There are winters and there are winters …… in The Opening Book.

More frost this morning, before we moved to Cornwall we were told they don’t get winters down here, but they do and one was so cold I happily paid £100 for a warm coat; of course with a week of buying the coat the weather warmed up – Sweetheart thought it was money well spent!

Now we are in the shadow of the valley side until late January, we see the sun just as it sets at the western end of the valley, so we have sunrise within minutes of sunset; looking across the valley that side is in the sun all day. Our position is only a problem should we have a heard winter, like our second winter – when I bought the £100 coat, we kept a car at the bottom of our drive, it is both steep and has a 180 degree turn; not an easy drive on snow or ice.

We were lucky this morning, the patio must have been very dry yesterday, when we had frost last week we had a wide patch of ice, I didn’t fall then but I have other years; today’s frost turned the valley white – but the patio was secure under foot. I like the photographic potential of a white winter, but prefer a dry ground to walk on ……