NO SUNSET BUT SNOW!

Normally I end a post with a sunset, if there is one worth photographing, this was yesterday's, "end" of the daylight and unlike the one on the evening before, the sky last night held little promise of snow. The weather forecast was for a light dusting overnight.

So ... when I woke in the early hours of the early hours and saw the bedroom bright with light, I thought I had badly overslept, as everything seemed so bright, but oddly quiet. There was no sound of the normal birdsong and when I looked out of the south window, I understood why, it had snowed and looking at the clock I realised it was 04.00. Early!

I slid back into a cosy warm bed and fell fast asleep until a more sociable time to rise and having dressed (warmly) ventured outside with the trio of dogs to explore the outside.

The snow highlighted the wonderful job that the tree surgeon had made the other day, they all looked neatly balanced and in proportion against the white and green background. The daft dog, who just loves snow, very quickly left his paw prints and skid marks in the plain white sketchpad of the lawn beneath the trees and had to persuaded to come in out of the cold. Brrr!

Above me the dark tracery of the snow laden branches, stood out against a plain grey sky that seemed laden with more snow yet to fall and indeed later on in the day it fell thick and fast. The many bird feeders hanging from the branches attracted all sorts of species, all eager to make the most of an easily available food source in a world turned white overnight. Gone was the mating flirtations of the last few weeks, it was more a case of "Grab the grub while it lasts!". Luckily we are well stocked. For a short while in the back garden the sun came out, highlighting the lovely delicate yellow flowered winter jasmine growing against the boundary wall.

Also, all around the garden are floral signifiers of spring, pale yellow primroses and even som brightly coloured primulas are beginning to flower. Tear shaped snowdrop buds are hanging from green stems and the earliest of the many species of daffodils are just about to burst into bloom. Yesterday I noticed the first of the hellebore flowers in thick bud amongst their protective large leaves and in amongst the dark green of the escallonia hedge along the vegetable garden boundary, little rosettes of white flowers. All this growth due to such a mild start to the year, has been temporarily stunned into a strikingly sharp contrast and hopefully relatively few days of coldness.

The above photo was taken late in the morning when the wind had blown the snow off the potted grass and as you can see by the paving, things had melted away but then ... in the afternoon the snowflakes began to gently fall and within an hour our small world was turning white again. Later I took the dog out ... out in fresh snow he was having fun again

Needless to say, there was no golden sunset this evening.