First a reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be having a quick tidy-up and blockage removal of as many key points as we have people for from 2.00. Let me know if you can join us and we’ll sort out some task groups.

Last week, The Save St Giles (SSG) group invited me to join them in presenting their concerns to HS2 representatives, ahead of their submission to the House of Lords. We sat in the Merlin’s Cave garden having strolled beside the Misbourne on a beautiful day. Speaking for SSG, two eminent geologists expressed surprise that the proposed tunnel route was not much deeper below the surface in view of the poor quality of the chalk in the valley downstream of Amersham. Broadly, these concerns are similar to mine – i.e. there is arguably a risk that disturbance of cracks and fissures in the chalk could encourage greater loss of water through the bed and ground below leading to loss of the river. As usual, HS2 were suave and impassive in their responses but good points were made and we remain unconvinced that “monitoring” is a credible form of mitigation.

Chalfont St Peter Feast Day is on June 25th and we (and 90 other stalls) will be delighted to see you there. We will have the display from the invertebrate monitoring team – complete with intriguing creatures that was such a hit at the St Giles Show last year, together with our usual displays of “before” and “after” photos, chalk stream facts and figures. We always need some of you too, just to explain what we do, demonstrate we are quite normal and friendly really and that cherishing our river is actually quite enjoyable.

Let’s hope it will again be a good, fine day for Feast Day – it usually is, in the same way that The Queen does usually seem rather unlucky with weather for her celebrations, including the Coronation if you recall?! Contrary to our usual grumbles, total rainfall in the Chalfonts in the past twelve months remains well below the average of the past ten years and even more significantly below the long term average. Nevertheless, the last 6 months total has at least been about average and, with groundwater levels a bit higher than last year, it looks likely that we will again see flow continuing through the rest of the year.

The chances of sustaining that into future years also depends, of course, on our looking after it! Your next opportunity (after tomorrow, of course) is on Saturday 2nd July, morning and/or afternoon – please let me know if you can join us and, as usual, I’ll send out orders of the day to you just beforehand. Maybe we’ll have some fresh, keen faces from Feast Day? If booking ahead, note that we are scheduled for the one after on Sunday 31st July.

More good news – The White Hart in Chalfont St Peter has re-opened. “Not-a-meeting” will be there for a drink and a catch-up on river news on Wednesday 29th June from 7.30 p.m. – hope to see you there, at Feast Day, or by or in the river very soon