River Almond near Cramond Village, Edinburgh – Watercolour in a Watercolour Moleskine

The River Almond is one of the two main Edinburgh rivers, the other being The Water of Leith. There are, of course, many other, smaller tributaries since Scotland and Edinburgh get their fair share of rain. The Almond, which gives its name to Almondell Park, was once a very polluted river but great efforts have recently been made to clean it up. There is now a wide range of wildlife and its great to see birds, such as Kingfishers showing that there is an abundance of small fish to support them. It was, however, more up to date pollution that made me think of Joseph’s on-going series about junk lying in the woods. Its not just vandals or mindless idiots who cause damage. Official workmen contribute. Some years ago, very heavy overnight rain caused the river to rise suddenly. The workmen had been thinning trees, on the bank shown on the right of this scene, next to the old weir which was used to dam the river for a small mill. Instead of clearing up their sawn timbers they were just left and were swept into the torrent, downstream where many yachts were berthed. These battering rams caused thousands of pounds of damage but, as a friend, whose boat was badly damaged, said, “Its difficult to prove who owned the tree which sunk your boat since there are no names on the trees”. Kinda goes to show you should leave NOTHING in the woods. Hope this cheers you up, Joe.