A Few Sleepless Nights....

This past weekend the storm that was named Imogen arrived.... I cannot lie....we did have a few sleepless nights.
First there was the noise of the wind that was pretty well constant... then there was the strong wind gusts that could be heard travelling towards us for up to 20 seconds or more before they hit our caravan.
As if this wasn't enough we also had torrential rain and hail that sounded like boxes of marbles being tipped on our roof....

Once we had been woken up numerous times the worry would set in and that didn't help with trying to get back to sleep....
What were we worrying about??

Well first was our concern that the awning would get ripped off the caravan and blown across the moor...so I would go outside to check the storm straps and pegs etc.... 
All the straps seemed OK, but then I noticed that the slight ditch that runs along the rear of the caravan between the electric hook-up point and our pitch had turned into a fast flowing stream....

With all the rain that we have had since we arrived here in November the grass is now so sodden that it can't absorb anymore rainfall hence the stream that had appeared. Luckily there is a slight slope here so the rain just sailed along until it reached the tarmac inner site road where it linked up with the rain that had been pouring off the moor and into the site entrance. 
Unfortunately it then all headed in the direction of the site office and shop where it cause quite a bit of flooding......

Anyway in the end we managed to avoid any damage to our caravan, awning or car.
The mini stream that had appeared behind our caravan has now disappeared and the site managers have cleaned up the office and shop and it is business as usual....

I don't know if it is just my imagination, but since it was decided that we would start giving these storms names we seem to be getting more storms. 
I think I preferred it when all the storms were anonymous.....

Anyway to finish this post, as promised, below I have included some images of my favourite of the Torbay towns..Brixham.
The weather was a lot quieter then, probably the calm before the storm.....

Replica of the Golden Hind

Fishing boats in the Harbour

A view of the working quay

View from the quay back to the town

Harbour view

View across the harbour

The Marina

The Harbour Wall

Another short break.......

Anne and I have just got back from another short break away from the site....
This time we decided to spend three days in Torbay...often called the English Riviera.
It wasn't exactly Riviera weather, it's the wrong time of year for that, but...... we did have some reasonably dry weather and the sun came out too......

Consisting of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, Torbay is one of the premier English seaside resorts...
Apart from when I walked the South West Coast Path some years ago, it must be about thirty + years since I spent any time in the area......

Paignton is looking a bit tatty around the edges and could do with a bit of a spruce up.... 
It's probably passable on a bright hot sunny summers day, but at this time of year even with the good weather that we had during our stay, it just made me want to get out a paint pot and brush and brighten everything up.......

Torquay was looking a lot better and more effort seems to have been made to keep everything bright and smart....
All the usual shops are to be found in the town for those visitors that feel the need to spend their hard earned cash and there were a number of coffee shops and restaurants for people like me who like a coffee and cake occasionally....

As it was, our choice of coffee house was a small independent one down in the harbour area.... No Costa-Lot or other large multi national over priced coffee for us.... 

Below I have posted some images taken in and around the harbour and in my next post I will post some images from my favourite of the three towns that make up Torbay and that is Brixham.....