Nature decided otherwise, and unless you lived in the far north of the country, the prospects of photographing scenes of snow, winter sports and a white Christmas were nil.
Fortunately winter is more than just snow and sledging.
Images shown tonight reflected the diversity of the skills, interests and the interpretation of the world around them evidenced this evening.
Winter can mean many things, like the hoar frost on clothes on a washing line, the shapes of roads snaking through snow covered hills, imagined faces, demons and imps seen in the structure of icicles, lace patterns in an ice covered puddle, a figure almost lost in the flurry of a blizzard or the jagged teeth in the jaws of a frozen waterfall.
Images prompted discussion, how to best judge the exposure when photographing a snow covered landscape, when it is safe to take shots from directly under icicles in a thaw? (never) and the various ways of using the reflected and refracted light from ice to produce beautiful and surreal images.
It is only to be hoped that nature again thwarts us for the next theme night in August when the subject will be water.
A dry English summer?
Somehow I doubt it