New year, new weather.

2025 ended on a relatively mild spell of weather, but 2026 has been welcomed in with a sharp icy blast. The grass is crisp, the ground hard, and breaths cloud ahead like a childhood steam train.

I love cold weather like this – and it feels as though they’ve been getting rarer in recent years.

They’ve forecast snow for later this week, and whilst I know that snow makes it hard for people to get out, and expensive for people to heat their homes…. the part of me that’s still seven will wake up excited each morning to look out the window to find out if it’s happened.

And, of course, if it has, I’ll take a picture for this diary…