Woke up Thursday morning to bright sunshine and a thaw set in quickly at our peak district cottages.  By lunchtime the courtyard was clear and by the end of the day the car park was passable which was just as well as I had three cottages in.  Two cottages departed and my cleaner managed to get here.  The road was now passable but in some places it was a single lane only and there was still piles of snow along the drive.  Was able to see the damage done to my shrubs and plants.  The daffs have been flattened, as have some of the flowering spring bulbs, and a couple of climbing shrubs have been pulled away by weight of snow.  The wave effect of snow against the stone walls is quite stunning.  Early afternoon I headed down to Bakewell to get provisions for the weekend.  Should have taken the camera to photograph the snow by the road but by the time I got to Lady Manners it had gone.  Bakewell was clear of snow but busy.  First guests arrived about 4pm, they have been before, and remaining guests arrived about 7pm, one of which had also been before.  Green Cowden Farm lost one lamb, but a search of the drifts revealed a sheep that had been covered by snow, alive but weak.  They had had to ‘rescue’ some stranded motorists from the end of their drive. Andrew was supposed to have his milk collected but the tanker got stuck elsewhere so it looked like Andrew was going to have to throw the milk away as there is a time limit between milkings and collection.  Luckily the tanker made it up the hill from Bakewell and collected it before the road got too bad.  At the end of the day at least the landscape was more green than white.