Exeter in the snow

A few pictures of Exeter in the snow.

More forecast overnight, and the River Exe is starting to freeze up as well!

Frozen Exe

Anyone in the UK will have noticed it has been cold, very cold! Parts of the River Exe (mostly the flood relief channel) have started to freeze over. Seagulls are a little unsure what to do...



A heron has been wandering the stretch of river just outside our flat, but as yet has evaded mt camera. I will get a shot of him (or her) one day!

The ice has bee quite thick in some places, two boys were thwacking it with hockey sticks and not finding it easy to break through. One of the greatest noises of nature can be got from throwing a stone of bit of ice across a frozen river, it sounds a bit like Twhang thwang thwaaaang.



Some amazing icicles have formed on bushes overhanging the Weir.





I am starting to enjoy the cold weather, and kind of hope it hangs around for a few more weeks!

Post Christmas period

"On the twelfth day of Christmas..." and the preceding 3 or 4 days it always feels a bit weird to me.

The combination of adjusting your body to a less rich diet - yet still having lots of chocolate hanging around, a forest of dead discarded Christmas trees in gardens and dumped under bridges and anywhere else people think of, a slightly philosophical time of year thinking about new starts and the year ahead

I have been distracting myself in several ways...

Ivonne gave me the latest Danny Wallace book Friends Like These which I am really enjoying. He is of course a Hollywood star (almost) now, but this book goes right back to the roots of Are You Dave Gorman and Join Me, a very relevant book as it is about Danny Getting older and hitting his thirties.

We have also been watching the comedy DVDs we got for Christmas, Micheal McIntyre and also Russell Howard, both were hilarious (although I think I laughed at Micheal McIntyre a little bit more).

The River Exe flood relief channel has started to freeze, now at least a centimetre thick across most of the surface, We will go out and inspect it later, and perhaps take a few photos.

Living Coasts, Torquay and being cold

Yesterday we went on the train down to Torquay to go to Living Coasts (http://www.livingcoasts.org.uk/) and to do some shopping. Living Coasts is like a zoo for the sea, and although is perhaps only an hours entertainment it is great fun. Contains mostly birds (with a smattering of seals and fish) and the penguins are the highlight (everyone likes penguins, surely?)





I think the above penguin looks a bit sad!



You could walk under the sea pool and see things swimming above, which was quite fun.





The estuary area lets you get close to birds that otherwise you would only be able to see from a distance on the Exe, such as the Avocets here.



And Auks and Puffins,



We then went to the Harvester restaurant on the harbour and had a really nice meal (Harvester have vastly improved recently) and then into the town to do some Christmas shopping.

It really was quite freezing down by the coast, but it was also freezing today when I decided to go for a cycle ride along the river Exe to the Double Locks. Two Winter Warmer beers helped, but I was still very very cold! This is me being cold, and a friendly Robin that kept me company!

River Exe watching yet again

A week off work and I have spent the first two days reading and walking around the river. I guess doing very little is all part of having a holiday.

Here are some photos of today's potter around the quay and local area.



This part of the river path is quite impassable at them moment, so I had to take the long way around.



Cormorant making use of the temporary buoy that has been put in place on the river.



The clock on St Marys church, I was just in time to watch the little guys do their mechanical striking routine!



A "free" bookshop, I resisted going in today, I have more than enough books to read at the moment.

River Exe watching again

Went out for a wander in the rain earlier and look these pictures of an increasingly turbulent river Exe.









And I found another funny name on the Environment agency site

River Exe watching

One of the things about living next to the River Exe (apart from the high contents insurance costs) is being able to watch the river rise and fall with the weather. It seems to take about 12 hours from a heavy rain fall until the river noticeably rises. A few weeks ago it was very high, and the Mill on the Exe scrambled to move benches and put the flood barriers in place around the pub, I expect they will stay in place for the whole winter now.

After last nights rather heavy rain I thought I would check the Environment Agency's site to see if any warnings are in place.



Thankfully they are not. My love of funny place names was satisfied when I saw where there was a warning.



Frisby-on-the-Wreake!

Talking of funny names I spotted this mountain on Wikipedia the other day...