The brent geese could be heard yesterday barking through the blizzard which swirled over the Thames Estuary all day.

Those geese – which summer in Siberia – arrived early this winter presaging a hard winter. And the mudflats upon which they peck up their food were frozen.

As the snow came in on a south-east wind it seemed the old saw was true: ‘When the wind’s in the east it blows no good to man nor beast.’