Here we are nearly end of February. We have had a few sunny but still very cold days.

Even the weather forecasters mention the coldest winters ever this past few years, So is it my imagination that I'm sure it was colder when we were young. I remember, there was not a bit of green except sparse frozen grass and not a flower in sight until Spring.
Everywhere was so bitterly cold and school milk was solid.
Taking my children to school was painful. And I remember the canals freezing, especially the canal basin in Atherstone where people skated on the ice, and about 25 years ago when my nephew came up from Devon and rode his bike from Bulkington Lane Navigation bridge to Hawkesbury Junction along the canal--idiot that he was.