Winter Fun?!

We are still in the icy grip of Winter but today it was sunny and crisp, a light dusting of snow and we had a winter wonderland. The girls had yesterday and today off school due to the weather conditions so I took them on a tour of some of our local land marks looking totally different in their snow white coat.On the way out to collect the girls this morning I stopped at the Blarney walk to take some photos.
A robin hopped over to me while I was snapping, he may have thought I was going to stay for a picnic and maybe some crumbs would fall his way!
This is not really a lake as such, the Blarney walk is around a bogland area which is also a bird sanctuary. There are lots of rushes etc growing through the water, not visible today just frozen water glistening in the cold sunshine.
Furze incognito under its blanket of white.
The Lough was frozen over,this is a big bird sanctuary on the other side of the city. The last time it froze for weeks was back in 1963 when I was a child and we spent days slipping and sliding around its frozen surface.
The girls finding their feet
Only a small area of water had not frozen over so the swans and ducks were discommoded and relegated to the grass surrounds.
Some of these swans could be quite puzzled by this turn of events, they may be getting their first glimpse of ice!
Some of the many species of duck which inhabit the Lough
Ducks and wild fowl clustered around the patch of remaining water.
Remember the metal dinosaur a few weeks ago when it was surrounded by raging flood water.
This is some of the flood waters which have not drained away yet and froze over in the present cold snap.This is safer as the grass is only 8-10 inches underneath.
A reminder of the floods of November is the tree trunk still stuck in the river.
Reflections of serenity, it is hard to imagine this is the same river which thundered through our city a few weeks ago causing such damage and hardship to the inhabitants.
Something not seen in Cork too often.... maybe never before or ever again, an ice hockey game getting started on the Lee fields!It puzzles me how the sticks, skates etc just 'happened' to be handy?!There is a huge student population around this side of the city, these could be the same students who were out body boarding in the wee small hours of the morning in the floods on the city streets?
My sister has lots more pics and a video of the Lough over on her blog Tales from a garden