There's only so much you can take.

After three weeks without seeing a blade of grass we are fast going off the colour white. Local farmers must be tearing their hair out having to defrost water for stock, and the amount of silage they must be getting through is unthinkable.
Road conditions locally have been pretty dire. We don't get our road salted - that is not until the local district councillor gets on telly. Now we get the gritter through, but the road is so hard packed, it isn't really making any difference.
Temperatures have been at -10c twice this week at about 10am. so heaven knows what they were earlier in the day. Shap recorded -16c last night. Having said all that, we are getting stunningly beautiful clear blue, sunny days. It's a shame Hattie isn't up to doing much in the snow, but the fields behind the house are enough for her at the moment.


Dry, hard frosts on top of snow have left a stunning display of cystals on the surface of the snow.

For a change, this is what we can see from the front. The Penines, in all their winter glory.


Hattie hardly even sinks in, the snow is so hard and crunchy