Floods with a silver lining

I forgot to mention yesterday that when we arrived in the rain at The Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford, we were greeted by a chipper Charles. We were having lunch with his wife, Mandy, and himself. They live in Grove in an former flour mill on the Letcombe Brook. They now generate green electricity with a turbine there (though at the moment the turbine is out of action). I mentioned them in My Donkeybody, as their mill was badly flooded in July 2007 - and more importantly they came to be our guardian angels when I was diagnosed with MND.

Anyway, they were both excited as they had earlier that morning seen an otter in the brook - first time ever. "Must have got lost," said Charles. It was a bit of compensation for their and their neighbours' shock at the wholesale and unannounced uprooting of a screen of trees on the opposite bank. I hope the otter returns to delight them and even creates a holt in the area. I don't think they took a photo. But sometimes, when you do fuss over getting a snap, I think you miss the magic of the moment. After all a photograph never captures the real thing. However, I guess this Guardian photo is something like what Charles and Mandy witnessed.