'I never loved England more than when covered in snow'

Christmas in Grassington: deep snow dealt with effectively but with a certain amount of grumbling.

Looking down Main Street the day we got there. There were several more inches of snow to come.

Icicles galore - these are on Chapel Street where we were staying. These older houses are quite difficult to insulate so the heating was warming the snow on the roofs, and the water was trickling down and making the icicles.


Isolated farm above Grassington: we did short walks from the town rather than travel, but there are so many lanes and paths around that it's possible to do a week's worth of walks without too much overlap. And it all seemed a lot more exciting in the snow!

The River Wharf below Grassington.

Linton.

View from above Grassington. The trails of footprints are rabbits.

It's good to get a different view of the world: as well as seeing where the rabbits run, the snow highlighted the ancient field patterns of Wharfdale, hinting at a very different landscape.

Title courtesy of Laura Marling, from 'Goodbye England covered in Snow'.

Brussels Spouts

A bit of a cheaty title as one is from Leuven! But irrestistable, as is Jeanneke Pis, who was created by Denis-Adrien Debrouvrie allegedly under the instigation of Belgian feminists in the 1980s. It's a shame she has to be behind a cage up a blind alley (called the Impass de la Fidelite or Fidelity Alley)...
My search for websites featuring Jeanneke turned up this one, with another little-known peeing statue (as well as the well-known one... )

Over in Leuven The 'Fountain of Wisdom' seems wonderfully ironic for a city which has the largest and oldest university on the low countries. Or maybe I'm just cynial about education!