The death of winter

Hey guys. Well the snow is still on the ground but there are mixed forecasts, some saying sleet, some saying snow and some saying thawing. So we will see if there is still enough for a snowman next Saturday. I think this is the death of winter, or at least the extreme cold and snow we've had. The 3 of us have spent the weekend sledging. This is the 2nd year running we've been able to do this which is great. This year is definitely better though. We tried out 2 different sets of hills. The first was over the road from Kirkstall Abbey, which is where we went last year. We also went to the hill just at the bottom of our road. It was quieter and steeper and has no trees. Man you get some speed up. This is the hill we went back to today. I didn't take part today as I have a misaligned pelvis and one day of sledging is about as much as I can take. So I stopped at the bottom of the hill and took pictures. There were a couple of gentlemen and their sons on sledges made of sign boards. They very kindly sold us one of the boards. I guess they made a tidy profit today as they sold another as well. They work for a sign company so I'm guessing the boards didn't cost them too much.



I managed to get a few pictures of the ice. I was hoping to get some of the icicles we saw the other night but most of them had thawed yesterday.







Now these are the icicles on our guttering. Quite impressive I thought.


There are also a few on the bin and a set of stalagmites/stalactites on the water barrel.



I can't remember the last time I saw proper icicles. It is just not cold enough for long enough anymore. We seem to have lost the seasons bit here. We get a couple of warm days in summer and a couple of cold days in winter and the rest of the time it is just damp in one way or another. These last couple of years have been more like the ones from my childhood, at least with the winters. Now if we can just get some sun in summer.

So if you thought my icicles were nice here are the ones at my mum's. Mighty or what? They're at least 3 feet long!



And just for pretty's sake here are a few other pics. But be warned dear reader, too many photos in icy conditions (especially after spending a couple of hours watching your dearly beloveds sledge) will lead to hands like this.