Welcome back after the Christmas break, and a brief report on local (and not so local) weather conditions.
Christmas Day itself was cold, but dry. The local roads were still icy (well our street was), but the main roads were fine which was just as well as we were spending the day in London. 
Christmas Day morning, from our garden
London was mainly clear, with a few icy patches on less used roads. Whitestone Pond in Hampstead was frozen over and it was the first time I ever recall seeing people walking on it. I was driving so didn't get a photo, but it seems that the newspapers did. To be fair, the pond is very shallow (a watering hole for horses in reality) so the danger of falling through this particular pond is rather less than might be imagined. Still, it's not something I recommend.
Hampstead High Street was completely clear of ice.
Hampstead, London at lunchtime.
The thaw continued into Boxing Day which took us out to the Kent Coat where we even saw a little bit of sunshine.
Back home there was still ice on the roads, and frozen snow in the garden. This from last night.
I spent an hour in Rottingdean this afternoon. No snow or ice there, but it was certainly windy.
As for the birds, it was the cormorants that caught the eye. They were more numerous than I recall seeing there; and they were flying much closer to shore than usual.
Still no new photos of foxes, though we did spot one in the garden late afternoon and I'm sure the trail cam will record their nightly visits. I'm relieved that the snow has gone (I think the band of snow crossing the country overnight will pass to the north of us). It's been nice, but very disruptive.
Camera note: The first 3 shots were taken with the Panasonic FZ45. The Rottingdean/cormorant shots were with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens/
Flying Red Fox Blog
28 Dec 2010Very nice photos, the sea was a little choppy on Boxing Day aswell when i walked Benjie. 🙂 That bench looks very exposed! 😛
serola
28 Dec 2010Cormorant pictures are very nice indeed :hat:
Cynthia23
28 Dec 2010Happy Holidays Words & Family!
These photos are really fantastic!
Mickeyjoe-Irl
28 Dec 2010We had a big thaw that started on Stephen's / Boxing day. Temperatures went from -11 to +12 in four days. Not a trace of snow left.
SittingFox
29 Dec 2010That's a big wave! And the shot of the cormorant against the clouds is very nice 🙂
I hope that you're not trying to get up to London this week. Southern's website has buried Clapham Junction's closure (it unhelpfully states: "Line incidents – no problem, Engineering works – no problem, though it is described under "general incidents") and thetrainline.com is no better. You'd think that the shutdown of Europe's busiest station would make some news, but apparently not. And it's chaos out there. My morning train had a very slow tour of Herne Hill, while my return this afternoon meant getting the Tube to Embankment, marching to Charing Cross, getting a train to London Bridge, and then switching to my branch line 🙁
Words
29 Dec 2010Sami, thanks!
Words
29 Dec 2010Mick, it's amazing how quickly the thaw can happen. A change in wind direction is al that's needed.
Words
29 Dec 2010Mark, I love the rough seas when the tide is in at Rottingdean. It's always spectacular. The benches at Herne Bay were all deserted (it was still only just above freezing there). Hope you had a good Christmas!
Words
29 Dec 2010Cynthia, and Happy Hols to you as well! I hope you're enjoying the break. 🙂
Words
29 Dec 2010Erwin, thanks!
Words
29 Dec 2010Adele, I decided against any travel to London this week. I somehow expected transport to be even worse than usual, though closing Clapham Junction wouldn't affect my journey too much. I've avoided looking at the 'arrivals' page (usually a long list of red 'delays'. Hope it improves for you tomorrow.
SittingFox
30 Dec 2010If they'd just shut Clapham, it wouldn't have affected me either, but it was basically the whole line between East Croydon and Victoria, and my train had to go a crazy route through Lambeth to get around the engineering works. However, today I'm staying home and contemplating lemsip… :ko: :coffee:
SittingFox
30 Dec 2010Oh…yeah! :whistle: 😉
Mickeyjoe-Irl
30 Dec 2010Originally posted by SittingFox:
:sst: It works better if you drink it. 😉
Words
30 Dec 2010Originally posted by Mickeyjoe_irl:
LOL!
Adele, hope you feel better soon :coffee:
Wulpen
19 Oct 2012Very nice Pict