My river doesn't get much fuller than this... before it overflows and tries hard to drown the Usk-side area.

I love these fungi... they grow on tree trunks and boughs and are wonderful things to admire. Sadly the tree that was host to the fungi above has been felled, so no doubt I won't be seeing any more in this location. No doubt I'll find some somewhere else though.

I dreamed a dream last night… not any old dream… and not one of those flights of fancy we’re all used to having either… no this was memory more than a dream… an exact memory of an event that took place back in 1972… I’ve never had one of these before, have you?

The really odd thing about last night’s dream though is this morning’s physical reminder of that dream… a few aches and dirty great bruise!

Let me tell a little about the event and some of the effects suffered.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but in a nutshell a new member had joined our mess; a sullen sort from Liverpool, with a sour expression and nothing to say for himself.

We were in port and as usual everyone had migrated ashore so the mess was empty with the exception of yours truly, who was part of the duty watch, and the Scouse, who had ignored invitations to join the guys ashore.

Being bored, and in an attempt at friendship, I tried to instigate a conversation and offered my new messmate a fag. The cigarette was accepted, the conversation rebuffed; in fact I was told in no uncertain terms where I could stick it!

I called him some kind of miserable bastard and turned my back to walk away. Scouse grabbed me by the shoulder, swung me round and shouted in my face demanding to know what I was about.

Bear in mind I was 20 years old and fit; a prop forward rugby player and used to standing my ground. I faced up and snarled back letting him know exactly what I thought of his miserable attitude, then pulled away.

He swung at me and we traded a couple of ineffectual blows, then suddenly there was a knife in his left hand. My eyes were glued to the silvery edge as it waved away from his body… and that was when his right fist crashed into my temple knocking me to the floor. There was no attempt to use the knife, it was just a rouse.

He called me something unmentionable as his boot connected with my back and it was over… my back hurt like hell and the following morning I had a boot shaped bruise above my kidneys… just like the one I have this morning… and the ache that goes with it...

Odd, eh?