Look away now if you're already over-saturated with Storm UK 2013 pictures. At the risk of being predictable, I headed out this afternoon to see what - if any damage - the neighbourhood had suffered. It was that surprisingly bright blue sky sort of day that often seems to come after turbulent weather, with sudden bursts of sunshine. First up was this little tree, which I hope can be popped back in.

Having been in England for the mighty storm of '87, I was ready for a lot of uprooted trees and toppled fences in our local park, but I was also interested to see how the ancient oaks had survived...

And the on-the scene report? There was surprisingly little damage and almost no one else in the park, which I put down to it being a) half-term, so many folks have undoubtedly taken their kids and skipped town and b) it being a Monday afternoon, so just about everyone else is at work.

The broken-over trees I did see were all along one side of the park, which made me think maybe there had been a concerted squall, but even so, there weren't many and I was pleased to see my old tree friends still standing as if nothing had happened. There's one tree in particular that has a fence around it to discourage folks from disturbing it and a little sign to tell you that it's a 'veteran tree'. That is, very old. In this case, they reckon it was planted about 1770.

Here's another fallen-over tree, just to paint the whole picture. However, more interesting still has to have been the sky, which was almost painfully beautiful. I walked to the brow of the hill so I could get the whole vista to take my picture (see below).

The biggest change this storm seems to have wrought in north London anyway, is bringing winter behind it. There is now a definite bite of chill in the air and it's starting to get dark even at 5pm. Time to plan some get aways...!