I was right about that sky looking ominous, here is the same view today!

I'm so glad we had our long walk yesterday and saved the things that needed doing ( mostly stacking the logs from the recent delivery, which should be the last one until Autumn). Today we had a shorter walk, then came back and Joy played with Loki while I stacked the logs. It's so cold that my feet were numb by the time I'd finished despite two thick pairs of socks and my walking boots. I was reminded of a poem that I always thinks depicts cold so well, 'St. Agnes' Eve', by John Keats. Thawing out over a cup of coffee I checked to see when St. Agnes ' Eve actually is and it was yesterday! The poem was written in the 1890s, so it seems that yesterday and today at least have not been so different from then, weather-wise. Here are the first four lines, enough to make you feel cold just reading them!
'St. Agnes' Eve - Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass
And silent was the flock in woolly fold.'
And here, just to reassure you that we haven't actually frozen is The Labrador, limping trembling through the frozen grass!

