24 March, 2008

Snowy Easter Sunday

According to the Met Office, it's statistically more likely to snow at Easter than at Christmas in Britain, and this year that's exactly what happened. After a warm February bringing the flowers out early, we got freezing winds and snow in late March. Hretha was definitely a goddess of winter this year.



Snow-covered stile and footpath





















Weeping willow. The golden colour on the branches is the spring shoots appearing.











Snowy footpath in the woods. Just look at the bush leaning over the stile and waiting to drop its load down your neck as you brush past.

















Brantham church and churchyard.











Snow-laden daffodils at the church

9 comments:

Susan Higginbotham said...

Pretty!

Gabriele Campbell said...

Looks the same here. :)

Daphne said...

Those are so pretty. I always love the way a fresh snowfall looks on the trees.

Carla said...

Thanks, all! It didn't last long.

Kathryn Warner said...

Lovely pics! It snowed here yesterday for a few hours, but didn't last long, either.

Rick said...

Wow!

This points out to me one of the perils I face writing about a para-England, and would face writing about real England - lack of any instinct for the weather cycle. Snow in late March is just nothing that would have crossed my mind.

Sure is pretty, though!

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Poo!
I would love to see snow. We've missed it yet again. We've barely had a snowfall where I live for ten years now!
Still, I can live it vicariously via your photographs Carla - thanks for posting.

Carla said...

Alianore - I think it snowed hard for about four hours, then slowly turned to sleet. By the time we got back from our walk the snow was already starting to flop off the trees.

Rick - eastern England tends to get significant snowfall when a particular weather pattern develops bringing cold air down from the Arctic across the North Sea, usually with a north or north-easterly wind. East Anglia and the North York Moors often cop quite substantial amounts of snow on one of these because they jut out into the sea and take the full brunt of the incoming weather. As opposed to the more usual British weather pattern where the systems sweep in off the Atlantic from the west or south-west and most of the rain/snow falls in the west of the country. (I used one of these North Sea weather systems for the snowstorm at the end of Exile, which is set on the North York Moors near Whitby). As I remember, peak risk for this used to be in February but over the last few years it seems to have happened in March more often than at any other time of year, at least in East Anglia. Make of that what you will.... One reason I set my writing in Britain is because I get the climate and landscape research as a matter of course :-) I'd have real trouble if I tried to set a story in California. With your Lyonesse, you can always argue that the climate is slightly different because the landforms or ocean currents are different.

Elizabeth - you didn't really miss much, about four hours of snow that quickly turned into slush. At least the sun is strong enough at this time of year to melt the slush where it freezes overnight on the pavements!

Gabriele Campbell said...

We got the cold arctic air for our Easter snowstorms as well. That one swept all the way down to the Alpes. :)