The coldest March day for 27 years

Who took the sun?

I know it's down there somewhere

Andromeda's litter - The Ides of March - are a week old and already they've experienced the climactic extremes which make our weather the most common topic of conversation! Last week they were sleeping outside the entrance to their ark in glorious sunshine under a cloudless blue sky. Seven days later they have been exploring a vastly different world on the coldest March day for 27 years. Gale force winds from the North East have been blowing blustery blizzards of icy fine snow alternating, with alarming rapidity, with piercingly bright sunshiny spells. One minute I was sitting on the hurdle outside Andromeda's pen admiring the view - the next I was struggling with head down in driving snow to make my way back to the barn!
Curiously the animals (with the exception of the chickens) don't seem to have minded the confusing  conditions. The Flowers in the above photo have spent much of their day exploring the world under the surface of their pens while the smaller girls next door were busy tossing turf every which way (which is why we end up with the puddled ground that you can see in the foreground!). More surprisingly the horses too, whose backs you can just see the tops of on the other side of the fence, spent the whole day happily grazing in the sun or sheltering from the whitefalls in the lee of the hedge. When I brought them up for tea they were amazingly toasty under their rugs. The same could not be said for their handler!!

The dogs too experienced the flip flop conditions: The Bestest Gundog was doing his duty of clearing the rabbits from the 'New Spaniel Training Ground' in a blizzard just 15 minutes ahead of his Understudy looking for those same rabbits in glorious sunshine.  Oh to be in England.....................