Walking in a winter wonderland...

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What an amazing day! The temperature continued to plummet last night, and when I got up this morning it was -13C, the coldest night of the winter so far, and possibly the coldest night we've ever had while living in Peterborough. At dawn the rising sun was shrouded in mist, and when I let the dogs out the cold burnt my nostrils!

Chris and I had decided to go for a fairly early walk, before he set off for London after lunch, but for a while I had second thoughts, fearing black ice. But as the mist cleared to reveal the sun, I felt we should make the effort. After a stiff cup of coffee to wake him up, we headed off to Bedford Purlieus, arriving just about 10am. I drove carefully, but fortunately the roads were quite dry and safe.

As we drove west we could tell it was going to be a remarkable day. The freezing fog was still hanging along the river valley, but elsewhere the sun was revealing the most incredible hoar frost, every tree etched in silver against a clear blue sky. When we got out of the car we were stunned to see huge feathery ice crystals on the vegetation, each at least 2cm long. I've never seen anything quite like it before in my life.

The temperature was still only -10.5C at this stage. The dogs initially found this uncomfortable; the cold was just too much for their paws and Rosie was actually shivering. But we got them trotting along, and their wolf ancestry soon came to the fore, and they were romping around like puppies. Chris and I were just like small children, just marvelling at all the beauty, and examining all the tracks of the forest creatures: fallow deer, muntjac, badger, fox and rabbit.

On the way back home we decided to drop in at the river, to see what it looked like along the valley. If anything it was even more spectacular, a true winter wonderland! There were several other photographers there, including one with an impressive set of kit (tripod, macro lens and focussing rail) capturing the ice crystals. I suspect he was going to produce stacked images, which should be pretty amazing. We didn't stay all that long, as the dogs got pretty bored while we were taking photographs, but we both agreed it had been well worth the detour.

I've had a lovely quiet afternoon, processing and sorting photographs and catching up with many blip friends. It's been the perfect winter day :)

PS There are lots of other photographs in my Flickr stream, if you want more wintry loveliness!