The More It Snows (Tiddly Pom)….

Snow has fallen. Snow on snow. Sno-o-ow on snow. Even the ice has got ice on it.

The llamas are cold and bored and stoical. The pigs are cold and bored and grumpy. The chickens are cold and bored and confused. They are none of them going anywhere or doing anything. The cats are … well, cats. Just not bothered. The puppies, however, are as happy as very happy, furry, bouncy things.

They are happy with their noses squashed up against the wood-burning stove, regardless of the smell of singeing hair. They are happy with their noses buried in the freezing snow and their clumsy paws sploshing in the ice-cold stream. And, from their ridiculous and extremely obvious displays of happiness, I am not sure whether to conclude that they are the stupidest of all the animals on our farm, or the wisest.

Either way, I am grateful for their gleeful energy and snow-diving antics.

For whilst I really, really, really don’t want to leave the cosy warmth of my homely hearth and get wrapped up in a million layers of jumpers, scarves, socks and gloves, all topped off with a silly hat, to slither and stumble about on slippy slopes of snowly-disguised frozen molehills, whilst trudging hay, water and buckets of protein-rich slop to our various hungry and winter-weary beasts, once I’m out there, in the bright white of the bone-cold silence, with the puppies romping and rollicking at my feet, I cannot help but grin.

Just like children, they call on me to join them in the wild wonder of it all. To kick through drifts, and pounce and clown in soft, white clouds of powdery down. To see the funny side, and not mind the mind- and finger-numbing grind. And although, for very much of the time, the puppies toilet requirements can be a monumental pain in the lazy arse, there are few things quite so satisfying as watching the fascinating spread of a bright yellow melt hole in the pristine snow made by the wee of a carefree puppy.