Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.

Occasionally I have come across a last patch of snow on top of a mountain in late May or June. There's something very powerful about finding snow in summer.

It takes between three and six hours to make each snowball, depending on snow quality. Wet snow is quick to work with but also quick to thaw, which can lead to a tense journey to the cold store.

Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.

Every Autumn now my thoughts return to snow. Snow is something I identify myself with. Like my father, I am a snow person.