Just inside the back door is a shopping basket of windfall apples I'm working my way through, but it was a bumper year and the freezer's full, I've run out of jars and there's only so much chutney you can make.
Today's a day for slicing, maybe, and dehydrating what's left.
The rain, well, the rain....If I could sink a well in the cellar, I'd save a fortune because I live on chalk and below me is water.
"The Chalk of eastern and southern England is the most important groundwater reservoir in the UK."
It strikes me it's time I learned more about water and who has access to it. I began to wonder about private water sources when I noticed the golf course up the hill had sunk a well to water the turf. This was a few years ago. But it chimed because not far away is the Woodingdean Well, one of our most bizarre but illuminating local stories. Then a friend who's a builder mentioned how often he finds old wells in Brighton cellars.
So I'm beginning to ask myself how is it that private companies can just dig down and take it out? This communal resource of ours. And it's happening all over - not just mining companies depleting ancient (really ancient) aquifers, but soft drinks companies taking out spring water, bottling it and re-selling it at a profit.
"Almost all bottled waters are groundwaters. They are collected from springs or boreholes selected because the sites are generally in upland areas remote from sources of pollution, and they provide a water which does not contain undesirable chemicals such as excessive nitrate. Many have very low concentrations of dissolved constituents, and some are carbonated artificially."
I have been convinced for years there's a water source near my house. There is a website, Find a Spring but it's not of much use. Is it time to seriously consider a borehole and the potential of a well?
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