The Shallcross Incline, looking down towards the start of the greenway

Whaley Bridge’s first heavy snow of the winter turned the new greenway into a whiteway.  The Shallcross Incline  – a safe walkway for children going to school, ramblers or people taking dogs for a walk or riding horses – took on a new beauty in the snow.

The greenway, looking up towards the Shallcross estate

Plenty of footmarks indicated that it was still being used as the persisient snow kept falling.  At the start of the Incline, the three trees planted by local schoolchildren in November to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, were quietly growing.  The sweetgums, a breed of tree originally from North America, will produce beautiful green buds in spring, large shiny green leaves next summer and brilliant red, orange, yellow and purple for the autumn.

Mid-January in nearby garden, snowdrops ready to come into flower

The greenway is alive, looking a little different every day to its many users.  But it has never been seen in its winter garb until the mid-January snowfall.  In gardens nearby, snowdrops were close to flowering, even as the snow swirled around them, and daffodils are on their way.