Alpine landscape . . . .

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?

J. B. Priestley

As sit here by the window, at my computer, I am looking out at glistening snow in the yard and on the distant mountains. The peaks backed by a bright cerulean blue sky flecked with high clouds – picture book pretty. It snowed heavily on Friday night. Last night the temperature dropped down to minus 7 or 8. This is nothing to what is being experienced in parts of the USA, but pretty “parky” for our corner of the UK! The first day of snow was thick and grey and miserable and we were unable to get to the road. GOS dug us out later in the day as he had to collect a prescription from town. Feeding and doing the animals was a real chore and my hands and feet were frozen every time I had to go outside.

When the air cleared a little in the afternoon I stepped out again with the camera to see if there was anything of interest to snap. I am always looking for inspiration for my art. The sheep in the fields across they way came inquisitively and hungrily towards the hedge as soon as they spotted me on the lane. It made quite a dramatic setting in the grey light. Worth a quick go at a picture when I got back into the house and the warm.

The farmer that owns them did come up the lane shortly after on the tractor with feed for the sheep, which must have been quite a trial in the snow as the farmstead is 8 or more miles away. A great many of the farms around here would have a small acreage originally and farmers purchase land often at some distance to enable them to increase stock levels and keep their business viable. More especially essential if one is going to keep sons in the business and the farm has to support more than one family.

I got very irritated in the evening watching the news on TV. The BBC had sent reporters out travelling various parts of the country to report on “the snow” ( when there is so much going on in the world) . As if we didn’t know it was bad weather. And why pay a reporter to stand on a motorway bridge to say it is snowing!!! Traffic information and weather forecast up dates yes, but this ridiculous rubbish on the licence payers money…….

My grouch for the day . . . .

I will have to get out in the snow again with the camera this afternoon as rain is forecast for later today and it will all be quickly washed away. In one way it will be a relief to see it go as it makes so much work, but the magic will be gone and it will be back to mud. . . .