Away from roads, the winter river slinks

River Welland, Lincolnshire This path alone is a find. It's like walking through a ribcage

Following the river, I got here. Not waterborne as I might have liked; it's not a day for the canoe. Instead I looked at the map, for new places where the river touches the land. How many find country by looking near roads? But roads go where we wanted them to: the river goes where it has always gone.

One place caught my eye, a place called Spring Woods. Not for spring like the season, but for a series of springs rising on the river's northern bank, away from roads on a bend where the Welland leaves Stamford, thins, and starts to slink.