After a week of brilliant sunshine countrywide and the opportunity to top up the picture banks with images from London, Manchester and Glasgow the British weather has performed a volte face. I’m heading to Derby for an assignment on the sort of cold, gloomy day with listless light and flat colours that even the burgeoning tree blossom struggles to lift.

The newspaper headlines predict that there’s snow on the way tomorrow. To be honest, if we get some of the proper stuff I wouldn’t mind – a few extra snow shots would be useful. Plus, the Pennines look stunning under a layer of clean, crisp snow. One can only hope...

The Northern ‘Dog Box’ that took me to Wakefield resembled a fridge so I was grateful to plonk myself down in a seat on board a warm Cross-Country Voyager at Westgate - which is where I’m typing this. Now it’s time to switch from writing for fun to writing for money, so, I’ll catch you later...