Ice patrol

Lade - cold, misty, sunshine by noon - With clear skies and light airs overnight the thermometer quickly plummeted and for the first time in three years the garden pond froze over. Sub-zero temperatures transformed the landscape hereabouts into a winter wonderland with a hoar frost forming magical patterns on the vegetation in the foggy atmosphere. The surface of both lakes was almost completely covered in a rime of dust on a thin layer of ice with only two penalty area size patches open which were packed out with wildfowl, including a redhead Smew and a dozen Goldeneyes.

                                South lake, Lade

  But it was the beach that provided the main spectacle with frozen sea water on the bay and layers of ice along the tideline, in places forming shards of long flat icicles in the sand, an amazing sight.

                                 Frozen sea-ice, Lade bay