New Year Greetings to you!

As we walk beside the dry river bed and contemplate today’s “news” regarding HS2, it is cheering to remember back to our very pleasant and jolly annual dinner at The Ivy House in December.  Inevitably, conversation then, and at the “not a meeting” earlier that month, touched from time to time on hopes and expectations for 2012.  Will the dry run continue or will the Olympics and the Jubilee suffer from the wettest summer ever? Will the Mott MacDonald report to Veolia initiate the second phase of the Alleviation of Low Flow Programme?  Will there be a radical reduction in abstraction at Amersham and Chalfont St Giles?

The New Year observations showed that the groundwater levels had continued to fall along the valley.  Normally, we could expect a rise to begin in November and continue throughout the spring.    To be fair, “the end” has already moved 100 metres or so downstream from its worst position in December and, hopefully, maybe this year, maybe next, we will be able to coax flow back into The Chalfont villages again.   So, even in the current absence of water, we should keep going, maximising the chances of it getting through, optimising the benefit when it does, and maintaining the channel so it isn’t a total eyesore when it doesn’t.   Accordingly,  the proposed schedule of 2012 work parties is now published on the website.   Particularly if for some time you’ve been meaning to join us on one of our mornings, perhaps you’d like to commit to one or two (or more) in the year and  mark them on your calendar now.

The first is on Sunday 26th February and will probably concentrate on completing the clearance of the thick overgrowth immediately above and below Chalfont St Giles village and general clearance of litter and light branches.   Please let me know if you will be able to join us: more detailed arrangements will follow nearer the time.