I realised recently that since I arrived in Alberta last October it has rained only once, with the rest of the precipitation falling as snow. For someone who grew up in Cornwall, this creates an extraordinary feeling, verging on withdrawal.

Typically, winters here are sunny, windy and cold. Temperatures have been as low as -28C with a -47C wind-chill, but normally range from 6C to -20C.

Bright sunshine makes it bearable and even quite pleasant on calm days, and the cold works wonders killing off all the volunteer canola in winter wheat.

The dry atmosphere does have drawbacks. It seems that almost every time I get out of a truck a blue static spark leaps from the door to my hand, much to the amusement of the other guys on the farm.

Apart from an occasional burst of activity hauling potatoes to McCain’s plant, things are pretty quiet here and we’re gradually getting through our winter maintenance. But by the end of the month things should get busier as my thoughts turn to getting wheat seed cleaned and to collecting seed potatoes from our suppliers six hours north of Taber.

Among all the economic doom and gloom it was refreshing to read that McDonald’s sales were up 7% for January. I only hope this will create increased demand for Russet Burbank potatoes.

Recent images of a snowy UK motorway on the news reminded me to check up on the amount of snow we’ve had here so far this winter.

Apart from a curious fascination with snow that only Brits appear to have, there was another more important reason.

Snow-melt from the mighty Rocky Mountains provides southern Alberta with its supply of irrigation water. Checking the accumulated snowfall also works quite nicely as an excuse for a farm outing to the local ski slope.

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