This morning, taking the dogs out, it was snowing. It was thick but wet. In less than two hours it had already started to melt although still snowing heavily. And with the combination of the wetness of the snow and the melting it became transparent snow – like looking through a bathroom window – you could see the tarmac, black, underneath the snow which was heavily pregnant with the water – a translucent look.

And it continued to snow through the morning but has now turned to rain. So the Winter Wonderland is fading already which is a shame because Dino would have loved the snow in the park tonight.

And the translucence of the snow was what fascinated me when I was having a cigarette in the ‘new’ smoking room. It is said that our new (although not so new any more) Health and Safety Manager (who, of course, is nothing like that and is more of our MD’s henchman with a different title) tried to stop the smoking room into being and had half-threatened that it could not be so without much expenditure on fans, etc. However, when it got really cold, a few weeks ago, suddenly it became the Smoking Room.

Although it had no heat and got no sun until the very end of the day and so, was bone-chillingly cold; but still better than being outside, just. And then, last week, a heater mysteriously appeared and so it is now, almost, the warmest place in the building. I go down there just to warm my chilled feet – chilled because our MD is freaky and opens the window often and seems to feel no cold and the draught from the window comes straight into our office and seeks me out purposefully, I am sure.

So, whilst my feet were warming and I was having a cigarette, I was looking at the snow, which, at the time was still falling, and watching the lying snow, heavy with water, melt and be replaced all at the same time. It was snow that you knew could not make a snowball – as soon as you picked it up it would become liquid in your hands – you would have had to wring it out first.