I'm a bit late again this week due to extreme Christmas shopping and another Parish Council meeting mind you, the weather has been pretty atrocious here just lately preventing much outdoor activity.

We had the first severe flood of the winter last Tuesday and those of you who keep an eye on the Settle weir webcam will have seen a monster stopper wave rising above the weir.  All the pastures and meadows around Studfold were flooded and the river overtopped at the foot of Newhouses lane.  Water levels have remained high all week and rose significantly again last night as we caught another winter monsoon.

There was an interesting segment on Countryfile on Sunday about the breeding of Arctic char in Wales.  Population numbers are falling in many Welsh upland lakes and the EA are conducting an experiment to see whether captive breeding will help to supplement surviving stocks.  Each population is genetically different because of the length of time that each water body has been isolated following the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice period in the current ice age.  It was also thought that char were originally a marine species that has adapted to fresh water conditions.  This is interesting as it suggests that my own hypothesis that brown trout did the same is not far off the mark.

I will try later to get the Tarn webcam back up and running its been stuck for a good few days now, but the weather here has not been conducive to technical work.

Ian