Storm Frank

The River Field is even more aptly named today! We've never seen the water this high.

Last night, Storm Frank battered the country with high winds and lots of rain. This fell on top of an already sodden Nore valley here in Co. Kilkenny. I took a video to show just how bad it is at Han's Cross, near Lismaine Bridge - have a look, you can see (and hear!) the water gushing over and under the road as it flows from one field to the next.

Just for comparison...

On Boxing Day

Today - it's half way up mum's wellies

In the picture below, you can see just how strong the current is as it flows under the road.

The picture below is a bit closer to home - the water line is approx 20 metres from our gate. The road used to flood regularly until it was raised by 1.5 metres in the mid '90s. This is the first time the new raised road has been under water, though. There's a good chance we might be flooded in this evening: the stretch of road in the photo is impassable, as is the alternative route down by the Finger Post. The last resort is past the graveyard and up the hill by Walshe's on the back roads to Freshford. We went that way at about 12pm, and the water was streaming down the road from the hills and collecting in the dip. We just about got through it at the time... I'm going out in an hour. Will I get through it??

This field - directly opposite our house - has never flooded before. You can just about make out the owl box in the middle. I wonder what they make of it all...

It is quite beautiful, though! I'm hoping the winds will die down over the next few days and I can get some nice Turner-esque photographs of the clouds reflected in the flood waters. Judging by the latest Met Eireann forecast though, there's not much hope of it.

Christmas floods and bird-spotting: buzzards, barn owls, cormorants, lapwing, herons and LOTS of water

It has been an exceptionally wet and windy December and the floods are up. Fields as far as the eye can see have been transformed into lakes.

This is great news for the cormorants as they swim through the water hunting for trout that have strayed over the flooded riverbanks (a gang of them have taken up positions atop a dying ash tree opposite our kitchen window where they dry their wings in the promise of sunshine and spy on unsuspecting lunch items below).

Flocks of lapwing are also enjoying the winter feast and we've spotted a heron or two as well as the usual swans. On Christmas Eve-Eve I was lucky enough to catch a rare and spectacular close-up view of one of our local buzzards and on Christmas Eve itself our two beautiful barn owls appeared out of their nest box and flew up the road, right past our house. What a wonderful treat.

There was rather a lot of birdsong in the River Field this afternoon - robins and blackbirds, I suspect, among others - and the fantastic sound of gushing floodwater as it raced through the hedgerows and under the roads from one field to the next. I would love to find a way to record it. Must hit up Chris Watson for some tips...

Confused buds

Raindrops on roses... or is it willow?

Raising the entrance

Last summer, the floods were so high that we couldn't walk down to the riverbank without wading through this. It stank and there were dead worms floating on the top. 

The floods happen here because the water table is so high that the groundwater percolates through the top soil and makes its own little pond. When the river goes down, so does the flood, but not before. And since the river has been high pretty much constantly since 6th June 2012, the flood has proved a serious hindrance to craic by the river (not to mention grass mowing, wheelbarrow wheeling, buggy pushing, etc). 

I was not prepared to suffer the fate of another soggy summer, so last week the decision to raise the entrance was made and our neighbour Val Walshe came down with his dumper truck and mini digger to sort it out. They say that fossil fuels multiply the physical force of humans by 70. After just 11 hours, the job was done! I may be an environmentalist, but boy, do I love plant machinery.

Peeling back the topsoil

Squishing down the 20 tonnes of subsoil

The gravel arrives from Brennan's Quarry, Lismaine. I was very impressed by the driver's precision reversing. There were literally *milimetres* between the lorry and the gate posts!

The Aftermath: the bog of eternal stench

Nearly six weeks later, the flood is still here, but has now receded into a putrid, eutrophic bog of eternal stench. Unpleasant is not the word.

Yuck

Floods: the wettest Irish summer yet

While the end of May was pure bliss, June saw double-the-average rainfall and record low temperatures. On the night of June 6th, torrential rain saw the river rise about six feet and burst its banks. The water table rose too, drowning the willow maze in over 3ft of water. It kept rising for the next few days until it was higher than any of us have ever seen it.

A very watery maze...

February floods

The floods are up and fields for miles around have turned into lakes. Great news for the salmon!