Down at the pond

Got the itch again, really needed to go sledging so took A and L on the sledge (the blue plastic variety) and pulled them along to Blackford Pond first because I wanted to see the ice and hopefully blip the birds in their diminished waterhole. The result is ok but I'm not too convinced, I liked the seagulls flying about but then decided to play about with the picture using picasa. Not yet too sure of the result but it looks more interesting than the original (which was taken a bit too close to twilight and the colours in the sky weren't quite right either).

Anyway the fun was in the sledge, the girls loved being pulled and (apart from a few pavements and all the major roads) there was actually enough snowcover to pull them nearly all the way. Friends joined us and off we went to the slope just behind the alotments. It was fast! The girls enjoyed it but were a bit frightened by the speed and the rapidly approaching wall at the bottom of it. Nothing ever happened though, we got splashed by snow (I noticed that digging in your heals mostly produces lots of snowspray that then makes it impossible to see - not the best if you have a young child on your lap) but the snow at the bottom was still quite thick and in order to reach the wall you would have had to go back up the way.

Unfortunately the kids got too cold and had to be taken to the friends house where they warmed up in front of the coal fire, drinking hot chocolate/juice and watching tv. Meanwhile I was able to go back out and get down one of the paths (and luckily never found myself face-to-face with a big Alsatian or any other dog) - we were really fast so any dog/owner would have had to jump out of our way but what a great finish to the weekend! Despite the thaw earlier it was actually icing over again. Not too sure how long it lasts, I hope it will be possible to have yet another run down the hill.