The snow was swept off and the ground cleared of snow at 7.30am today! I took these at 11.25am

5pm Update

We still have deep snow - we had some light sleet, which was supposed to be rain to get rid of all the snow - but it didn't. From when I took the photo above, there is at least another two inches of snow. I have left it on the top for extra insulation over night.

The extra windbreak I hammered in the chicken pen, did the trick and stopped the snow going into the run, and the green material windbreak on the pen fence meant that there was a snow drift up against it, which provided a bit more shelter from the blizzard.

I took the chickens out the nectarines that I got yesterday, I chopped them all up with some pear and apples and they ate the lot! Oh and some cooked sea bass skin from lunch - that went down a treat too. They also ate the whole packet of salad leaves - so it was nice that they haven't lost their appetite and were able to run around under cover.

KoKKo laid a egg today, so that means we have had three - I am still stunned together with others who hear that they are laying in this weather and in the shorter daylight hours.

I have made the most of it and done lots of cooking - a lot of which is going into the freezer in portion packs, just in case we get a famine of eggs at some point and also to spare our waists!

Pat managed to get to his bowls match but it was a bit hairy going! I was relieved when he arrived home safely a few minutes ago. The roads are slushy, and the forecast rain has not arrived, so if the temperature drops it will be very dodgy indeed. It is a struggle to get along our lane as it is! We really do need a 4x4 in winter conditions in these parts - there is so much bag press against them so, and in the summer with all the pretty twisty narrow lanes, etc., people must find it hard to imagine the driving conditions in the winter and the drifts that build up across the roads where there are no hedges along the fields.

If you do not have to travel it does look pretty though.