First Snow

We woke to find snow on Ben Hiant and Beinn na h-Urchrach, and a dusting on the much lower Beinn nan Losgann, and the day continued with a stiff northwesterly bringing mostly rain and hail at lower levels and....

....around lunchtime, the first flurry of snow to sea level, much to the discomfiture of the chaffinches and other birds crowding round the feeding areas.

For the first time in a long time we didn't get out for a walk, preferring to stay indoors and do useful jobs like waterproofing our walking boots. We ate lunch watching the birds and the ships moving in the Sound: here the Kingdom of Fife, on the right with the wind behind her, meets the Arklow Forest fighting into the teeth of a sudden squall.

But the weather has been changing in minutes, the hail which accompanied the squall giving way to bright sunshine - not that it made much difference to the Arklow Forest.