It is unusual for us to have heavy snow in London. Some winters we have a day or two of light snow and some winters pass without any snow at all. However this winter has been very cold and we have had a number of days of snow in London. Here are a few photos I took this week (early January 2010) in my local area of north London. 

The church above is St Mary's in Hendon. 

By the time I had walked into the churchyard the snow suddenly intensified and almost became a blizzard! This is a very ancient churchyard, with some of tombs dating from the 18th century. 

The church itself is also very old. Parts of the building date from the 13th century, but many sections have been added over the years to this original structure.

Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore is buried in the church. Click on this link to learn more about this- 

http://www.visitbritain.co.in/profile/raffles_found.aspx

This churchyard is also supposed to have a connection with vampires. Bram Stoker, who wrote the famous novel 'Dracula', knew this area and is supposed to have used this churchyard for inspiration when describing the churchyard in his book. Not the best place to wander after dark maybe!

It's really unusual to see the trees so full of snow in London.

This angel has a new coat (and hat!) of snow.

This huge and ancient Cedar of Lebanon tree is one of several ancient trees in the churchyard. I was told that this tree was planted in 1755. 

The snow was weighing down the branches.

 

This path leads along one of the boundaries of the churchyard. Normally the teenagers from the local school use this spot as a meeting place but it was too cold for them on this day.  Between the trees you can catch glimpses of the local park. Can you see the hole in the large tree?

This hole is a den for a family of squirrels. You can see how they have made it cosy with twigs and leaves. Normally the squirels can be seen running in and out of the den. I waited a while to see if they would appear, but they were camera-shy on this occasion. Too cold for them to venture out. Beside the path this privet hedge was trying to burst into spring bloom. A bit too cold for much growth yet!

Brambles had been growing along the railings. Brambles are wild blackberries.  If you are patient you can see a lot of wildlife in the churchyard. All sorts of birds and even the occasional fox. This robin is very used to people and I often see him and his partner. He followed me around whilst I took the photos. Lots of people had been putting out food for the birds in this cold weather. I took him some bread.

Beside the churchyard these gates lead to a playing field.

In the field this snowman had quickly been built. I think his head was a bit too heavy, although maybe he is supposed to have this 'laid back' look. I am not sure!

As I entered the park the sky was full of snow. From this part of north London you can just see the arch of the new Wembley Stadium.

The sun came out for a while. Much better.

These dogs somehow thought they were huskies. They did not quite get the idea  of towing the sledge and kept running into each other in a bit of a disorganised fashion.

The children had the day off school and the steepest slope of the park soon became busy with people sledging.

These boys did not think the slope was steep enough, so they made this pile of snow in order to get a good start to their run. The large roof in the distance is of the Royal Air Force Museum.

Everyone grabbed whatever they could find to act as a sledge. These children were using a giant inflatable tyre. 

Time to go home and have a hot cup of tea after my walk!