The difference 10 days make

This photo was taken in the afternoon of 6 November 2017, when I decided to dash out east of the city again. Most roads are clear of snow now, apart from the gravel back roads, so I reckoned I had better make the most of it before the next snowfall. There were four barns and an old house that I had photographed on 27 October 2017 and I wanted to get them with snow on the ground. There was enough snow on the ground to make it look like winter, but not huge amounts yet. It was all I could do to walk along the road and take long enough to grab a few shots - it was so cold, and windy, too, which is never a good combination!

The barn in this photo is one that I had wanted to see for a number of years. A friend posted a photo of an old barn recently and it turned out to be the very barn that I hadn't yet found. Without being asked, he told me exactly where it was. I had been looking for it just a few days before and must have missed it by just one road. I would love to have photographed it looking head on, but, as always, I stayed on the road to get my photos.

Apart from one occasion, I had avoided driving east of the city from the south for a few years, as the roads are so confusing, with dozens of huge road signs and several massive overpasses. It is so easy to be in the wrong lane and take the wrong turn-off, which happened to me one time maybe a couple of years ago, twice in one day. That was enough to put me off trying again. However, finally having done it recently, I knew it was much faster to get out east that way. There are two tricky turn-offs and I almost missed both of them on my last trip. If there had been a lot of traffic, I would have been out of luck. The fact that the clocks have just been set back an hour didn't even cross my mind and I found myself driving back to the city when it was getting dark - making those huge road signs very difficult to read!

No sign of wildlife, except for a flock of Gray Partridge that flushed up from the side of the road and flew and landed way out in a field. A couple of Ravens were the only other birds seen.