Detritus

I was going to blip the carnage created by this winter's wind and weather - trees brought down all along the river valley -  and where the banks have been undermined by the swollen waters more lie felled like tumbled skittles.

But what's this peculiar sphere caught among the tangled branches I wondered - a deceased animal's swollen stomach or uterus? A rotten puffball or pumpkin? None of the above but, on closer inspection, a plastic  football,  its smooth rind peeled back to expose a sphere of nylon filaments that will never rot.

Elsewhere, maybe not carried by the river, I found on the edge of the woods the extra: a small, intact, milk bottle embossed with the words CORONET MILK within a suitably shaped logo. A little research revealed the bottle to date from the 1950s or 60s. Its  volume  may even be the third of a pint capacity distributed to British schools, mine included, before Mrs Thatcher notoriously "snatched" it away in 1971. Here the bottle has innocently lain for fifty/sixty odd years doing a lot less harm than a bundle of nylon threads may do to any wildlife it tangles with on its way to the sea. The bottle has even hosted some moss and maybe other forms of life within so I let it lie.

Second extra shows the impact of high winds and high water on the river margins.