Bancroft Gardens

First thing after breakfast this morning I loaded the slow cooker with a huge batch of ragu, and then set off for Stratford with R to run some errands. Despite yesterday's deluge, we were unprepared for the discovery that the Avon had burst its banks overnight, leaving Bidford Bridge impassable, and we had to double back a couple of times before we found a route through via Pebworth and Long Marston.

Stratford itself was quite a sight, though luckily this flooding was nowhere near as bad as the town suffered in 1998 and 2007 - if it had been, we wouldn't have been able to get there at all. Still, it was bizarre to see waterfowl swimming around the flooded Bancroft Gardens, and being fed by tourists from the terrace of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In this image the green structure at the left side of the frame is a floating ticket booth that's moored to the Bancroft wharf, the line of which is also marked by a couple of almost-submerged litter bins, and what looks like a metal pole but is actually the top of a bench. The half-timbered building that's normally up on the opposite bank, but is currently partially in the river, is the clubhouse of Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club. There might be a kind of irony here, I suppose - but on the other hand, if anyone can ever be prepared for this kind of event, it's likely to be them.

The rest of the day was hectic, but went pretty well. I blasted through my 'to-do' and 'to-buy' lists, had my hair cut, and boxed up eight two-person portions of ragu for the freezer. As the Boy Wonder would say, "Yay me."