Dam

The Old Road from Oxford to London climbs Shotover Hill to what is now a wooded country park, its highwaymen long gone. When my children were small we used to go for walks in the wood but their favourite place, as for all children, was the natural sandpit with a tiny stream running through it. I remember one afternoon sitting on the bank watching the whole of human psychology and politics play out in front of me. A group of children were playing in the rivulets just in front of me. My two went slightly further upstream and dammed the flow with sand (it's in the genes - all my childhood holidays involved my dad encouraging my siblings and me to dam streams and obviously I did the same to mine). After a bit, the children in front of me realised they had lost their water supply. They were puzzled then, when they realised why, indignant. Some went up to the dam, which they could easily have kicked down, but thought better of it, and went further upstream to build another dam to deprive my two of water. The competition for resources continued all afternoon, eventually producing a cascade of dams. There were some altercations along the way but in the end all the children were playing together. The UN in microcosm (as long as Donald and Boris stay away).

My no-longer-children are both in Oxford at the moment and I suggested we have our first walk in Shotover for 15+ years. After a long amble through the woods we ended up at the sandpit where half a dozen children were mudlarking. Mine (one now a water engineer) went slightly further upstream and dammed the flow with sand to see what would happen. The ground is so sodden right now that the mudlarkers' puddles were not noticeably affected so they continued playing while we watched the effect of increasing water pressure (and the occasional passing size 2 wellie-boot) on damp sand.

In time, of course, the dam gave way - nature's answer to all human folly.

We went back to the still-not-quite-sold family home for a farewell meal. It was first planned for March but lockdown scuppered both the house sale and our getting together then. We were pleased to manage it in July but the selling process has dragged and dragged so here we are again. It is lovely to be together and sad to leave the house but I do hope that this really is our final farewell meal.