I missed the chance of a practice run when we had a rare snowy weekend a couple of weeks ago, so when Sunday evening's weather bulletin forecast snowy showers for Monday morning I gathered my kit together for an early start.
Snowy showers actually turned out to be a few flurries in Chesterfield, which managed to give a very patchy covering of white to the local fields: not much more than a heavy frost would have done. But I told myself it would be a different story in the heart of the Peak District, where the familiar contours of Mam Tor and Rushup Edge would be completely transformed by a good layer of fresh sparkling snow.
After loading the car I set off in brilliant sunshine accompanied by an unaccompanied Bach violin sonata playing on Radio 3. The aural experience of rising and falling arpeggio and scale passages punctuated with guttural double-stopping combined with the visual experience of the countryside bathed in bright winter sunshine to so mellow my mood that I was quite content to follow a large lorry slowly negotiating the narrow road through Barlow and up to Owler Bar.
On the road above the Longshaw Estate I now glanced a view of my destination. I stopped in a layby to assess the state of the distant hills. As you can see from the following photo there was some snow on the hills, but not as much as I was hoping for.
There were, however, plenty of clouds in the distance which might result in some further snowfall: I might even get a dramatic view of a blizzard rolling over the edge of the Kinder Scout plateau! Arrival at the National Trust car park near Mam Tor soon dashed these hopes. No further snow, and a distinct lack of clouds likely to dump a quick landscape transforming layer.
I set off up the fairly short but very steep path to the summit of Mam Tor. It was quite calm in the car park. It started getting breezy after a few hundred yards. By the time I reached the summit I had to hug the trig point to stop being blown over! How on earth did the builders of the Iron Age fort which used to stand here survive this environment? Nice views, but I would need triple glazing to even consider a place up here.
Hanging on to my new-found friend the trig point I did just manage to wrestle the camera from its bag and get a few shots in, the best of which was this view of Rushup Edge:
After this I hastily beat a retreat down the path to the car park and then made the short journey down through Winnats Pass to Castleton to have a warming cup of coffee. Newly refreshed I then wandered round this village of tea shops, pubs and gift shops. There are many Peak District villages I would love to live in, but not those, like this, which have had to give themselves up totally to the tourist trade.
Passing the village church I found a suitable position to photograph it from. A lane runs past it, bordered by a stone wall about five foot high, at the top of which is the churchyard. So I was able to get a view, complete with snowdrops, as though I had taken it at ground level. So here is this week's 'Picture of the Week' (yet another Derbyshire church):-
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