Cheese floods

It was nice to see snow on the hills on Saturday morning. There wasn't any left on the roads when we took Steph to school and back. But I went for a ride across the tops of the hills between the Wyche and British Camp, and it was (in the words of one passer-by) "a bit treacherous". Hearing the ice cracking under the tires was like riding over bubble-wrap. There were some parts where I couldn't get enough traction, and had to walk - even that was difficult in one part. But the views from the top were spectacular - a wonderfully clear morning.

In the afternoon, we decided to catch the train to Hereford for afternoon tea. We pottered around the shops, and eventually located some slippers for Helen. I stayed on for Evensong (Murrill in E, Howells Here is the little door).

Sunday's destination was Cheddar. Non-English folk may think that this means we were heading to a cheese shop, but we were actually aiming for a gorge and some caves near the town of Cheddar, just south of Bristol. We encountered a diversion around the road to Upton-on-Severn, which was on its way to becoming Upton-in-Severn. It seems that the snow and rain from Friday night was having quite a significant effect! The motorway driving was rather bland, and we got to Cheddar in just over 2 hours. The guide at the cave entrance explained apologetically that the caves were flooded, and therefore closed. That dampened our spirits somewhat. We climbed to the top of the hill and up the lookout tower, and went to the cheese shop for a tasting. (The factory visitor room was closed too.) Lunch was a relatively economical fish and chips, along with a discovery that faggots involve offal.

On the way home, we stopped at Wells and (in two shifts - Christopher asleep in the car) went to explore the Cathedral - home of "the oldest mechanical clock with original dials in the world". We also peeked at the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey through the fence, not judging the expenditure of approx £15 for three of us to wander around in the drizzle for 5 minutes to constitute good value.

There was more flooding evident between Worcester and Malvern on the way home. We saw several usually-sheep-filled fields that were now lakes, and we wondered if the sheep were good swimmers.