Meeting of the Waters

My intended blip was to have been a rainbow over the allotments. The rainbow proved to be a portend, after a short rain shower, for sunny and brisk weather some minutes later,  so after I had been to Morrisons I decided I would try to locate the confluence of the Auldhouse Burn and the White Cart Water.
When I was a child my best pal and I would quite often walk the few miles to the Meeting of the Waters – where the South Tyne and the North met near Acomb in Northumberland. In the summer when the water levels were low it was a great swimming place, we would often just jump in fully clothed and by the time we had walked home we would be dry. My friend’s mother disapproved of figurative language would always remind us that it was the confluence, not the meeting of the waters. So five decades later the word confluence still slips easily off my tongue. I recall my own mother finding this pretention hilarious. Both mothers must have had a healthy approach to risk because I cannot remember any health and safety concerns whatsoever. On reflection, perhaps they did not realise that we were in the water. Either way is has left me with a love of wild swimming.
So anyway I found the place where the two waters meet, an obscure part of Auldhouse Park which was fenced off. Someone had helpfully ripped part of it away and with a bit of mildly exciting scrambling and hanging on to what was left of wire I located it, and it is my blip for today. Spot the goosanders, a male and an immature one, I think.
And I have discovered a fascinating website which proves real time information on river levels. The White Cart which I would have said is quite high today, is well within the usual range – 0.902m and falling. The highest it has ever been was at Overlee on 01/01/1984 when it was 2.23m.
River levels