We woke up to a real surprise this morning! Blizzards and deep snow!

The whole of the area here is buried in about 10cm of fresh fluffy snow and without any wind, the trees are laden, giving the place a real winter wonderland feel! There was no chance of getting the van or car off the drive – and even if we did, the roads were all covered as well. After briefly toying with the idea of a ski of the hill, we decided to take a more gentle approach and enjoy a walk through the woods.

I can’t remember getting this much snow in one go in the fifteen years we’ve lived here.

We walked up through the woods from The Cottage and it felt like we were in the Alps or northern Norway! We built a fine snowman on the Dam, and the heron flew right overhead as we did. The snow dampen all the sound, which made it feel magical. We also threw a snowball into the lake, which was an icy slush – as the ripples spread out, they froze into a beautiful pattern! Amazing.

To get back home, we decided to take the road, which had only seen at couple of 4×4 vehicles drive up it (and our friend Dave on skis). We slid down on a bivi bag! Ha Ha! Great fun!