WINTER hit like a sledgehammer this week, kneecapping the county, but the snow and the ice also transformed our little corner of Wales into a little winter wonderland full of strange and curious marvels.

in a statement to the press, Monmouthshire County Council likened the County to Narnia. The authority are often unfairly criticized for being out of touch, but comparing Abergavenny to a land of make-believe, where talking lions roam free, wicked snow witches reign supreme, and a friendly flute-playing fawn called Mr Tumnus prances about the place, hypnotizing humans, does seem a bit beyond the pale, even by MCC’s unchecked flights of fancy.

Elsewhere, rankled residents furiously complained about being prisoners in their own homes, as shovels leaned idly agains garden fences, bags of grit lay unopened, snow boots remained unworn, and good-old fashioned elbow grease slowly solidified alongside the ice.

Meanwhile, MCC stressed that council employees were frantically working on the front-line to battle the grizzly conditions, in whatever far-flung realm the front-line now exists.

And some even flew in the face of the perpetual moaning about the snow, to get out, about and actually have some fun in it. Whatever next!

Nevertheless, the blanket of white has been peeled back, the snowmen have melted, the sledges put away, and the wheels of commerce are able to spin freely once more and turn everything into a dirty and unidentifiable slush.

Although the roads are now clear, the pavements are still like ice rinks, but thank-god no-one has to do something as primitive as walk anywhere anymore.

Our little taste of winter wonderland is already becoming a distant memory, but for a few days at least, old mother Abergavenny was transformed and born anew.

Take these pictures of what prior to the big freeze was a bog-standard patio.

When the snow was cleared away and the temperatures dropped on Monday night, one Mardy resident was flabbergasted to find peculiar and puzzling patterns had formed on her concrete slabs.

The mother-of-two told the Chronicle, “I’ve never really paid much attention to my patio before, but on that particular evening I was in the garden, drinking a coffee and messaging my friends on WhatsApp about school closures and Christmas presents, when my eye was caught by these elaborate designs.

“They appeared as if out of nowhere,and my first thought was, ‘has someone put something mind-altering in my nescafe?’ But I soon realised I was a sole witness to a natural phenomenon.”

The excited lady rushed indoors and dragged her partner and two children outside to check she hadn’t lost her mind. The rest of her family confirmed she was sane and the patterns were real - but they were also at a loss to explain them.

The mystified mum added, “I knew they must have been ice patterns but I’ve never known them to be this intricate and detailed before.”

As you can see, the patterns in question are exquisitely elaborate and suggest old Jack Frost has the studied hand of a Monet or a Van Gogh when in the mood, but on this occasion old man winter had a little help with creating his breathtaking handiwork, in the form of two excited kids stomping around in their Wellies.

As the art-loving mum explained, “It finally dawned on me what was the cause of the peculiar patterns. Earlier that day my two kids had been stamping the snow from their Wellies on the patio. I then brushed most of it, and the reminder froze over that night and hey presto! You have a natural masterpiece!”