24th March

OOoops I just realised that I haven't posted yesterday's (Sunday) 'extras', sorry.
So here goes (don't worry there aren't many).

I set out with no actual destination in mind but wanting to walk a little further than the town or seafront as I had a bit more time today.

Heading towards the seafront I passed the area where I usually see the buzzards and as if on cue one appeared and perched briefly atop this tree for a couple of moments before flying off again, just enough time to switch lenses (I hadn't planned to look for them) and grab a shot or two.

Further on I spotted a 'weed' that really shows me that spring has arrived - dandelions - when I was growing up (god I'm feeling old now) I remember blowing the seed stems and watching the seeds float away in the wind...…. ahhhh…. sorry drifted away myself there. That's an image I would love to capture but the 'fates' never seem to align correctly (btw that's the dandelion seeds drift in a breeze, not me drifting off, i'd love to capture lol) I also remember that we had a nickname for them but I can't remember what it was.
Below is a closer shot of the dandelion 'head', I love how the white of the dandelion contrasts with the green of the grass behind it.

And so on down to the seafront as already mention I wanted to go a bit further than Torquay's main seafront so I headed off towards nearby Paignton. The next picture was taken from Livermead Beach a couple of miles from Torquay, it's a HDR attempt but I think I ought to use a tripod next time.

About halfway along the main Torquay to Paignton road you drop down into a little dip called Hollicombe which until the 1980's was the site of one of Torquay's gas works. On the seaward side of the road the 'works' were converted into a park area (below left) the low stone walls you can see used to be where the big green gas cylinders used to be, in the 80's I remember they were duck ponds, now been filled in and grassed over. Behind me is a tunnel that leads down to Hollicombe Beach (below right, looking towards Torquay)

I only made it just over half way to Paignton before I had to turn back (I had a couple of other things I had to do), I decided to return home via the harbour as I had to grab a couple of things from the shop on my way home. Below is a shot of the Millennium Bridge in Torquay at extreme low tide (its the spring tides, I think one of the lowest low waters I've seen for a while). Before the bridge and marina were built the inner harbour was a 'tidal harbour', this meant that as the tide went out the inner harbour 'dried out'. On a normal tide the water would go out as far as the white hulled boat visible just beneath the centre of the bridge, on spring tides it would drain as far as where the bridge now stands. As you can see the water level of the inner harbour, now held behind the bridge sill, is around 6 feet (1 1/2 meters) higher than the level of the outer harbour.

  My blip for Sunday 24th March, was taken on some 'boarding' steps to the right of this photo and gives a better demonstration of the water levels.