364/365 Blizzard at Curbar Edge

Doesn't it look wintry? What you can't really see is the horizontal snow, the gale blowing, the stinging eyes and the fingers with no feeling in them... Can we go when the sun's out next time please?!

355/365 Snowflake

This is one of a set of 6 tree ornaments hung on our tree every year. I love the fine detail in them, they are all different. Ironically, we have real snow on the ground now! The kids are so excited. Not long now...

354/365 Snow in Allestree Park

The winter sun shone brightly, the sky was an amazing blue, and a thin covering of snow from yesterday brought excitement for many. I walked down to the lake, which was mainly frozen - those trees are lakeside.

And later, a fabulous sunset...

36/365 Trellis

Yesterday's "Thaw" may have lulled us into a false sense of security! Overnight we had a good 6 inches of snow and to the children's delight, school was closed. We don't get snow here every winter so having snow good enough, deep enough, staying long enough to play in is something of a novelty - snowmen, snowball fights, sledging... half the neighbourhood were at Allestree Rec this morning. Jodie seems to feel the cold like I do so she stayed indoors (once we got home from walking halfway to school - we couldn't find out if it was closed in time!) and watched me build her a snow horse on the drive. Oliver had a great time at the Rec. And I (predictably!) took lots of photos! Jodie was very patient while I spent time out front and in the garden; once M was home I went for a short walk to take a few landscape shots. So, tough choice for today's photo, look at all the other possibilities in "Snow Day" on my Picasa page, link right.

35/365 Thaw

There was a lot of melting going on in the garden today as much of the recent snowfall disappeared in the winter sun and we had a high of 6 degrees C this afternoon. However, more snow is forecast overnight and many side roads remain icy. The novelty of walking to school in the snow wore off on Tuesday (day 2) and Jodie was crying with the cold by the time we reached school. Her teacher sat her near a heater until she warmed up. Today was not so bad - a little sunshine always works wonders!

34/365 Snow on the landscape

This is today's view from Kedleston Road across towards the Kedleston Estate, a few hundred metres from where I live, we are lucky to live on the edge of the countryside. I watched a couple of walkers make their way down the curved track while taking a few photos and the sun peeked out from behind a cloud briefly high-lighting the hillside above.

33/365 Toll House in winter

There is an old Toll House near where I live and across the road from it is one of my favourite trees, which will no doubt feature here again as the seasons progress. We have had a decent snowfall which is lying like frosting on a cake along the branches. The Toll House behind is now a private house and a listed building. Built in the mid-19th century, it was restored in 1976.

See http://bygonederbyshire.co.uk/articles/Toll_House,_Kedleston_Road,_Derby_-_then_and_now

I had hoped to find more info, but this is all there is! (Let me know if the link doesn't work!)

32/365 Dusting of snow

The forecast says there's more to come but this is what settled this afternoon. There's a severe weather warning for most of the UK for the next 24 hours, snow from Russia apparently. This is the view from my kitchen window. Roll on Spring.

1/365 Last Remnants

We had a dusting of snow yesterday and the temperature began to rise a little today, so I headed to Markeaton Park to catch it before it disappeared altogether, trying out my new 70-300mm lens until it got too cold to feel the buttons on the camera. Then I had to edit and choose just one image! That was hard! ;0) One down, 364 to go.