David Gillon

Actually it disappeared by midnight on Sunday, but that means it lasted almost a full week, which by Kent standards is unusually lengthy, doubly so as we never had more than about three inches lying at any one time - it snowed a little each day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but mostly only kept up with the thawing. Normally that amount wouldn't last more than a couple of days, but the temperature stayed at about -2C until Sunday (windchill about -5 to -8C), so it hung around longer.

As soon as the temperature popped above zero it thawed quickly, about half my garden was clear by sunset Sunday, and a bit of rain about 11PM washed the last of it away. The only thing left were the snowman and igloo built by next door's daughter - that's the one on the left who is twenty-something, not the one on the right who is three. The igloo was still standing at lunchtime on Monday, but had collapsed by mid-afternoon and was close to gone by last light, while the snowman halved in height over the course of the day. When I checked this afternoon, both were completely gone.

I did get to see some unusual wildlife during the snow, a flock of twenty-odd redwings descended on my front garden and stripped one of the bushes bare of berries, before roosting in the trees on the other side of the road (a friend on the other side of town also noted they had a flock visit). They left the berries in my hedge completely alone, even when perching on it waiting their turn at the other bush. That seems a bit odd, as far as I'm aware the hedge is mainly cotoneaster, and thrushes (which redwings are) are supposed to like their berries. Last time I saw them was the last time we had heavy snow, so clearly the redwings are common in the area, but mostly stay out of town unless they're desperate. I've also seen the same thing up in Durham, though those may have been fieldfares, not redwings.

And now the snow is gone, and I may have to restart the daily waddle, which hasn't happened since lockdown started in November, but maybe I'll wait until it's just a bit warmer (I stopped because our Covid rate was through the roof, peaking at well over 800/100k, plus that was the Kent variant, plus winter, but it's now back down to 92/100k, well under the national average)