Icy Roads.

For the first time I've left my camera at school. I was out of routine as I went on home visits to see my 3 new children. Also I was rushing to leave earlier than usual so that my walk down the hill wouldn't be in the dark. Knowing my luck there will be something totally dramatic tomorrow morning, snow or a field of deer, and I won't be able to record it. Instead I'm posting some photos taken in Barnstaple last Saturday morning when the sun was shining.

This is Castle Mound rising from the cattle market car park. It wasn't actually a castle but more of a look-out fort built in the days of marauding vikings and other pirates. ( This part of the coast was actually raided by pirates who had sailed up from North Africa). When it was first built there were no trees and the sides were almost vertical. The wooden palisaded fort could only be reached by ladders which could be hauled up to make the fort secure. Nowadays there is a gentle path winding upwards which leads to .... a seat.

The red brick library is quite out of character for this part of the country but obviously someone in the council thought it would look smart.

The elaborate stone building is now the Heritage Centre, it has also been a masonic lodge but originally it was the traders' hall for the docks which were to the left. At one time Barnstaple was a big shipping centre with ships going out all over the world. Now the river is silted up and the docks have been filled in and are a pedestrianised riverside area. The ugly pink building on the top of the hill is the local college. We have so many family connections with that place though it's not a very good college. I did a computer course there when I returned to teaching. Peter started doing electrics and plumbing there ( till he nearly cut off his thumb), and also worked there as a building dept technician and later an IT technician. All the boys did their 6th form education there and Linas did the first 2 years of his degree there.

I spotted this interesting wall which used to be a grotty old building but has been improved by some imaginative stencilling.

Back to today, the ice was MUCH worse than yesterday. Even the top of the drive was thick with ice but as it is fairly level it was possible to drive along it VERY slowly. The country road was also iced over and I crept along at 10mph slowing to a cautious 5mph at the bends. What caught me out was the fact that the main road was also fairly icy and hadn't been gritted. I had a bit of a wobble when I first turned onto the main road and another when I went through Shirwell. It was noticeable that the cars coming out from town were driving at normal speeds while those of us coming in from the hills were all much slower and anyone turning in off the back roads was driving even more slowly. Peter had a difficult journey in to Exeter, the Link Road hadn't been gritted and and eventually he came to a long tail back due to a big pile-up. He made the daft decision to take the back roads and ended up crawling his way to Exeter with a few narrow escapes.  Romas' college bus didn't turn up but he stuck his thumb out and got a lift with a neighbour into Barnstaple. For peace of mind I've left my car at the top of the hill again though the heavy rain should mean higher temperatures. I'm just not taking any chances.

And....  I finally managed to do 1000 sit ups. It took an hour (back to back soaps), but I just wanted to see if I could do it. Probably won't do that many every night.