On the edge of Dudley

The storm that is, not the town near Wolverhampton. This is one of my usual spots between the Great Ouse and its Relief Channel. Only hints of the storm. No rain or whistling winds, yet. I think most of it  will probably be well north of here. 
Point of interest. The land in the distance used to be Ben Casey's barley fields but is in the process of changing. Ben must have struggled to produce a crop each year. The land is about a metre lower than the river Great Ouse and is prone to flooding which takes away any nutrient and breaks down the structure of the soil. Last winter it was so bad that he had a diesel generator running continuously for 3 or 4 weeks pumping water into the Relief Channel before he could start sowing crops in the spring. Anyway last November Joe Martin who farms the other side of the Relief Channel (just beyond the horizon in this shot) purchased the lease from Ben and is in the process of allowing the land to turn back in to wetlands for waterfowl to breed on. Joe turned 340 acres of his farmland back in to wetland a few years ago and a large number of waterfowl can be seen there from spring to late autumn these days. Ironically this winter has been an extremely dry one but the change to wetland is becoming more and more obvious all the time. 
I've just seen the Wide Wed challenge for today is a local place so I've tagged this blip for it. God, is it Wednesday already! Thank you for hosting Bob.