Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.

I wonder if Sinclair Lewis (American novelist) had horses?

The very same thought about winter was running through my head this morning as I broke the ice on no fewer than seven water tanks across the fields and wondered why I'd chosen to wear fingerless gloves.

The ice was the result of a very heavy overnight frost, not even any snow.

(Please note, I am not AT ALL complaining. With two of my boys living in Canada, the cold season in Sussex is just a pathetic excuse for winter.)

I know how lucky I am.

Beautiful animals. Beautiful scenery.

And beautiful weather!

As Robert Byrne says “Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours.”

Good old nature.

Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.

...especially if you have horses. By the way, I'm not complaining because I love it - but it IS hard work sometimes. Perhaps Sinclair Lewis was complaining? He'd be complaining all the more if he knew I hadn't heard of him AND he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930...

Back to the horses. Lately we've had all the weather winter could throw at us except heavy snow (which I won't write too loudly. You never know who might be listening.)

For a start, at 7 a.m. when I arrive at the yard - it's dark.

We've had howling gales and slashing rain. This translates into...the sand school's a lake, there's lots of mud, and frisky horses with sodden rugs to change. And riding's not much fun.

Storm horse by Zeelis Tech of Android Zoom

 We've had icy conditions - which means frozen windscreen, frozen fingers and toes, head collars with rigor mortis, frozen drinking troughs, treacherous roads. And riding's not much fun.

Ice horse by Cisco of Queeky

And today...we have sunshine.

And riding was a great deal of fun.

Nature is, by and large, to be found out of doors...

...a location where...there are never enough comfortable chairs.

I like Fran Lebowitz's wit, I'm sure she'd be gratified to learn, but I don't for a single second share her feelings about The Great Outdoors.

Here she is again:

“Now, nature, as I am only too aware, has her enthusiasts, but on the whole, I am not to be counted among them. To put it bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.”

So, it was as a card-carrying Nature Enthusiast, that I settled down in front of the television last night to watch the first episode of BBC's Frozen Planet 

 Absolutely stunning. I was completely entranced. It was for the beauty of the polar landscape that I wrote The Melting - a screenplay that's a sort of sequel to The Snow Queen. (Steven Spielberg apply here.)

However, there were times when I had to run out of the room. I simply CANNOT watch animals killing other animals. Yes, I KNOW it's the way of things, only natural, the circle of life...and death, but I can't watch it.

Awwww sweet! A cute sea-lion and a penguin. No, NOT sweet. The sea-lion is HUNGRY. He chases the penguin because he wants to eat it. Yes, it was comical to see the pair of them floundering about on land but oh, the shout of triumph I gave when the penguin escaped from the sea-lion's jaws and swam off into the ocean.

 Amazing - the cooperative behaviour of killer whales who hunt together, intentionally creating huge waves that either wash the seal off the ice or break the ice into smaller pieces...

But I couldn't watch it. Or if I DID watch it at all it was through the narrow slits between my fingers, clamped firmly over my eyes.

It's not just the polar ice cap that's melting. It's my heart.