Country diary: Surprise snowfall brings winter crashing into autumn | Nicola Chester

Inkpen, Berkshire: Snow this time of year never used to be unusual. It settles on the lanes and fields, revealing secrets old and newA recent early taste of winter makes for a strange mingling of colour. With the ground covered in autumn's still-fresh leaf fall, and many leaves still on trees, the patchy powdering and layer of snow over such golden toffee shades seems incongruous.Kick through the piles of leaves banking the edges of the lanes and there is still a layer of straw underneath, carded by hedges from passing trailers of straw bales. Continue reading...