Dredging

All Images: North Leicester, November 2019

The rain's been so relentless this Autumn, and my virus-depleted energy levels - so reduced, that I've failed to 'own the conditions' on two wheels very much at all.  Thus, when the precipitation abated for a weekend, and my personal snot-fest finally dried-up - it felt like a real novelty to get back in the saddle for an hour or two.

Whilst the raindrops were largely absent, the ground is still thoroughly saturated - making a degree of splash-back and mud-splatter inevitable, as I traversed the banks of the river Soar through Leicester.  It was an enjoyable enough diversion, nonetheless - and nothing my own cycle sustained could match the ravages wrought on these bikes dredged up from the river bed.

The seemingly freelance, magnetic salvage of such debris seems to be a popular activity, these days - with similar tangles of corroded and befouled metal punctuating the riverbank at increasingly regular intervals.  I chatted to a passing river-walker about that, just as I finished taking these shots.  She expressed concern at the perceived eyesore - but that mostly just served to remind me that, one person's eyesore is another's intriguing subject matter.  I'm long past such conventional distinctions between the 'ugly', and the picturesque, in any case.

Anyway, in the long-run, I think I should be grateful to the dredgers - whoever they are.  Given the ever-rising water levels - anything that aids the water flow - keeping the river between its banks, and out of people's houses (including my own), is to be applauded - I suspect.