A nice lie-in followed by Waffles for breakfast after we spent considerable time locating the waffle iron. Everything from the kitchen is anywhere it shouldn't be and already it's driving me crazy. This morning all the boys watched the Stoke v Arsenal game while us girls watched Mr Selfridge.
This afternoon we packed a rucksack with hot chocolate, coffee, biscuits and donned our snow gear and headed to the Nature Walk where we first encountered ducks. Many ducks, hundreds of ducks that Smallest wanted to feed each and every one of them. They waddled over the bridge to us to get our seed we had brought with us. We also brought bread but there was a sign that asked us to not give them bread as it made them sick so that stayed in our bag.
Next we found wild turkeys that cautiously went past us, picking up our seed on the way. Everyone was hoping we would find the chickadees so they would feed off our hands but we didn't see any (maybe it was too cold for them). It was cold but not too bad. The wind was a South Westerly one and didn't really bother us until we hit a really open bit. The boys took advantage of the icy puddles and skidded and skated their way through them all, sometimes falling over themselves and sometimes over each other.
We found a bunch of keys and placed them on the bench in case someone came looking for them (they were gone by the time we walked past again so hopefully the owner picked them up). The walk to the beach is approximately 2km of winding path through beautiful deep red dog wood, plentiful seedheads and sumac trees. When we got to the beach I was really surprised as when Moo and I came here last year the whole beach and a fair part of the lake was frozen but there was sand and water and waves today.
The boys climbed our normal tree and then we sat on a log to have our warming drinks and snack before walking the length of the beach, skimming stones (Smallest got a record seven), looking for beach glass (I collect the bits of broken bottles that have been smoothed by the water and sand) and picking up weird sticks.
Small was bored with the beach walking (first time ever - he says he prefers it in the Summer) and we tried to walk as far as the frozen waves but the water got in the way. I ended up with a pocket full of beach glass though and Smallest found a big shell that he abondoned when we got back to the ducks again.
We made our any back, skidding, skating and falling over and this time we bumped into two deer who watched us for a while and then turned and ran fluffing their white tails behind them as the galloped off.
The boys fed all the ducks again with the remaining seed and we went off for Fish and Chips. When we got home Small sorted out his snowboarding stuff. On Wednesday he is going away on a school trip to St Donat, Quebec until Saturday. Silly billy has left it until now despite me asking him for ages to get his stuff sorted. He found his boots didn't fit (luckily we had a spare pair that did) and was most perturbed that we asked him to get shampoo and shower gel (WHAT YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WASH - he refused to take a flannel!).
Huffle helped Smallest with his homework and the boys played on the Wii.
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| Photo from The Telegraph of Bradgate Park in the snow. |
It's very weird seeing all my friends on Facebook in the snow. We have a cold weather warning in force with temperatures plummeting to -21*.
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