Diary - 2008

September : Rain on the Varteg and Runoff too

It's the channel that runs down the side of our fields and it's a side-show to our projects.... but... one of the more interesting side bets is what will become of this channel in the future? Well, one day, it could break through its side bank and run down through the marshy low ground on our Upper Field. Before then, it could escape its channel along the track at the top of our old Field and make its merry way straight downslope, probably through the Sheila plots.

On September 5th, conditions in Wales were 'unusually damp'. Abersychan was under water. On the Varteg, the old filled gullies beneath Syrinx were flowing - some even emerging at the surface between the trees - and many springs flowed out from out lower fence.

As you walked up the rise, you could hear the sound of the rushing water at the top. Up top, the upper channel was flowing full spate from its pipe, washing away more from the walls that keep it from flowing into our Upper Field and, after turning the corner at the track, threatening to overflow into our lower field of trees. In the event, neither happened - this time.

I went up after the rain stopped and so my pictures recall a visibly falling hydrological stage - but since, thankfully, the conditions when we visit are not quite so wet.

Martin Haigh

July : Summer Measuring

24th to 28th July

Cariad was measured.

The ends of rows were also marked in various other plots on the site.