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?!

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...

353/365 Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's SNOWING! We have just had new street lights installed and they look much better in photos than the old orange ones! :0) This scene has had the topaz treatment.

Jodie helped with the tree this afternoon.

38/365 Armchair soccer

Oliver spent a lazy afternoon on his PS2 Soccer game. He usually has a coaching session but today's was cancelled so he had a kickabout with a few other lads who turned up, then came home. While he was out, Jodie and I went to Darley Park, so here are a couple of extras.

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!

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.

Frosty winter morning

I don't usually relish cold weather, but I have been wanting to take wintry pictures, this being the first winter with my Canon. However, one thing about British weather - you can't rely on it to do what you expect these days! I wonder if I'll capture a good rainbow some time during the coming year?