Monday morning and I've been digging up the last of the new potatoes, which will soon be under water. There's quite a fast flowing stream just over the wall where there is usually field. The Thames is spreading out over its ancient floodplain, and into the back garden.
After rain like I'd never seen it on Friday, and serious flooding north of here, the river has been steadily rising for the last 24 hours. The lock-keeper told me he'd spent Friday in the pouring rain hand-cranking the weir sluices so they let down as much water as possible. His reward was groin strain and the week off. He didn't think it was going to be as bad as 2003.
Later, the Environment Agency 'Control Room' told me that the rise is not expected to peak here until Wednesday morning. Lock gates apparently have open sluices on the tidal Thames. They are predicting flooding to houses in Lower Caversham and therefore presumably here from around midnight Tuesday. They said it might be worse than 2003.
I sent out an email pointing people to the local flood maps for a one in a hundred year event.
I'll decide this evening about moving furniture upstairs from the lowest rooms.