*IT’S not possible to be a riverside rambler without occasionally being soaked by a passing dog fresh from his dip in the Severn.

You know the one. The animal makes a beeline for you and shakes itself over your trousers while the grinning owner says something along the lines of “he won’t hurt you, he’s just being playful.” Then there’s the canine carer who ruins an angler’s day by allowing his pooch to paddle in the shallows.

However, by far the best is the moron who bags his mutt’s mess and slings it in the hedge, resulting in a ghastly decoration hanging around for weeks on end.

What’s all that about, for heaven’s sake?

*VISIONS of Diglis… where all predatory life can be observed, going about the everyday business of death.

Down on the weir, a heron mirrors the salmon angler’s endless patience. Meanwhile, underneath the dilapidated bridge over the dock, the pike lies suspended in the shadows as bleak play a kind of piscatorial roulette around his jaws.

This is the soap opera of the natural world… far more exciting than anything man could devise.

*IT’S not necessary to venture abroad to get bitten by mosquitoes.

This year, Worcester seems to have played host of plenty of these mean-spirited, sneaky little insects as the nasty red bumps on any exposed area of flesh will confirm.

It may interest you to know that it’s the female that sucks your blood, the male existing solely on a diet of nectar. There must be a moral somewhere.

*I VISIT Arras every year and have always marvelled at the maze of tunnels that riddle this ancient northern French town like a Dutch cheese.

Arras should be twinned with Worcester, a city that – if legend can be believed – is also crisscrossed with secret passages, a legacy of its river port trading and smuggling days.

Is there a tunnel at the end of your garden? Write in and let us know.

*IN the manner that a champagne bottle christens a ship, I see that the riverside drunks have formally inaugurated the ‘new’ riverside walk from Diglis to the main Worcester river bridge.

Yes, those tell-tale urine stains have returned after an enforced absence. Business as usual, then.

*I’VE heard a whisper that the police have told community support officers not to book litter louts. My information is from an impeccable source which makes the rumour all the more worrying.