onionbagblog

I wasn’t planning on posting up a Photo Friday blog post, but a brief afternoon of image editing, and the temptation to share was too great. In response to Julia Cleave’s plea for any photos celebrating the Colne riverbank pre the vandalism by the Environment Agency, I fired up iPhoto to see what was in my archive.

My time here in Wivenhoe has been very short. But in four months it feels as though I have witnessed all four seasons. Once again, I *really* can’t wait for those long summer months.

But what is truly heartbreaking, is to witness the extent of the rierside destruction in such a short space of time. The speed of the Colne clearance has caught locals by surprise. There is almost a sense of slipping this one through, before any local campaign or inquest has time to grow.

Everywhere I walk around the town right now and it seems that this is the one subject that Wivenhoe locals are talking (and frowning) about. In the post office, the Co-op and around the pubs - nothing but horror is being expressed as to how our area of natural beauty could have been devastated, all in the name of supposed protectionism.

And so as a reminder, here’s the scene that greeted me along the banks of the Colne, early Wednesday morning.

Urgh.

Now here’s a look back at my archive, featuring a mere four months when walking out towards the estuary somehow encapsulated everything about why we chose to set up our lives in Wivenhoe.

The next meeting of the Wivenhoe Town Council takes place on Monday 21st, 7pm at the Town Council offices. It will be interesting to observe what the view is about the vandalism from our local Councillors.