ridge and the old Way, which runs down to Bowbridge, we walked through the beech woods, where there are also ruins of three cottages. The track runs up the head of another smaller valley, at the top of which is the tiny hamlet called The Heavens. There, near the very top of the Cotswold limestone, a spring gushes out of a spout and the water starts its steep journey down the hillside towards where we were standing, before it flows on across a meadow, joining the Lime Brook in the heart of Oakey Grove.

This waterfall is a wonder to me. It is always flowing and drops down the hillside in stages for about a hundred feet or more, before levelling out where it meets a different outcrop of rock. The land here consists of layers of limestone and clay, with some slippage as well.

The track we walked up crosses the stream just where I am standing, with the rest of the waterfall above this position. It always draws walkers, who stand and look and listen to the tumbling water, several of whom passed us by today. We are so lucky to have such a variety of natural wonders just outside our back garden. The waterfall is probably only a quarter of a mile away from me now. A few minutes ago I went outside to watch Bomble scouting in the dark of the garden, chasing some interloper I couldn't see, and I managed to catch the sound of owls across the valley. Bomble is now inches away, staring at these words on the screen as I type.