It feels like an age since we’ve had some proper snow and cold weather. Thanks to the wind blowing from Russia, we’ve had some great days of frosty weather, hopefully nobbling some insects in the process! This is just a random selection of photographs taken during the cold days where, as you can see from two of the photographs, chicken cleaning was a challenge (no hoses working) and pruning came to a standstill!
It was such a beautiful sunrise, and it’s not often I let the animals out as Suz is the early bird in our family. For once I popped out first and just had to take the camera with me.
Spotty, Daisy and Gert in the Morning Sun
Daisy and Gert
Light Sussex Bantams in the Little Orchard
Barty in the Big Orchard
Pilgrim Geese in the Early Morning Sun
Little Orchard Sunrise
I couldn’t resist catching this rather low resolution photo of the young oak at Twyford, surrounded by frozen flood water 🙂
These are a bit closer to home. Luckily the rains had stopped, so this is as high as they came!
With the recent deluge, we have seen the waters here rise to their highest levels. The entry to acre field was water logged, and the fields around us are the same. We’ve had so much rain this year that the ground water is full, with nowhere for the new rainfall to drain to! Here are some photos of the lane we’re on, though that’s flooded mainly due to what we suspect is a broken culverty underneath the lane (there’s a suspicious low point in the lane that might indicate a broken ancient pipe). Still – Penny’s happy that she now has her own personal water park!
The temperature’s been dropping gradually for a couple of weeks now, and last night it hit -11 according to our car’s thermometer (that was first thing in the morning) and -10 according to the weather station. The snow has become compacted into ice, covered with more snow, 
on the lane which makes for a mile of very slow driving to get out to civilisation.
On the plus side, the parsnips, carrots, leeks and jerusalem artichokes are all happy in ground in the outdoor freezer – shame we can’t dig the blighters out!
On a more serious note, the fruit trees that are meant to be delivered any day have been postponed until such a time that the growers can lift them from the permafrost! The risk is that they pull them, then the ground freezes over again before they arrive and we can plant the, so we’re slightly nervous.
Just thought I’d post a quick pic of a frosty morning. The weathermen are predicting a cold snap – it has a name my father-in-law has mentioned but it escapes me at present. Needless to say the chooks will be getting their winter-preparation soon!