White Winter Hymnal

I think this year we'll have to follow the astronomical calendar, rather than the meteorological one; 1st March definitely did not feel like the first day of Spring!

We've had very fine snow falling for much of the last two days and we're not used to snow, so we still love it!

We walked through quiet, snowy Hungerford and of course arrived at the allotment site.

All the plots are looking quite similar under the white blanket! Even the empty covered plots look nice.

I hope our garlic and shallots are ok under there. I'm particularly concerned about the french garlic, but at least there's time to buy more if necessary. Our broad beans in the greenhouse are a no-show, so we'll need to re-sow them. Well, -9° is just too low for germination I expect.

The snow is meant to continue till tomorrow and then turn to icy rain - bleah, that's much worse!

So that was a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon off work. And tonight we're having a curry which will include some fragrant fresh bay leaves courtesy of Vishal at work. I'm also freezing some, as they're more flavoursome than dried leaves. I look forward to adding them to carrot soup in the next few days.

This was a meal we had the other evening with Quorn mince, carrots and leeks - basically a cottage pie topped with filo pastry rather than potato because I think it looks so nice.

So, it's still Winter and this pretty title song is provided by the Fleet Foxes.

Oh no! More snow!

We woke up late this morning and were amazed to see a couple of inches of snow covering Hungerford!

Despite the title (and the fact it stops us digging) I do still like the white stuff so we took a stroll up to the allotment. It had rained much of yesterday, in between bright sunshine, and the site was very soggy.
The temperature was 5° while we were there and the minimum had been -3°.

Netting was sagging all round the site and we had to clear the snow from our shallots and broad bean nets to stop them tearing.
Whilst looking at our photos later we noticed that the portaloo had been delivered! We didn't notice it while we were on site!! HAHA are renting it for a few months prior to investigating the possibility of a more permanent solution....

We didn't stay long - the snow had turned to rain and I felt a bit grotty (so wouldn't have got any work done even if it hadn't snowed). Jamie left some sunflower seeds for the robin and we returned home rather wet!

 

Snow Day!!

The forecasters were right! It started snowing at about 6pm yesterday and is still snowing - amazing!
I set off for work but after taking about about an hour to go 8 miles decided not to attempt the A34 so headed back home.

After warming up a bit and piling on some extra layers we ventured out into the beautiful, quiet and white Hungerford. We walked to the allotment via Freemans Marsh as it's such a pretty route and even more so when it's covered in so much snow!

No-one else had been on the site so it looked amazing. Jamie put some cheese and nuts out for the robin but we didn't see him. We saw terns and magpies over the allotment and two egret and swans amongst the birdlife on the marsh.

The snow continued to fall all the while we were there so we were happy to have a hot chocolate in the container and then I took the little video. I really must remember to move more slowly when filming - sorry if it makes you travel sick!