Cold

It was a cold winter up north.
Despite the milder winters we are having generally, January and February were bone numbingly cold at times on the NE coast. Outside jobs in the garden or up at the allotment had to be fitted into milder spells as fingers lapsed quickly into uselessness in the freezing conditions. A ring of steel around the allotment was top of the agenda this winter as the rabbit population decimated many crops last year. They even ate my autumn sown broad beans (a crop they disdain normally) during a particularly cold snap in December. Once the allotment was enclosed I could see a noticeable drop in their activity and the path they had worn flat across the potato bed quickly disappeared.

We didn't have much snow but that is not necessarily a measure of winter severity, especially near the sea. Take it from me, spring was cold and late.