Prancing On Ice

It may be the last place people think to go to in the winter but recently James and I went walking at the beach. It was freezing cold and really windy but a good excuse to dust off my walking boots from Nepal. Still had to tog up with lots of layers though. Probably looked very silly driving down there in a roofless car with hats, scarves, gloves and thermals on. However the sky was clear and the sun was out. Thats out excuse anyway. There were an surprising number of people out walking their dogs and sailing their yachts. Having bought himself an new camera on the way back from Amsterdam it was a good chance to get in some practise. Luckily the sunset gave a very pretty background to the scenery.


The beech has not been our only walking destination recently. A few weeks ago we went for a mini trek up to Kingly Vale, a hill with some impressive landscape around. While we were up there we decided to go up over the top on the hill. This meant wandering off the normal path. However it also meant we got to see a herd of deer. Initially we only saw three. Two females and a stag with huge antlers. Once they saw us more were revealed as they ran off into the woods. There were probably about ten in total. Amazing.

Last weekend was the coldest by far yet this winter. So cold that the Mill Pond in Emsworth froze over completely. This obviously gave a chance to go ice dancing, well sliding anyway. Slightly nervous at first that we would get wet feet the confidence quickly grew when a couple of 16st ish guys jumping up and down didn't make it crack. The whole town seemed to make the most of it by playing ice hockey, curling bricks with garden brooms and dogs skidding in all directions.