I came out of the shed the other morning at 2.30 in the morning only to find the garden covered in snow. Because I went to bed so late I had little expectation it would still be around by the time I got up, but it was.

I went for a walk over to Norton Common which is only 10 minutes walk from the house. I took the standard Sigma 18-50mm & the wide angle 10-20mm.

If you look carefully in the third shot, just to the right of the tree with the greenery on it, you will see a deer. It’s quite normal to see them out at night but not so during the day. As luck would have it I had the 10-20mm lens on the camera when it made its appearance; not the best lens for wildlife photography. I watched it for a good 10 minutes as it stood there just preening itself.

I spent about an hour on the common. I must go down there again with one of the telephotos lenses, In one section of the common, in some woods I found a flock of maybe 30 Long Tailed Tits & spent a good five minutes watching a little Firecrest flitting around in a tree no more than 6 feet from me.

The playground is right outside the open air swimming pool, which is depicted here.