Firestarter's a real prodigy...

DAWN and dusk skies in shades of smoked salmon and beetroot have been providing wondrous spectacles during these past winter weeks.

- Stuart Winter

The cold, atmospheric conditions that see horizons striped in blazing oranges, reds, pinks and purples have also rekindled memories of the event that sparked my love of birds.

Only those who survived the "Ice Age" of 1963 can testify how the nation shivered but kept calm and carried on when glacial -20°C temperatures shrouded the countryside in unrelenting whiteness.

Huge drifts made our back garden inaccessible but scraping ice off my bedroom window unveiled a fiery vision that is still emblazoned in my mind's eye.