A snow day

We had another fall of snow last Friday, though it came down as sleet in the valley and didn't settle. I knew there would be a bit more higher up, so on Saturday I walked up to Shipley Glen, and found a light covering, not enough to sink into but enough to wash the world with white and make it look quite pretty. 

The sheep had found a strip under the trees where there was enough grass uncovered for them to graze. In this kind of weather, the farmers often have to provide hay or pellets for their flocks. There were lots of folk out walking, and a few sledging down the fields, though there was barely enough snow for that. 

The lockdown restrictions don't expressly state how far we can go for our daily exercise but there are strong messages of discouragement being made. Police have in some areas fined people for driving to beauty spots. Sadly, it is not really explicit enough what exactly we can and can't do. In an ordinary year, on a day like this, once the roads were clear I might have hopped in the car and driven up to the high moorland to take some 'proper' snow pictures. However, the new variant Covid virus, rampant in London, seems now to be taking hold in this area and it's a lot more contagious. It's rather worrying and home seems the only really safe place to be, so I won't be going far! I'd rather wait for another, safer time to get those pictures. I was especially careful not to slip (I'd put spikes on my boots) as you hear stories of people waiting hours in the freezing cold for an ambulance and I'm sure the medics can do without self-inflicted accidents, on top of the Covid surge.