There's still a real contrast between inside and outside here. I have my fingers crossed for a thaw and for the schools to be open this week but for now with more snow forecast it's not looking good! Hope you're keeping warm if you're in the grip of the icy weather!

Sure enough there was a large enough fall of snow on wednesday for the schools to be closed and remain closed ever since. So we've been enjoying the world outside our window while snuggling around the fire.

Of course there was a brief snowman building session follwed by a quick dash back inside for some hot chocolate.

The poor old chickens don't quite know what to make of all this white stuff but we've been keeping them warm with daily feeds of porridge and honey mixed into a mash with their regular layers pellets.

It's all very beautiful but I'm hoping it won't last too much longer – having the children off from school means not much is getting done!

Just popping in to wish you a very happy start to 2010.

Here we've had a good Christmas and the children are just back at school (although maybe not for long as it looks like snow may force school closures later in the week!). Anyway, the first of my new year's resolutions is to tackle my mountainous email backlog and I'm not coming back properly until that is done, so for now I'll leave you with some of my favourite things from 2009…

See you soon, J x