Project 365 day 258: early autumn & muddy trickle

I went in search of water for Wide Wednesday, but found none I thought worth posting as my main photo. The muddy trickle I've included as an extra is our only local watercourse, and at this time of year I would not normally find even this much water in it. The Nailbourne is a winterbourne, a stream which flows only when winter rain brings the water table to a high enough level. It rises as a spring in the next village, and several times in the eight years we have lived here it has flooded fields across the bottom of the valley for many miles along its length, closing roads and diverting the bus route.

The last time I blipped this view it was vivid yellow, dramatic under periwinkle blue sky. I love its early autumn colours, and the huge variety of seed heads along the edge of the field. 

My teatime walk was one of the best moments of the day, restoring body and mind to a better balance after a frustrating afternoon repeatedly trying to join and re-join a meeting on Microsoft Teams. This morning I picked most of the oregano from the pots on the balcony, stripped the leaves from the stems, and put them all in the dehydrator, where they will be dried early tomorrow morning using our cheaper overnight electricity tariff. Loading the five large circular trays of the dehydrator is rather a slow task, but this morning peeling off the leaves felt peacefully mindful and smelled wonderful on my fingers.