We have had a wet winter, by which I mean considerably wetter than average. This woodland is a stone's throw from Wellhead where the River Hiz rises, one of a number of chalk streams in Hertfordshire that converge and merge en route to the Wash.

 Typically it is rather swampy. Beyond is a millpond where a waterwheel was recorded as far back as the Domesday Book. Indeed the wood appears to have grown in a section of the millpond that became silted up over time.

 A few decades ago a borehole/pumping station was built right next to it. From that point on the wood dried out to a muddy sump for much of the year. When we have prolonged rain in the winter months the waters rise. Generally this only floods the wood but some years (like this year) large areas of the the surrounding fields are submerged as well. That is my measure of how wet a winter has been.