Well, in winter, windblown lower Northern Pennines weather me and the family had a great little walk around the Durham Woods and the River Wear near Durham City. It was to blowy for birds today so I spent time looking at how the valley that approaches Durham City had been formed helped considerably by the reading that I had been doing last night. A netbook is really handy for doing late-night reading propped up in bed! It turns out that whilst I have been doing a lot of geology reading for quite a while it has taken getting into the geo-diversity document produced by Durham County Council to really understand what is going on with the geology in places that I walk locally. The expression "incised meander" hit me like an express train last night because I realised that river meanders such as those on the River Ouse going through York wander all over the place and have done for a long time because they are cutting through and riding over the soft movable glacial till. However, the approach of the River Wear towards and going through Durham City and beyond right down to Sunderland is an "incised meander" the difference being that after the last glacial ice retreated the River Wear cut right through the glacial till to the bedrock which made the flow go even faster and so even more cutting down and erosion took place the channel being made deeper in the process. That is why Durham Cathedral is on a promontory that has a striking resemblance to some of the same geological structures in the grand Canyon and indeed produced in exactly the same way the only difference being is that the grand Canyon looks the way it does because over about 50 million years it was raised up to about a mile above sea level so any water that fell on it would quite vigourously go trundling off any slope existing on the plateau which is what it is. Mega interesting stuff.

Fiona was feeling fit and feisty today so we walked quite briskly and biscuit break was in Durham Cathedral near the cafe alongside the quadrangle which was very pleasant. As we walked through the Cathedral the winter sun was beaming through the high West Windows and it looked transcendental and beautiful. When we walked through the town there were not many people about which was quite unusual for a Saturday . Strange to see so few students. By the end of the walk Fiona was pretty knackered so when we got back home she trundled straight off to crash out and I went into making tea mode and whilst the pasta is cooking away I'm knocking up my travel blog of the walks that I do around the area. We are having an earlier tea tonight because Fiona and I want to see a program on BBC 4 this evening about how the Amazon area of South America had a lot more people living in it several centuries ago and there is evidence of widespread farming. This blows a big hole of course in the idea that the Amazon is and has been always a pristine forest. It will be interesting to see what evidence they show for this as well as their interpretation. I should have a good evening later on reading up about this because the netbook is very handy for late-night reading when crashed out in bed!

The meatballs are nearly done. A very good day and it is nice that my beloved wife is feeling better.