The 7th of December dawned frosty white, the coldest day of the year -9 degrees Celsius when I emerged from my warm cocooned duvet. As usual in this really cold weather I have been late rising and missing out on my early morning swim. This leaves me with mixed feelings...... Guilty cos I should be up and organised to get out to get some exercise and then relieved not to be freezing while defrosting the car then fight with traffic to get to the pool. Anyway this morning I was later than usual and before I managed to get down stairs the doorbell rung. Luckily 'Himself' was way better placed to answer the door. A city florist was delivering a lovely bouquet of flowers from a friend. It was a joint birthday gift and a thank you for helping with her convalescence.
I ventured outside to feed the birds and the cold really smacked you this morning. The waterfall had ice all around it. A sparkling white hoar frost covered everywhere.
The recently cleaned pond was completely iced over and the fish still visible stationary beneath the ice. Remnants of the snow from last week still lay around.
We had planned to go out for an evening meal to celebrate my birthday but as the weather was so severe we decided that would be rather silly so wrapped up in our Canadian winter coats and hats we headed off into the countryside to have lunch at a restaurant in Ramsey.
The drive out was uneventful as the roads were clear and easily driveable not like the north of the country and Scotland where they were bogged down with snow and ice and roads were treacherous. The sun shone and caused the hoar frost over the countryside to look quite beautiful.
I discovered I had forgotten my camera so the photo is not mine but you get the picture. Endless fen landscape shimmering under a thin layer of snow and thick layer of hoar frost. The temperature never got above -2 degrees all day.
We arrived in Ramsey a small town in the Fens that I had thought was going to be interesting with lots of small shops. In fact it was a disappointment. Uninspiring buildings with many empty shops. It had no redeemable features so after a quick walk about we headed for the restaurant. It was called The Bow Window a pretty looking place from the outside, white painted walls with bow windows of course, and a thatched roof. It had been given a good review in the local press so we were looking forward to trying it out.
I'd checked it out on the web site and yes it was opened Tuesday to Saturday. The day was Tuesday so that was OK. Er... what it didn't say though was that it didn't open for lunches.
Thoroughly disillusioned with Ramsey we doubled back to the small village of Holme where we stopped at a Pub cum restaurant called The Admiral Wells. It was supposed to have a good reputation. The food was hot tasty and adequate nothing special though but we enjoyed the meal and met a very chatty lady called Grace who I discovered was once a receptionist at a village surgery where I use to go occasionally to do the Ante Natal Clinics.
Back home and watching the evening news on the TV there was a News report on Fen Skating. The cold temperatures has frozen the flooded fen fields and for the second time this year the fen skater were out on the ice. Made me feel nostalgic for my old fen skates. As a kid I use to look forward to the frozen ponds and dykes when I could don my skated and whizz round the ice in the frosty open air.
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