VARIABLE WEATHER We have been having variable weather of late,
with one day a gale coming up out of the south-west, and the next, a fixed sky and a damp stillness that infects the rooks and jackdaws, making them perch and remain like details on an artist's canvas. I was travelling in the company of a friend on a quiet, mild afternoon when he drew my attention to the distant hills which were well powdered with snow. Living in a low-lying place, one tends to forget the change that can be experienced at even a height of 1,000 feet or so. Some winters back a fishing companion came to get me interested in a day's pike fishing, and off we went the next morning, leaving the village in mist but no colder than usual. As we travelled we could see that the frost had stiffened the ploughing and on the uplands there was snow. We came to the lake at length, and stood watching some mallards paddling round in a hole in the ice a hundred yards out from the shore. The pike were, of course, many feet below in the deeps, We returned home with our excuses, but they carried little conviction.
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