Normal service

Normal service will be resumed

as soon as my camera has been mended!

We went to the Yorkshire Dales for Easter, having first asked a friend in the village to put the heating on in the bolt hole a week before our arrival. We phoned neighbours to check if the roads were passable. It wasn't the amount of snow that had fallen that was the problem but the high winds that had blown the fine powder into deep drifts. The snow plough had been through and the road over the moor top was open, a narrow track with ten to twelve foot walls of snow on either side, like a bob sleigh run. 

We hadn't been to Yorkshire since September and the fabric of the house took some warming through - we spent the first night on the sofa bed in the sitting room to take advantage of the wood-burning stove! I had taken spring bulbs to plant in my small front garden but gardening was out of the question. 

It's the lambing season and this weather meant a terrible time for the farmers. Those who had been unable to bring their stock into shelter were working all hours to dig the sheep and lambs out of the deep drifts, with some sad results. 

But the countryside looked spectacular, the hills decorated like Christmas cakes, the field patterns etched out clearly. We wrapped up well and walked and marveled. The drifts had a hard crust of ice and could be clambered over, our footfall making a crunch or groan as the snow gave way just a little under our weight.

It was a week for seeing friends and having a good catch-up, reading books and eating out. I took a few photos before my camera refused to function, possibly due to the extreme cold. I'll hope to access them when/if my camera is repaired.

I'm still waiting for spring weather!