A convert to culverts

Such an elegant word: culvert.  It almost looks French. But no. What we call huge culverts they call coupes. Or fossé. Not as handsome a word at all.

Our forest now proudly wears four giant culverts, some over fifty metres long. Snaking around the mountain so that the next flood won’t land on our garden, lawn, pool, orchard, livelihood.

It’s a good think we have a lot of land up there.  M. Dumont came at 8am yesterday with a chainsaw and a spray can and marked out the path of these giant water channels.

Some trees came down (in an instant) but he managed to miss most of the walnut and oak crop.

And the walls. That was impressive. And then two lads came – one to work the mini digger, and the other to chop trees and clear the path.

I missed all of this excitement as I was indoors with a deadline.   But we went up in the afternoon to have an inspection.

And they look fantastic.  Well, one ought not to think that a deeply scored channel in a forest is fantastic. But if it is to stop any more flooding then I’m all for them.