26th February 2018 Yet more of the same.

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Monday 26th 21F, -6C, cold, brightening and breezy again. May I have my AGW back, please?

An extra Norwegian jumper, with a high neck and frayed cuffs, solved yesterday's cold spots. I normally wear a high-necked fleece anorak under my nominally wind and waterproof jacket. This combination works well until it blows hard as well as being cold. Zips can easily be undone to quickly rid oneself of excess warmth. Open necks vent too much of it.

It was bright to start with but a grey lid soon covered the sky from the north east. A free gift from Russia by all accounts. The distant views were quickly misted over. Just as they were yesterday.  Snow began to fall across my back, but was short lived. We must have been on the leading edge of already depleted snow clouds.

Yet again I took to the lumpy, stubble fields to return home. Instead of by the circuitous, asphalted route with its sparse but indifferent traffic. I passed by dark and marshy copses. With shaded snow covering their usually murky and stagnant pools and motes.

There was hardly a bird to be seen this morning. A few melancholy gulls headed optimistically out over the white and patchy landscape.  Just as they have always done but in fewer numbers than now. Foolish blackbirds risked all, to dive low over the road to escape, or to chase off rivals. Their, and our, small world continues to turn. Always the promise of something, anything, better than it is, right now.

It had reached 28F, -2C, when I pedaled off into a 20-25mph cross-headwind. I was comfortable wearing two pairs of tights and a short cycling rain jacket over my best winter, windproof cycling jacket. I took off the rain jacket as soon as I arrived at the shops to avoid sweating.

Shopped and then returned heavily laden with a cross-tailwind cutting into my cheek. Every vehicle which passed was throwing up a huge cloud of salt from the dry roads.  Only 7 miles. Still no edible tomatoes anywhere! They are all pale orange and we prefer traditional red.

Tuesday 27th 19-23F, -7-5C, two more inches of overnight snow and still falling heavily and steadily. Windy and overcast. Gusting up to 30mph later! Ouch! I'm going for a walk. I may be some time. I did a large loop out over the fields gathering pictures from new viewpoints.

It was snowing heavily until I returned home. Probably amounting to 10cm, 4" by now. Drifting readily in the wind, I saw swirling clouds of the stuff rising off the fields over 50' high. Visibility was down to 50 yards on the roads at times. So I gave the traffic the freedom to proceed without my getting in the way. There was about an inch of hard pack on the roads making it easier to walk on virgin snow of the verge.  It continued snowing all day with enough wind to blow clouds of it around.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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