A rare snowmageddon event from Siberia, the Beast from the East, is bearing down upon us and threatens to dump goodness knows how much snow over the UK this week. Despite dire warnings – and to be fair the anti-climax is only because people have acted on all the warnings – there have been only a few showers so far. Maybe those are famous last words. I hate the cold and find it very difficult to motivate myself to do anything when it’s chilly, so I was proud of myself for going out for a run this morning. I hadn’t run at the weekend so the guilt from my inactivity was in itself a motivator. Snow flurries started dancing through the air like minuscule fairies as I was running through Park Langley, about two kilometres into the run. I decided to take the boys out to High Elms just in case we are stuck close to home for the rest of the week. It’s one of our favourite walking places, and the trees provide a modicum of shelter from rain or snow. By the time we arrived there, there was a bit more snow. I know I should have taken my posh camera but it was pretty cold and I was still dressed in my running things with a non-down coat and snood over the top. Too much to manage in the snow with dogs as well. Nonetheless these photos came out relatively well I think, despite my glasses being steamed up. Flatcoated retrievers, with their long silky fur, don’t really need coats but it was much colder than usual and Oscar does look smart in a coat. Raffles is far happier with a coat on in cold weather. It was lovely walking though the dry snow, the sort that is brilliant for skiing and, just briefly when the sun came out for a while, I wished I had skis on my feet instead of boots. Oscar dashed about and scooped up mouthfuls of snow. I wonder if he thought it was icing sugar. Raffles concentrated on following the scent trails. I’m wondering whether they are enhanced in this sort of environment. There weren’t many people or dogs up there today and the muffling snow blanket made it a peaceful place. It’s likely that this is the last time that Oscar will see snow, as we’ll probably be moving to Hong Kong before next winter, so I’m glad he was able to play for a while.