Ice Ice Baby

Preston might be the only place in the country without snow but it's still very, very cold here this weekend. Last night we had freezing conditions and lots of rain resulting in ice everywhere.

Icicles grew on our wheelie bin, the bird feeders and even the car doors while other cars in the street were completely encased with ice that had frozen as soon as it hit the vehicle. Trees were also covered, but only on the side the rain was hitting which looked very odd indeed.

A little further into town, after a wobbly walk over ice covered paths, we found some very cold hedges, completely covered in icicles. In fact, every inch of the plants were covered in ice and, with care, you could peel a perfect ice leaf off the top of the frozen foliage. Holding it by the icicle edge you could even see all the veins along the leaf in the ice, it was fantastic!  It's a bit tricky to take a good photo of ice, but we tried anyway!

Even without snow covered streets the walk along the canal this afternoon was still nice. The canal was about an inch thick with ice and there was a flurry of wildlife activity.

The air was full of birdsong and we saw lots of pairs of blackbirds hopping around together. Highlights were definitely the dunnock and linnet we saw in the trees on the edge of the canal and some fields. Plant life is also around, even in the cold, with lots and lots of snow drops to be seen in gardens and along the paths. There were also some mysterious shoots along the path. I'm looking forward to finding out what they are later in the year. It almost feels like spring's on the way, except for the below zero temperatures coming up all this week!