Hard frosted trees by Lypiatt Lodge near Bisley

I rushed out to the car after midday when I realised the farm shop in Bisley would eb closing imminently. I wanted to check on the stock of my cards which I knew were getting low, and get some more bird food stocks as their demand for suet  pellets and sunflower seeds has been  enormous in recent weeks with the coming of winter conditions.

The farm shop is close to Bisley village on the top of the Cotswold escarpment and is a few hundred feet higher than where we live. The very cold weather had produced heavy frosts but it had largely cleared from the car windows by the time I left. But as soon as I started the long climb up the Bisley Road, the conditions became much colder and I realised that there had been a near white-out and a hoar frost on the ‘tops’.

The sky also cleared which probably explained why it was so much colder up there, and the landscape looked very pretty under the blue skies. In the opposite direction looking south there was a massive thick bank of mist and fog and it looked to me when I looked back at Minchinhampton Common that the fog bank was moving in the direction of Bisley.

As soon as I got to Lypiatt which is two thirds of the way to Bisley I pulled the car over close by Ashley’s family’s old home where they'd grown up. I quickly took some pictures of the trees beside the road as I didn’t know how long the conditions would stay like this. It looks so wonderful with the bright light and the white frost, which were beginning to drip. I took the ‘Extra’ from a small lane near to the farm shops it showed the thick misty fog beginning to cover the farm land and the woods.