Residue

To vary one of my walking routes a little, I turned right toward the brick dam which sits in the horse pasture between Moorside and Spring Wood. Today, this is a more or less seasonal pond, it grows in the winter and recedes in the summer. Historically, it's the highest of the dams that were built in the eighteenth century to power the Tong Park mills, half a mile down the valley, and was probably the first abandoned.

During the heavy rains of February the water reached almost to the top of the wall, a metre or so higher than present levels. What I noticed today was that the flood water has left an ash grey residue in all of the shrubs on the island in the middle of the pond.It shows up even more starkly at the other end of the pond, where there is an isolated, semi-submerged  tree (in extras). I'm puzzled as to what this residue is. The only thing I can think of is that it's some sort of fertilizer run off from the improved pastures one field over, but if anyone has a diffferent possible explanation, let me know.

Having taken this route I saw a deer in the wood behind the wall, but it remained veiled by branches (extra). The other wildlife highlight was a brief glimpse of a buzzard.