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A cold winter can be wonderful. In the warm, damp climate of South Wales not all of them are like that, but 2009 and into 2010 were some of the best winters for a while and a great opportunity to be out in the great outdoors and enjoy the stunning scenery

This set of pictures was taken on a single day in the Upper Neuadd and Pontsticill reservoir area in the central beacons area when the snow created some wonderful variations on the usually lush and green landscape.

This area is a haven for walkers at any time of the year and this was no exception with the upper car park well populated with people heading out for either a long adventure or simply a stroll to the waters edge

Some of the pictures here are taken from the upper reservoir itself, which I probably should not admit to, but in terms of getting into the right place for a view of Corn Du it was necessary.

The hill to the left in the Craig Fan Ddu - Craig Gwaun Taf ridge, and that to the Right of Corn Du is Pen y Fan leading across to Crybin. It's a wonderful horseshoe path that I have not waled for a long time and really must make the effort to do it again soon

The Robin was a cheeky little chap, but he wasn't being very obliging and posing for pictures. He was running to keep warm, and I don't blame him

There is a brief, but useful photogrphers guide to the area Here

Having a 4x4 car such as my Suzuki Grand Vitara is a real boon in these conditions, but you really shouldn't get overconfident as you can see if you've watched the show through as I was retaught a valuable lesson in keeping it slow in such conditions. Luckily the car only suffered a few minor scrapes on the plastic wheel arches and the biggest amount of damage was to my pride in having to be towed out by a Land Rover. Having seen the 20foot of barbed wire fence we scraped down and the telegraph pole just behind it, I know how lucky I was.

These pictures are taken with both an E-500 and an E-510 Olympus DSLR using mainly the wonderful 11-22mm lens on the latter and the kit 14-42mm lens on the former. Why 2 cameras, the simple answer is for ease of switching between them without needing to do lens swaps in the cold weather.