Yesterday, the snow fell all day in London, with a variety of – predictable and less predictable – effects. Travel was difficult. I had a meeting by phone that we’d planned to have face to face. Many of my local shops were closed. Londoners, who normally avoid eye contact with strangers, were cheery in sharing their comments about the snow. And of course, Radio 4 featured the inevitable discussion this morning about the extent to which roads were cleared and whether or not we should invest more in order to be equipped for events that happen so rarely.

This morning the snow is still deep and there were warnings on radio and television to expect roads to be more dangerous than yesterday as a result of the ice. The sun is shining, adding to the beauty of the snowy London scenes whilst also causing snow to fall from trees and rooftops.

Today, the snow has also given me the answer to a question I have been asking myself since I first noticed Mr Fox showing an interest in the compost heap at the bottom of my garden. It happened that I noticed him take a look at this spot and begin to dig underneath the mottly heap of vegetable peelings. I have looked at the hole without being able to see if he actually moved in. Yesterday I looked for signs in the snow. There were none.

This morning, though, I woke to the clear signs that an animal – I think a fox – had left the hole to wander round the garden, lingering around the bushes and maybe even wandering into the neighbours garden. I wonder if (hope that) I will get to enjoy the beautiful sight of a fox walking through the snow.