Water Water...

Yes, I know that Garrigill is in Cumbria, a county famous for being the place that has lots and lots of rain. Loads of rain, in fact so much rain that the whole place has been designed by nature to drain water away.
The whole of the UK seems to be having problems with water and floods at the moment. Buildings are having foundations washed away, cities are being cut off and people are having to deal with waterlogged property. There seems to be a definite change in weather patterns regarding rainfall in this country, but Cumbria has been rained on for years, and Garrigill may be in the bottom of a valley, but water just runs through and drains away.
We have had a huge amount of rainfall the last few days and the South Tyne which runs through was very high.There is plenty of space for filling and for overflow so we don't worry about the river, we get more damage from water that flows down the hillsides and across roads before it gets into the river. Traveling back from work on Thursday, there were times when I thought I may have been better off with a hovercraft or a rowboat. It's quite a thing driving through water as it forms a little raging river that flows across the road.

The water really stirs things up down by the river and we like to take a walk down afterwards to see what has been washed down.
Because this is old mining area there is always weird stuff ending up on the river bank and because of the geology around here we find some really lovely stuff.
This morning while we were out a small clear glint caught my eye in the rocks, and when I pulled it out from under the pebbles a huge lump of formed smokey quartz crystal appeared.
I like crystals, I look for interesting things. I have always had my nose downward looking for things on the beach, in woodlands on riverbanks, looking...always looking but this is a special one.
Never found one this size before.
Time to find space on the shelf