OoooH - that was a cold night

Had been doing some late night Blip commenting when at around midnight looked at the thermometer on the outside house wall and saw -6°C and was a bit surprised as it had snowed and was cloudy at 20:00. At 01:00 it was -10°C and I knew the waterpipes in the stable wouldn't survive the night. Dashed out to be greeted by a cloudless sky, passing the garden thermometer a meter above grass (the snow) showing -12°C. As I turned the corner in to the stables was relieved to hear no sound of rushing water but also very happy to see Angie had had the sense to switch on the heating at 20:00 -relief.

Today has been a corker but for a very slight east wind which you luckily only notice when on a crest and it's blowing directly in your face. Great long walk, the dried stems of long grasses and the tops of puddles covered in ice crystals, as in the photo. Dogs reveled in the snow again until the very end when they suddenly started to have large ice/snow balls attached to their paws.

Near the end as we passed through the village saw the postman & asked if he had already been out to us (where possible try to save him having to make the drive just to us and a dangerous turn he has to make). "Yes" was the reply and "don't bother to rush home, there's nothing interesting!" Thats service and quite justifies the announced stamp price increase for 2014 on top of one this year.

Hasn't got above -3°C all day but so what - it was simply lovely all day and a good opportunity to let the wood fire do a 36 hour long burn, the first this year. The rain is due back at the weekend :-((

Gather the British Isles are warming up; if I saw correctly last night, Edinburgh warmer than Worthing. MissWinterfinch in NY State is according to my forecast having horrible weather - I hope she doesn't come up with the idea of exporting yet another undesirable US product (Halloween, Trick or Treat, Xmas, NSA) to us in Europe.

Keep warm y'all.