Rain, rain, rain!

The last three days have seen near continuous steady rain. So its time to go out and see how the park  (and birds) have responded. The ducks and gulls are out in force enjoying their new ponds. Meanwhile, some of the new paths in the Longfield meadows area have become ponds themselves.

Firstly, the three-ponds area near the children’s playground, which are now overflowing as intended into Coston’s brook and generating the surreal image of colourful cosmos and rudbeckia flowering underwater (there is a very famous such park in Austria, and now we have our own!). Our resident heron was taking a close look!

This is the river Brent and the adjacent golf course. You can see the putting green flags in some of the  photos, where the fairways are now lakes. These lakes are now pouring turbulent white water into the river. This water itself comes from the Brent breaching its banks further upstream by taking a shortcut through the golf course!

The other side of the railway embankment are the Longfield meadows, where three large connected ponds were dug last year and this year connected with a network of new sanded paths. All three ponds are now full and in places the water is inundating these paths and rearranging the sand. The last pond has, in a very timely manner, recently had an overflow channel dug connecting it to the Brent. A bridge crosses this overflow channel as part of the circular footpath around the ponds, but it too is now submerged. The Longfield meadows are in fact part of the flood protection scheme for the Brent valley and are designed to absorb surge waters from heavy rain. Perhaps a surge generated by opening the sluice gates further upstream at the Brent reservoir (the Welsh Harp) might have contributed to the general inundation seen in the photos below.

Well, Perivale park now has its own underwater gardens and golf courses. What else might we expect this wonderfully variable weather to bring to our neck of the woods?

2 Replies to “Rain, rain, rain!”

  1. It did seem somewhat surreal yesterday seeing some very colourful Cosmos & Rudbeckia emerging as though marginal plants.

    Quite an exciting time seeing nature taking over the management of the park for the time being!

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