Two Inches

I opened the curtains this morning and saw such wonderful clouds - both front and back.

I haven't worked out what left the tracks on the pond - but it certainly wasn't this chap.

After breakfast I took my walking stick with the metal point and went out to knock a couple of holes in the ice for the wildlife.
It has obviously been a lot colder then I thought because it was a nightmare trying to knock a hole in it. When I had managed to get some of the ice broken I pulled it out ...... being careful not to lose my footing of the (slightly) snowy pebbles. It was at this point I realised that the ice is a full 2" thick. The lower half (on the left) is clear from where it has frozen quickly and the upper half is where it has snowed, melted a bit and then refrozen making it cloudy (the white on the extreme left is snow from when I dragged it out and laid it down before propping it up the photograph the sharp change). There is a closer look at the patterns and bubbles Here.

We have had out 'First Footers' this afternoon (although they never crossed the threshold) ....... Bags and the family stopped off during a walk. The monsters had fun trying to smash lumps of ice by dropping them on the pavement. 
While we were out there I saw that the surface of the pond has frozen again - although I don't think it is that solid ...... yet.