Whiter shade of pale

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christm-" oh, wait.

This is probably the most festive it's looked this disconcertingly warm winter season, after a flurry of snow over Scotland.

Mind you, I've never really liked snow. It's capacity to create both shoe-soaking slush and life-threateningly slippery surfaces doesn't appeal to me.

Of course, crisp, white fields blanketed in the stuff, or the sight of fluffy flakes falling from the sky, does. But not so much getting caught in the crossfire of a battle relying on gravel-laced snowballs for ammunition.

Give me rain any day.