My nephew, Luke is visiting from Australia at present, one of the brave visitors, happy to come in winter.  We have been explaining to him that anything above -10° C is not really cold.   It is actually perfect winter weather, not too cold to go out but cold enough that the ice on the rink isn’t melting and the snow isn’t turning to slush. Yesterday, however, when he was standing in the wind at the top of our local toboganning hill he asked whether the temperature there was actually cold?  We assured him that yes, with the wind chill  making it -19°C it was cold!

Since he arrived he has skated on our rink in the park a few times,  and is waiting for the canal to open so he can experience a canal skate complete with “beavertail” at the end.  Yesterday we met a few friends at the hill and spent an hour or so tobogganing.  Once they found the icy patches on the fast side they did away with toboggans and mats and just slid.  Luke managed to take the record for distance on a toboggan.

Start:

Finish!  He is that little dot between the trees, which is actually quite close to the now frozen water’s edge.