A covering of snow...

Well, we awoke to frost but that was it this morning. After yesterday and all the dire warnings for snow and ice, it all felt very flat!

However, as we were all getting ready to get the kids off to uni and college, it did start to snow. Just small flakes at first but then it started to come down quite heavily. Sophie had a doctor's appointment before she went to uni and when we came out the roads were covered. I wasn't expecting this!

Driving to uni was a bit hazardous - at one point I applied my brakes and nothing happened which was very alarming! Luckily nothing was in front or behind me and I did eventually slow down, but it made me very cautious!

We crawled into Northampton and I dropped Sophie off at a very snowy campus. I then gingerly made my way home on the main A43 rather than risk the quieter country roads. The snow stopped and the skies cleared so that was a relief!

Keith was waiting for me and we decided to go ahead with our walk. On Wednesday he and Sophie had been for a walk around the nature reserve and had spotted an injured (they think) buzzard. The huge, beautiful bird hadn't seemed able to fly so they reported it to the staff at the fishing lodge and they hoped that someone had gone to investigate. Keith wanted to walk the route to see if anything had happened.

We parked the car at the top bridleway between Walgrave and Holcot and while I put my walking boots on I gasped at how cold and fierce the wind was! Freezing! Luckily I had my hat with me and some gloves so I was well-prepared. We walked down to the nature reserve and then back towards Walgrave. The wind abated a bit while we were in the reserve and I took some photos:

When we came to the place where the buzzard had been there was no sign of it, and thankfully no feathers or anything to show that it had been attacked. Either it had managed to fly off or had been picked up by the bird team who patrol the reserve. Keith was very relieved!

We carried on and then turned up the hill to Walgrave. We decided to go and collect the car rather than walk home and get it later, but we had another steep hill to climb before we got to it. It was still very windy and cold and both of us were very glad to get back in, drive home and get warm again!

We enjoyed a lunch of leftover nibbles and then I checked my emails, delighted to find I'd passed my latest assignment, so that was a relief! I also saw a job I liked the look of and applied for it. Fingers crossed!