I WAS out in the garden recently and I’m pleased to say I’m a bit ahead of things, with beds turned over and generally tidied.

My general feeling of smugness was added to by a pleasantly warm sun on a still day. Robins were singing and blackbirds chirping - it could’ve been March. With snowdrops out and daffodils peeking through, we must be nearly there?

I realised I had to give myself a stern talking to, this was only just past mid-January and there are many weather hurdles to overcome.

In the bitter winter of 1947, for example, which I don’t remember, thank you for asking, the really cold weather didn’t start till January 21.

The weather was created by a large anticyclone anchored over Scandinavia which fed cold easterly winds across the UK, including seven inches of snow over the Isles of Scilly on January 30. At Kew Gardens, no temperatures over five degrees centigrade was recorded during the whole month of February.

It was really the snow that was the problem - some places recorded snow on 26 days out of 28. Hundreds of villages were cut off, ferries to Belgium were suspended due to sea ice and coal could not be moved to power stations, with 750,000 coal rail trucks stranded.

Troops were used to clear rail lines by hand. Television services were completely suspended and radio programmes reduced. Power cuts were frequent and even aspirin ran short, as it used coal tar in its manufacture.

Then, the next problem emerged. March initially brought huge snowfall including one of the worst blizzards on record on March 5. However, March 10 brought renewed warmth and snowmelt, creating widespread flooding in many places, including Shelby, Nottingham and Gloucester.

All in all, it is estimated the weather cost the country about £20-billion in today’s terms.

Wow, I’ll wait till I start planting any seeds!

• Fred Knobbit is a nature blogger. He grew up in the Pennines in Lancashire on the edge of an industrial town but is now safely in Cornwall. You can read his archive at www.bodminblogger.com