The Thaw

Last night when I went to bed the Green was about two inches under snow.  Everywhere was white but today when I got up - which wasn't early, I have to confess, as when I woke up I picked up my kindle and read for a couple of hours - I looked out and there was not a drop of snow anywhere - except a bit on the hills!  It has just gone, disappeared!  You'd never guess there was snow everywhere yesterday! That was the fastest thaw I think I have ever known!!!  I wasn’t even aware if it rained overnight or not but the sun is out today (and I really must clean the windows!  They are filthy with all that the weather has thrown at them.) However of course the river is higher than it was yesterday and may get higher as the snow melt continues to come down the valley,.  I don’t think it will flood though.  We were pretty lucky, missing most of the snow other areas have had  Still, it’s still only January, and as the old English country saying goes    “ February fill the dyke, Be it black or be it white; But if it be white, It's the better to like.”   (A rural appellation for the month of February, when rain or melting snow fills dykes with water).[1978 R. Whitlock Calendar of Country Customs iii.]   Statistically February is actually one of the driest months of the year.

When I was a kid that expression ‘fill the dyke’ confused me terribly, as in Scotland a dyke is a wall, so  of course the saying didn’t make any sense.  It was only years later that I discovered the English meaning is a ditch, which unlike a wall can of course be filled!

No photos today.  I forgot to charge the camera battery!

Talk again soon