Peace

Taking photographs of snow-covered landscapes when it is raining is quite hard, especially if you don't bother to read the camera manual and take the setting off "Auto". I did though learn in lesson one and my final one of a 100 lesson online course, that the Auto settings make everything 18% grey ... automatically.

At long last a bit of peace and quiet and was able to set off with Luna for a walk. Since the main snowfall three weeks ago, nobody has ventured on the side of the house shown on the top left photo which leads directly into the forest. Luna and I followed by Eddie the Irish cat, managed about 50 metres before we had to give up. It was simply still too deep and more importantly so packed but without holding even Luna's weight.

So we turned back and left Eddie on the pile of old roof tiles and set off by car to the nearby village gravel lakes. It seems that the contractor who still gets gravel from one of the lakes had luckily used his large front bucket loader to clear the road. So we could have a pleasant walk, despite the rain.

Surprisingly the lakes are only partly covered by a thin layer of ice. I had expected it to be ice skating fit as we have had lots of nights down to -10°C, daytime at little more than 0°C and the lakes are standing water.

In the one photo, bottom left, I didn't from a distance even think this lake was frozen as the bottom was so clearly visible. Very difficult to see but in the middle of that photo there are dark spots - these are stones people have thrown on the ice.

The water level is alarmingly low. Just before the snow, the experts were saying we needed at least three weeks of continuous steady rain to replenish lakes and watercourses. Will be interesting to see if we get it. I guess the nice slow thaw at the moment will be good.