There is nothing as exhilerating as being out in the snow

Well ok, it was only a smattering, a ‘greymin‘, barely enough to cover the rocks on this Bronze Age tumulus on Great Ayton Moor. ” ‘Twas frost and thro leet wid a o’ greymin snaw“¹“The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume V. Page 118. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi05wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021..

On my walk up Roseberry through Newton Wood, the feathery pruinescence of the dead bracken fonds meant I was not convinced that any snow had actually fallen, we had just had a heavy frost.

They say the Inuit have 50 words for snow, but the Scots, well they can beat that — they have recorded over 400²Flood, Alison. 2015. ‘Whiteout: New Scottish Thesaurus Has 421 Words for Snow’, The Guardian (The Guardian) <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/23/scots-thesaurus-reveals-421-words-for-snow> [accessed 9 December 2022].

Which gives me full confidence to say that we had a ‘flindrikin‘ of snow.

No prizes for spotting Roseberry Topping in the distance.

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  “The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume V. Page 118. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi05wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.
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  Flood, Alison. 2015. ‘Whiteout: New Scottish Thesaurus Has 421 Words for Snow’, The Guardian (The Guardian) <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/23/scots-thesaurus-reveals-421-words-for-snow> [accessed 9 December 2022]