SNOW ALL GO!

During the course of the night, the rain and the wind lashed very noisily at the windows ...

this morning when I looked out to survey the outside, to my absolute amazement ... this ...

no snow! Not a sign even in the coldest, most shaded places was there a sign of white stuff and the temperature was definitely higher, though still cold due to the blustery wind.

Jilly the adventurous little minx was intrigued by the sudden amount of water flooding the patio. Strangely enough my long legged collie who normally dives into ponds, lakes the sea etc, etc, was much more wary of a mere few inches of the wet stuff. But later in the day I drove out with him in the car to get a Sunday paper and to explore an area new to us. I saw no snow, anywhere!

It had all gone, magically erased from the flat fen surfaces overnight and ... with the sun out all looked green and healthy.

Having picked up the Sunday paper-weight, we drove out further afield to have a look around some of the local area & I just had to stop the car to take this post snow, sun warming  photo >>>

Winter fed cattle just relaxing in the warmth of the day amongst bales of winter feed. I found myself missing my local sheep. I spoke to one of my local farmers today and she told me that back home, the snow had been so high that the stone wall between their land and the commons was invisible under deep drifts of deep wind blown drifts but apparently overnight with similar weather to ours here, that problem had eased a bit overnight. We drove further on and I noticed a bridleway.

The widest bridleway I have ever seen named "Little London Drove." Now here we are miles away from London but obviously in it's history, this (now expansive) track has a long history of being an old drovers way from the Fens to the big city. It's possible that sheep, cattle and even geese headed their way towards the capital. But something else rather amused me ...

This "Highway Boundary" stone ... now look along the plough furrows in a straight line towards the trees in the distance and can you imagine a footpath across all that? Not one that either me or the dog wished to explore! And ... the very word "Highway" amused me,  because apart from a tractor who else would traverse that wellie clogging set of furrows except for "Keep our footpaths open!" enthusiasts. As for me. my wellies were already gathering up enough mud and the daft dog was decidedly dirty. There wasn't even a pocket of snow in the shade of the lanes but lots of mud!
We returned splattered with fenland splashes but happy. The earth was no longer frozen hard but soft ... 

and the local moles obviously appreciated the latest conditions too!