Sledge and Slide on Sale

An unexpected treat today. 
I popped around to visit a friend I hadn't caught up with for some time. She said that after school her family was going sledging on Sale, so I joined in. The sun was setting as we trekked up to the top. The boys waylaid themselves - probably in a mammoth snow fight and weren't seen again. Her husband used the time for running and like a genial Yeti kept popping up to meet us at intervals. We judged our slopes and whizzed down in increments. Lots of powder snow and capsizes and laughs. 

As the sun set the waxing moon rose in the East like a pale lantern hanging above the fell ( or in my case one and a half lanterns, as I have slight astigmatism) First one planet (Jupiter) appeared beside it and then further over West, Venus started glowing. Today, it seems,  Venus will be at her greatest elongation East, despite appearing westwards, and at her brightest. And she was jolly well was putting herself out there!

The last part of the walk was treacherously icy but by now the moon was so bright we were casting moon shadows and each snow crystal was shining back, green and blue as fireflies. Maybe that was Venus's contribution.
We all arrived back to base at nearly the same time, all as warm as toast with exertion and adrenalin. A magical evening!