Snow on snow

The snow lived up to the hype on Friday, creating misery on the roads as usual. But if you can take the time to enjoy it, the snowy landscape is intensely beautiful. I walked up a traffic free lane, enjoying the muffled peacefulness, admiring the elegant curves of wind sculpted drifts.

After the infamous ‘ice age’ of two years ago which decimated Britain’s birds I was overjoyed to see a huge flock of finches. Just down the road is a small pond, frozen over, naturally, and surrounded by silver birch trees. In these was a mixed flock of goldfinches, greenfinches and siskin. Huddled together for warmth as the flakes continued to fall, they ate catkins and chirped merrily at the sight of me, hands frozen to my binocular and shivering as more snow came down my neck.

Finally, what could be more perfect than budding snowdrops pushing their fragile green stems through the white blanket?