Worst Winter for 25 Years

What an amazing winter this is turning out to be. Some say it is the worst winter for 25 years. Last night eight and a half inches (21cms) of snow fell. I went out and measured it on the patio table this morning.

This may not seem noteworthy to those who regularly have hard winters. However, most years we get a maximum of one fall of snow which usually disappears the next day. Some years we get no snow at all.

The birds are not happy. I went out and sprinkled more food for them this morning and I was surprised by how many turned up for the feast. Not just the usuals, but also goldfinches and long-tailed tits. I did not get any photos of them or of the 2 roe deer that made a brief appearance.

The forecast is to be colder tonight, so although the snow has stopped falling, it will freeze overnight. I guess it is here to stay for the next few days.

Winter Wonderland

What a difficult couple of days. More snow started to fall yesterday afternoon and about 6 inches (15 cms) fell in a few hours.

The UK can't seem to handle snow for some unknown reason. Every seemingly minor snowfall causes complete chaos on the roads and yesterday was no exception. I spent three and a half hours picking up my son from work - 6 miles away! The roads were competely gridlocked.

Just before bedtime last night the electricity went off. It was a very cold night so we lit the wood-burning stove in an effort to keep the house warm.

The electricity was still off this morning. Frustratingly, we found that for most of the village the power had come back on within a few hours. There were just a few of us without.

We don't realise how much we rely on electricity until we find ourselves without it. It was a big relief when it came back on at 4.00pm.

We had such a bad experience after the hurricane of 1987 when we had no power for 7 days, that I always fear the worst when the power goes off!

On the plus side - I managed to get out for a short time with my camera. The trees look very pretty with their white winter coats against a beautiful blue sky.

Autumn Colours

They promised heavy rain and stormy winds this weekend, so I thought I should take some photos of the autumn colours in the garden while the leaves are still there!


It has been a very pretty autumn and there are a surprising number of leaves still on the trees even though it is the first of November today. The tree in the foreground is a beech and its leaves are still remarkably green.

The high winds and rain did materialise and our driveway is now ankle deep with leaves.

Autumn arriving already?

There are already signs that autumn is approaching - so early in the first week of August. The leaves are starting to change colour on some of the trees, especially cherry and chestnut.



The blackberries are ripening and the apple trees are heavy with fruit.

However, the butterflies are still very active. Lots of whites and common blues around today.

Over the Rainbow

Beautiful rainbow this evening and the trees looked as if in 3D bathed in the late evening light.