Thursday, April 22

Since the weather seems to have settled on summer we have decided that the time has arrived for me to take the bikes out of the shed and check their tyres. And oil their chains.

I walk round to the back of the house to find a snow snake slithering along the ground, albeit very slowly.

The sun shines down on the front of the house, which means the back of the house spends much of its time in relative shade. Snow always remains longest at the back.

This year the snow slid off the roof in one go and piled into a long triangular shape, like a Toblerone bar lying along the back of the house. Slowly it has shrunk as the ground has warmed and little sun has reached it.

The snow snake constitutes the very last snow anywhere in the garden. It will have gone in a day or two. I photograph it before it goes.