In the late 1970s, our local canal used to freeze over almost every winter, and we all went out on the ice - some people skated, others took sledges, and many of us used to ride bikes, doing long spinning skids, and sometimes falling through.
Today, for the first tim in about 30 years, I went out onto the ice - not on the canal, but on one of the fishing lakes at the National Water Sports Centre. I didn’t have a bike or a uni with me, but I spent several minutes walking on the ice.
Perfect conditions: snow had fallen on ice, partly thawed then frozen again, several times in a row, so the ice was thick and strong. When it’s not quite strong enough, you can feel it move under you, and hear faint cracking sounds, but this was as solid as tarmac.
The sun was shining but the air temperature was around 0 degrees. No one to be seen, and just the mournful cawing of the crows in the bare trees that were silhouetted aginst the sparse blue sky.
Really peaceful.
