Staying Indoors

I always used to count March 1 as first day of spring but maybe not this year. Horrendous outside. Went out briefly to feed the birds and defrost the stand pipe and got frozen. Creating impressive icicles from the snow melting on conservatory roof. Now blizzarding again but I think the worst is past us now and the beast is off north and west.
Read last night an important news story that has got lost in our domestic worries - about the unprecedented increase in temperatures in the arctic and the possible collapse of the arctic vortex. Very worrying indeed.