CHANGE is reaching into every backwater of Devon. Even pubs that lie off the beaten track must sell food to survive. Gordon Ramsey- consciousness is everywhere, manifesting in a mass of manic behaviour and black-and-white check trousers. Where old men once drank pints of cider, bewildered teenagers struggle to serve real ale and pasty-faced youths try to create something worth £13.99 out of a slab of factory salmon and a handful of new potatoes. This is the future. Farms that are still recovering from foot-and-mouth disease can no longer employ all these young people. For many, the choices is either catering or leaving the village of their birth and taking their chances in the nearest town or city.

THE West Country abounds with lovely rivers and there are few prettier than the Otter.

Flowing through Ottery St Mary, this charming river snakes its way to the sea through some classically stunning Devon countryside.

The river pulses with life. There are fry in the shallows, large fish in the deep, black pools. Dragonflies swoop and dive like dogfighting Messerschmitts, while damselflies dance quadrilles beneath shady willows.

This is how so many Midlands rivers used to be.

Many of these are now lost to pollution and dredging. The same must not happen to these gilded, silvery threads.