It started as the Big Snow and then threatened to become the Big Freeze, but instead the snow in and around Melksham is now the Big Slush. There’s nothing more dispiriting than wading through brown muddy muck as you go about your Christmas shopping!

Another tiresome side effect of the snow was the power cut in Seend Cleeve on Monday, stretching from 4.15pm to 11.30pm. Certain houses (including mine) were out for the whole time, others has their power knocked off when the transformer in the field at the bottom of my garden was being replaced, happily by a one with larger capacity.

I would like to say thanks to all the guys from Southern Electric who were out there in truly freezing conditions for five hours working under floodlight to fix the problem. They came from Frome, Chippenham, Melksham and even Plymouth to get the transformer changed and we couldn’t offer them so much as a cup of tea! They said that it was the extra demand of Christmas lights that had caused the transformer to start smoking, rather than it being anything caused by the freezing weather.

In the meantime lots of people went down to The Brewery; when the lights went off in there too, bar manager Rachel Newman got out the candles and carried on serving. Later some of the regulars went out to Melksham to get takeaways for all the locals who had not had anything to eat that night – a great instance of people pulling together in a (bit of) a crisis.

But not all of the snowy weather has been a nuisance; there have been moments when the sun has come out and the countryside has sparkled as in a fairytale. Plus we have enjoyed a couple of cracking sunsets – this one was shot in Saturday 18th, the day following the Big Snow!