london diary

The bridge over the Colne is a modern replacement, either for an older bridge or a ford here. In the distance are
signs on the M25 and the 'hill' is the Wraysbury reservoir.

I crossed the bridge and headed for a circle of trees next to Bonehead Ditch

 probably planted to give grazing animals some shade in high Summer on the open moor

but they always seem to me to have some ritual significance 

 

  Using a fish eye lens helps to show the effect which I felt of being enclosed by the circle

  I kept coming back to this scene, with the delicate foreground branches, but eventually had to tear myself away

There isn't a bridge across Bonehead Ditch, but quite a few fallen trees,
though these looked rather treacherous covered with snow

But this is the one I used - seen after I'd crossed it

There were plenty of other branches to hold to keep my balance as I carefully inched across

The Bonehead Ditch is rather more than a ditch, particularly here where it joins the River Colne coming across the moor.

The River Colne, pylons, pipe bridges and trees by Bonehead Ditch from Staines Bypass

Hut at the start of the River Ash, where a sluice leads down from the River Colne just to the right of this picture.

I had just one more river to cross on my way home, Sweeps Ditch, the old Staines boundary ditch which flows past
the end of my garden. It used to leave the Colne and flow round the back of the High St, but town centre
redevelopment cut it off, and it is now pumped out of the Thames to start just south of the railway.
But I needed coffee and didn't stop to take its picture.