Winter woollies needed . . .

Ice stalactites . . .



I was feeling well enough to venture outside today and as my husband came along to look for extra firewood, I decided we would carefully venture along by the side of the river where we used to take the children down to the pebble beach when they were younger. You would not want to skim stones or paddle there today! Every curve of rock at the side of the river was coated with a slick of ice and icicles hung from overhangs. At the side of the river, pebbles were frozen into solid lumps and where a spring bubbles out of the river-bank, huge ice boulders heaved their shoulders. Of course, by North American standards it is nothing, but we've never had a winter spell this cold and lasting all the time we have lived in Wales, and no winter to compare since the awful one of 1962-63, as I've probably mentioned before.

We scrambled across the mossy rocks at the side of the river, looking into pools frozen into hard translucent stones of ice. The river is deep enough in the valley bottom to only get the winter sunshine for a short period each day at this time of year.

Beneath you can see that the edge of the river was starting to freeze over and there were swags of ice ropes joining it to the river bank.

There is a spring here but it has frozen solid now.

Pools are no longer pools.

The view downstream.

The boulders were slick with ice.


The sunshine doesn't really reach onto the river at this time of year.

It is all set to thaw over the weekend and I think I will be quite relieved . . .