17 January 2010

Thaw

There hasn't been much snow to thaw, but what there is has been slowly disappearing over the last few days. The weather is quite different from last winter's, when there wasn't a thaw in January and the mean temperature (-9°C) was a full two degrees below the long-term average.

I took this photo at the fence near the cattle grid about a year ago:



Here's the same view today. Not quite so pretty.



The chickens have enjoyed being out in the orchard and eating the grass that is now visible again. It makes a change for them from eating the hay that I'd lined their nest boxes with.



We've been watching Hugh's Chicken Run recently, a programme which focuses on the living standards of intensively-reared chickens and contrasts them with the way that a group of free-range birds are cared for. It's not easy to watch, but it is fascinating. I don't know how Canadian regulations for intensively farming chickens compare to UK ones, but I can't imagine that they're much better and I've never seen free-range birds in the supermarkets here.

Our wood supply seems to be holding up well, but that is probably because November was so mild (the mean temperature then was over 5°C, when usually it should be 0°C).


4 comments:

Melody said...

The interplay of the shadow and the texture of the snow is mesmerizing. Good luck with the contest:)

Perovskia said...

Love the chickens, they look so healthy!

Lucy Corrander said...

Snow like that is depressing.

Are you likely to have more arrive?

Lucy

Amanda said...

There was a light sprinkling just last night, Lucy. But I'm sure that there will be at least one or two more big snowstorms before the winter comes to a close. I still can't believe we've only had one so far. It seems to be visiting the UK instead!