Flooding in Ham Lands

It has been impossible to escape from the flooding this Winter and every walk away from the built up areas has shown the impact of the wind and the rain.

A lot of the damage has been done almost out of sight in the parts of Ham Lands that most people ignore as the main paths do not go there. The picture above shows two close trees that have fallen together and the picture below shows the top branches of another tree lying horizontally just above the water.

This part of Ham Lands is normally damp but is not often flooded like this. It will be interesting to see what state it is in when the waters finally recede.

It will also be nice to be able to take some pictures of flowers in the sunshine rather than fallen trees in water.

St Peter's Church, Petersham

My self-imposed geographic boundary of this blog includes the narrow path that runs around the graveyard of St Peter's Church in Petersham. It is a boundary that I do not walk very often as I prefer to keep to the central parts of Ham and also because the path does not go anywhere interesting.

As a result, St Peter's Church has not featured here as often as perhaps it should.

The other reason is that I find it quite unattractive although the sheer mass of brick has some merit.

The graveyard looks much like you would expect a graveyard to look with graves old and new, and with some still cared for while others lie neglected. The trees lining the far edge hide the houses behind and the main road that they sit on.

A fallen tree in Ham Lands

The effect of a Winter of strong winds and continuous rain is most obvious along the tow path but plenty of trees have become victims elsewhere. This one is lying across one of the many small paths that criss-cross Ham Lands.

Bright lights on the Parade

Estate Agents everywhere have discovered illuminated frames (the inventor must be very rich) and now there is a battle of lights on Ham Parade between Mervyn Smith facing off to Gascoigne-Pees on the opposite side of the Parade. I think that Mervyn Smith's are the brighter, which is why I chose to feature them here.

Gordon House revisited

There was no particular reason for me taking another picture of Gordon House, other than I thought that it was about time that I did so.

The house has not changed since I first photographed it but my cameras have (twice) and so has the on-line space available to store photos so the technical quality of the pictures has been getting better even if the artistic quality has not.

High water on Ham Pond

The recently extended island in Ham Pond is suffering in the wettest recorded Winter that we have had. The banks and the posts there to protect them are now submerged and the nesting sites that the island was meant to provide have been lost.

I presume that the water will drain away before too long and it will be interesting to see what state the island is in when it does.

Flooding in Petersham Lodge Woods

These will be my last pictures of the floods for a while, unless something else dramatic happens to the weather. This is one of the main ways in to Petersham Lodge Woods and the line of water follows the route from the tow-path to the little gate in to the garden at Petersham Lodge, which you can just about see if you look at the picture at full size.

This is the view from River Lane next to the other main entrance and this is no good either as that entire corner is flooded.

Still wet and muddy

Even when it is not raining it is still very wet along the tow-path and this puddle is typical of the obstacles that I faced the last time that I walked along there.

In the distance is the debris from at least one recently fallen tree. The current practice is to cut up these trees and to leave them in piles by the side of the path to decompose naturally.  This means that there will be piles of logs, like cairns, along the path for years to come.

Alongside the tow-path, Ham Lands has flooded in places that I have not seen it flooded in before. Here the water has blocked one of the paths, which was enough to convince me to stay on the tow-path.