Easter Sunday in the snow

I cannot remember an Easter Sunday with so much snow. Even if it comes early, Easter Sunday is rarely accompanied by winter's late return. This year, snow is back in fashion. The temperature has been relatively mild - hovering around zero degrees Celsius - but the snowfall was intense. It snowed pretty much all day. The climate is indeed becoming stranger and stranger.

Below: the wind blew the snow in from the east, swirling around the houses before settling. The satellite dish is plastered with wet snow (dry powder doesn't settle like this).

Left: looking out of the west-facing kitchen window - the snow is piling on the trees and bushes, despite the wind. Colder and drier snow would have shaken off, but this wet stuff has greater adhesion.

The online thermometer measuring temperature at Okęcie airport, just 3,570 metres away, never showed less than zero, with a daytime high of +2C.

Below: warm glass (even triple-glazed) and wet snow meant it turned to water on touching the windows. This type of snow is heavy and unpleasant; a day to stay indoors rather than to go out in search of winter fun.

Below: out on the balcony in front of the house, sheltered from the wind and snow flurries. Note how the snow is sticking to east-facing surfaces.

The cats showed no interest whatsoever in going out. At winter's onset, they couldn't wait to get out in the snow. But today, what was going on in the Great Outdoors was of little more than academic interest. They looked out of the windows at the wintry scenes, but decided that there were far more amenable places to spend the day.

On top of the TV set, for Lila (also known as Little Chiski, aka Jinx the Sphinx, left). Or on a bed in a warm bedroom for Papusia (aka Big Fat Chisko, the Feline Zeppelin, below)