London’s very quiet this morning, after a heavy snowfall. I haven't seen the latest crop of snowmen yet, but this one's from last year. It snowed heavily one night in January, and the next morning the parks were full of people busily building snowmen. This was one of my favourites.

This is a contribution to the festive spirit made by the Daniel Defoe, a local pub in Stoke Newington. At this time of the year I like walking past a flower shop near this pub, through the little forest of Christmas trees gathered for sale on the pavement outside. As you walk through it you can smell the resin from the trees — it's lovely to be in the middle of London yet transported for a second to somewhere utterly different. Much as I love these trees though, I'm looking for an artificial one this year — one of the worst sights after Christmas is their brown carcasses abandoned on pavements and propped up by rubbish bins.

Several years ago I discovered the Insect Circus Museum. They'd arrived and set up shop in Clissold Park one summer and I spent a very happy couple of hours learning all about the grand history of insect circuses. Inside the Tardis-like mobile museum were costumes (including the outfits worn by the famous performing ants), posters, dioramas and mechanical models from the famous Piper family insect circus, 'featuring such perennial favourites as dancing snails, trained butterflies, wasp tamers and balancing bugs'. I really recommend a visit to the travelling museum page on their website.