Firewood chopping at the island

I visited the island Pikku-Telkko, by skating for a change. I went there skiing on Monday. Then all the snow on lake ice had melted, so skiing tracks were very icy, which might have damaged my skis a bit. So this time I skated there. I skated mostly along skating tracks (one goes quite close to the island), bumpy skiing tracks and a road on ice.

On Monday there was 10-20 cm of water on ice in the middle of the lake. Now it's been a few grades below zero on two nights and there was no liquid water left. On some places the surface of the water had frozen but then the water below the top layer had gone somewhere, leaving a few cm of emty space between the thin top layer and the solid ice. It was very annoying to skate on those areas since the skates wouldn't slide at all.

I made a fire and warmed up some sausage. I chopped some firewood to replace the ones I used. It was nice. Quite strange to go there skating though. Usually I've skied or walked. And there's never been this little snow when I've been there. Very unusual winter. Glad the ice is still strong enough. And hope it stays below zero for a while. Would be great to visit there a few times before proper spring arrives.

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