Courses

During the period of the pandemic, this wall - which runs for 200m or more beside the lane - was built by one man, alone, with a minimum of tools and only small-scale equipment to transport the stone. We pass it every week on the 'veg run' and watched its progress week-by-week. As a distraction from the tensions of the time, with a worthwhile outcome, I thought it was admirable. It's hard to photograph, because it crosses a ridge - so a photographer at one end cannot see the other - and I don't have a drone - so this suggestion of disappearing into the distance will have to do

Funnily enough, as that same ridge decends into the valley that we are looking at in the middle distance - between this field and the next range of hills that form the horizon - it divides two streams, some 500 metres apart, that fascinate me. They are both carrying water to the Thames, but they are flowing in completely opposite directions

One, the Swere, gives its name to the village of Swerford. The ford is long gone into a channel under the road but, when we passed that way today, we drove through moving water - the Swere reminding us of its past. Not so forcefully as the Rea, in Birmingham, near where I took this blip, which carried a car attempting to ford it for some distance today

The Swere flows first north east, then due east until it meets the river Cherwell south of Banbury. The Cherwell heads due south - playing do-si-do with the Oxford canal, and weaving past college lawns, punting boathouses and University parks - and joins the Thames in south Oxford

The other stream that originates on this hillside has no fixed name and supports no settlements on its 10km length, but it perversely flows south west, until it meets the beautifully-named Evenlode, which is draining the flatlands around Moreton-in-Marsh and travelling south east - skirting the Churchill family pile at Blenheim - to also join the Thames, just before it reaches Oxford

I suppose it would be possible to play an elaborate game of Pooh-sticks by dropping one in each of the streams and racing to Donnington Bridge, where the Thames leaves Oxford and begins a huge loop south west, before remembering that it is heading for London. I wonder how long we would have to wait for our sticks to arrive

Does this entry meander like a river? I hope so