BRASS MONKEY WEATHER.

Off on a recce.

Today,the 1st of February 2025 I got the train to Taunton,then the Minehead bus but I got off first at Bishops Lydeard to walk along by this Quantock stream going through the village. Not so good an idea as it turned out as the next bus due didn't come ( a regular thing in these country places) so I had to get the next one and it was SO COLD.

However I got to Watchet by 11am and checked out the info I needed and had a walk along the Esplanade,looking over the Marina. And felt glad I was well wrapped up in warm clothes or I would have been a lot worse off.

As this wasn't a “day out” but an info getting recce I got the bus back to Taunton. I just had time to get some fabric in the shop in Magdalene Lane then I went into St Mary Magdalene Church the oldest and premier parish church in Taunton. The cafe they have made in there has expanded more and was busy with shopper customers having a break. I chose to get the bus back home. My Bad as it's a long journey. I could have got home quickly on the train but I chose to ramble,as it were. This bus route takes you through the heart of the Somerset Levels past Athelney where our King Alfred The Great hid out while planning how to defeat the Danes. I saw that with no tree foliage to obscure,that you can see the monument on the rise of ground. Just a little up the road is Burrow Mump,this is like a more mystical twin to the famous Glastonbury Tor a few miles away.

Eventually the bus rolled into Bristol and I walked down Corn St to my bus stop on the City Centre. It was only 5.15pm but dark but it felt like 10pm in Clubland. It never used to be like this. This street was packed with young people. All the bars had seating outside and people were standing in groups everywhere. It was very noisy. But it inspired a thought in me. All these irreverent shouty,laugh,screamy,boisterous,and noisy young people are they really going to be put under the thumb of Big Brother. Well,who knows. World War Two was fought by teenagers and it all went ahead,older people with power made a rule and people obeyed. Will that happen again? I went in Stanfords to browse and buy a map and was home just after 7pm.