This afternoon with the family I had a nice four mile walk in the low winter ight around Durham. The river was in flood due to the thaw setting in in the uplands but it was not as big a torrent as it could have been because the snow cover on the hills was not that deep in spite of the cold and snowfall. There had been a fairly big landslide near Prebends bridge and the onward erosion of the UK continues on ! Near Framwellgate Bridge we saw a Little Grebe again and it was hunting for larvae and insects close to the bank because the river Wear was roaring along . We were 5 meters from it . A really lovely grebe and we saw another further down river and this was much smaller so I assume it was the female . Can't wait to see them in their summer coats. In town we grabbed some spare chairs to use for out biscuit break and it was very cosy sat at the bottom of the market. For about half of the walk we were walking on melting ice which was more slippery than a bankers reasons to sell you something you don't want! Very slippery. A few days ago I said to my friend Sybil Wood that walking around a town in snow and ice is worse than clambering around the hills in the stuff and today was very tricky . A nice afternoon out with the family and a Trekky evening is coming up and that's great. Star Trek is the new Shakespeare.