A Winter Walk

We had some more snow overnight, which was quite good for my morning walk as it's so much less slippery when snow has newly fallen than when it's turned to ice or slush. I took a series of photos and chose four to make this collage. As you can see the birds on Killingworth Lake had all congregated around the only bit of the lake which hadn't frozen. In case you're worried, the photo of the railway line was taken at Killingworth level crossing so I wasn't tresspassing!

When I got home I wondered whether I could get any ultra-macro photos of snowflakes - you may remember that I did manage some last winter in Toronto. However my Toronto experience should have taught me that "the right kind of snow" for snowflake photos is rare even in Canada - in my experience there it needs to be actively falling and the air very cold or they just turn into ice crystals. However I think the extra here is quite fun anyway - with a bit of imagination it looks a bit like a weird creature! It's "head" is only about 2mm long so it's quite highly magnified. I think the doubling effect is due to a slight breeze which must have moved it very slightly during the taking of the focus stack (it was hanging on a little branch).