Diamonds, sudoku, hyacinths

Snow is a rarity here nowadays. So it is a pleasure to see the result of a heavy fall last night. Glinting in the sun, a line of snow on the telphone wire outside the bedroom window soon melts, leaving huge drops like diamond earings.

In the Independent I read that a classic sudoku grid contains 5,472,730,538 unique combinations of numbers. Apparently sales of pencils have increased by 700 per cent since the sudoku boom.

Though it has turned to slush or streams of water every where else, the snow has not yet melted in the triangular flower bed outside the public library. It is pierced by the undaunted, blue flower heads of hyacinths.