Snow melts

The hard frost lets the snow settle and we love the snow. But when the white stuff melts away the ground is hard and unforgiving.

One of the dogs that Ma Outlaw looks after whacked into poor old Snowy yesterday and sent him flying - he hit his head on the kitchen floor. That little spark that we'd been nurturing suddenly snuffed out quick as anything.

It is ludicrous to be sentimental over a lamb, but in that lonely house which has seen so much pain over the last year, with Mick's suicide, it seemed a green sprig of life in a pretty barren landscape.

Lambs die. We know that. But this one was something of a symbol, certainly for the Nip and probably for Ma Outlaw too. The pain of Mick's death still so raw, underneath it all. We need more Snowies...