GALLERY - Bexhill snow pictures

Sunday's April surprise turned the season's clock back from Spring to Winter.

Though forecast, it came as an unwelcome change for gardeners and a shock to nesting birds.

But for photographers it was paradise.

E-mailed contributions flooded in to the Observer. They needed to have been quick off the mark.

Trees in Egerton Park, Collington Wood, the Down and other local beauty spots took on a fairy-tale appearance.

This lasted until Sunday's grey skies were replaced by Monday's bright sunshine.

This soon sent wet snow flopping down the necks of the unwary

walking beneath the trees.

Observer inputter Helen Jalfon-Unsworth snapped the scene from her bedroom window.

Reader Scott Reid submitted a shot of his daughter Ali having her first ski lesson at Ninfield.

Regular photographic contributors like Alan Thomassen and Brian Hazell were soon in action.

But the prize for the most comic contribution must go to Brian's son Alastair for his shot of a carefully-crafted snowman sitting waiting at Collington Halt for a train which - due to the wrong type of snow - never came.