So further to my pics posted yesterday, I wanted to describe something slightly odd I spotted on my walk along the riverbank. It's probably nothing too sinister, but I have to mention it.
Just south of Oak Rd Park, about level with the big wind turbine, I spotted a small patch of loose, freshly disturbed soil. It was in a gap in the undergrowth set tight, I think, against the fence that separates the field with the turbine from the river bank path.
It wasn't huge. From memory, a maximum of about 3.5 foot in length, maybe 2 foot depth, and roughly rectangular. It may in actuality have been smaller than that. On top of it was a short, chunky piece of driftwood, like a mini railway sleeper or a gatepost. I was intrigued and with the lack of anything else to dig with I picked up the wood and scraped away at the surface. Just below it there was a scattering of something I quite stupidly didn't observe closely enough to ascertain what it was, and didn't take photos of. I couldn't get too close because the branches protruding through the fence were snagging my new hoodie and I didn't want it ruined. It looked like either coloured petals of some kind (unlikely?), or shards of vivid coloured plastic - red, or deep purple (I'm colour blind so can't say for sure). Scratching a little deeper I did not see anything protruding from the ground and the piece of wood was too chunky to actually leverage the ground at all, and then I heard a woman coming along the bank calling her dog so I ditched the hunk of wood, climbed back up on the bank and proceeded on my way.
My assumption, given the small size and apparent deliberate "marker" / ornamentation of an unknown nature was that maybe a frequent walker in that area had recently decided to bury their dead dog there.
It was close-ish to the park, but you'd have a job describing it as within "dragging/carrying distance" (for a human body anyway). Presumably whoever dug that out did so with a spade, and it would have taken some quite considerable time and been almost impossible in the dead of night. None of this seems like it would have applied to PR. Besides, if you went to the trouble to bury a body in a fairly popular walking spot, you'd not leave a conspicuous marker, would you?
But I had to mention it, just in case. Maybe if someone else goes along there today you can scrutinise it in more detail. Cling to the fence separating the river walk from the field containing the big turbine heading south from the park. Eventually you'll spot it.
Wish I'd taken a bloody photo of it now though.
