There's a great new web cam at camvista.com. It has some nice live views (they claim 10 but I've only seen 6) of Central London. I think the best are the views of St. Paul's Cathedral and St. Paul's clock tower with Tower Bridge in the background. There's a couple views of Parliament too. There are several other cams available also. I like Trafalgar Square's in particular. Right now you can see the Christmas tree. So when you're missing London, it's nice to see how things are going there!

Brill! Thx
WK

OK, I've bookmarked it. Thanks!!

If you happen to be on a Mac, try the free program London Jam Cams. It's a free Sherlock plug-in that gives access to dozens of cams--mostly having to do with traffic, but some fun locales. It can be located free at versiontracker.com.

Yopu probably won't miss being here today - we're under a pall of smoke follwing a massive explosion at an oil depot.

Great sunset last night though.

oh yes I saw that on tv this morning, very impressive! where is it exactly? They just say north of London.
Hope you can't smell it!

You should organise your life better.

Out here in the Cotswolds, we've got the sort of day that makes you pity anyone who doesn't live in England. Clear blue skies, near-blinding sun, temps just crisp enough you want to walk briskly but don't need more than a mac, leaves still on most trees and hedges, every field bright green. And tasteful Christmas trees at 45 degrees over every door.

The bad news is I've got to come into town later. But by then it'll be dark anyway.

It's pretty dark already! And no we cant smell it, but we are hoping it doesn't rain and bring the soot down. The other good news is it's heading for France!

The explosion (the biggest such incident in Britain since the Blitz) is in hemel Hempstead - about 30 Miles north of London - it's still burning.

Miraculously no one was killed.

Well I'm smelling something acrid and unpleasant in my office in South London. But I fear it's only the canteen - as usual.

I heard the explosion from my bed in North West London! Windows rattled and the flat felt like it shook, and I must be 20+ miles away. Had convinced myself I was dreaming, until I saw the news....

"Out here in the Cotswolds, we've got the sort of day that makes you pity anyone who doesn't live in England."

The weather we had in the Black Forest over the week-end would have rivaled that easily--beautifully crisp and sunny in Baden-Baden, and just 20 minutes away in the hills a fresh 4-inch coating of dry, fluffy snow, perfect for strolling around the paths and passing the village houses decorated for Christmas.

Enjoy the pleasant UK weather while it lasts--nice memories to linger over on the chilly, damp, endlessly grey winter days that make one pity anyone who DOES live in England.

I thought you lived here these days. So you've got absolutely no excuse for trotting out cliches from 1930s novels that may or may not have been true 70 years ago but are just nonsensical now.

You're clearly miserable here, and have been moaning about it ever since you moved. Find out why and do something about it. Inventing fantasies about the weather isn't going to help you.

I lived 4 years in Baden Baden and the winters were pretty chilly, dreary and damp.

Oh, I know BB can be dreary. It just wasn't this week-end--it was gorgeous. Even though it FELT like a fantasy, it was definitely reality; nobody there had any need for British pity.

Flanner, calm down. Reading over your posts show you do MUCH more moaning about the UK than anyone, never missing even the slightest opportunity to whinge about the UK government. And I haven't been constantly moaning about the UK. If you'd been paying attention, you'd have seen several positive posts about things we've done in London and towns we've visited and really enjoyed such as Marlow (you'd also have noted we live in the UK but have a corporate apartment in Belgium and travel quite a bit to Germany). In fact, I've posted very little on the UK threads...my last posts were about shopping, Christmas teas, favorite restaurants and other pleasant diversions--hardly a moan. At any rate, my complaints are mild as milk compared to opinions on the same subjects expressed my our very British neighbors. THEIR comments would make you be positively apoplectic.

However, the weather you described, nice as it was--and hope it stays that way--just isn't typical of fall and winter weather in our part of the UK. If it were, I wouldn't have to dunk the dog in the tub to wash off the mud and muck after every long walk, or worry about how the damp is damaging things stored in the garage (chemical dehumidifying sytem working overtime). Last winter, when our boiler was out for a few days so we had no heat and then when a six foot square hole opened in the ceiling above the dining room and we didn't have any hot water, it wasn't fantasy but real, true damp, grey, bone-chilling weather that had us huddling under the thickest down comforters we could find.

That's sound like the weather I had in Southern Italy in February.

Let's face it, all of Europe is damp and chilly in winter. You can hardly single out Britain.

That's why everyone's jetting off the Thailand and the Caribbean for Christmas.

Kate, you're right, of course. I'm a snow lover and just get frustrated when it's constantly *almost* cold (and grey) enough to snow but never does (the occasional flurry doesn't count). It's why I head to Vienna in winter instead of a sunny clime. (At least in Brussels, also chilly, grey and damp in winter, we do get some snow, even if it's mostly wet and doesn't last very long--I'm intensely jealous of my sister-in-law in Boston who got a foot of the white stuff last week.)
Anyway, back to the OP, thanks for the links. Have you posted this on the recent webcam thread?

Am I alone in actually preferring the winter? Britain is at it's best in the cold. London is a magical place over Christmas with the lights and smells.

The countryside looks like Narnia.

If there is a btter experience to be had in the whole wide world than the feeling of walking into a pub with a real fire (and a soppy dog) having been out walking all day I have never experienced it.

Yeah - London is the place to be in December and January. That must be why BA is offering round-trip air plus three nights with breakfast for $399.

The first time I saw the weather report on BBC TV, I noticed a dashed line running across the midlands. I asked my host what it meant, and he said, "that's to delineate the awful weather in the south from the bloody awful weather in the north."

"dull in the north, bright in the south"

That's the people not the weather.

Thanks for the replies. I have to say that I love London no matter what the weather; even in the pouring rain when the wind has blown my umbrella inside-out! For those of you who live there, I hope you know how lucky you are!