The high pressure system that had been sitting over the UK over the last couple of days had been producing lots of fine but very cold weather. I decided to take an early morning stroll around the fields behind the village to see what I could find to photograph. As I passed the church on the way down to Mill Lane the hoar frost on the grass in front of it made it looked like it had been snowing it was so white! As I headed out across the fields I was pleasantly surprised to see a lovely red glow on the eastern horizon. This was a bit of a bonus in one respect as I got a few nice sunrise shots for my project. On the down side it also meant that the sun took much longer to appear as it had to climb high enough on the sky to get over the bank of cloud, it was well after 9 o'clock before it appeared! It had been bitterly cold again overnight so there were lots of hoar frost on the leaves and grasses. There were also some nearly nice patterns in the ice in the puddles which caught my eye. After a couple of hours of wandering about my feet were like blocks of ice, so I headed back home to warm up. As I was taking my boots off at the house I noticed that the first of this years crocus's had started to flower, definitely signs that spring is only just around the corner!

Later in the afternoon the sky looked like there was potential for a nice sunset. So I had a wander down onto the riverbank behind St Edwin's Church with the camera and tripod to see what would happen. During the winter months the sun set's behind Holme House Farm which ideal for getting great reflections in the flat water before the rapids. Later in the year when the sun sets further to the west, the view is spoilt some what by the electric pylons that run across the fields on the other side of the farm. At first it looked as if it was going to be another 'stunner' of a sunset, as the sun started to sink over the horizon a lovely orange glow developed. Sadly it disappeared just as quick as it came. What I hadn't noticed from been low down by the river was a huge bank of cloud way off to the south. So as the sun sank lower in the sky it was covered by the bank of cloud, and goodbye sunset. As it turned out the shots I got before this happened were really nice, so I suppose I couldn't grumble too much?