On the Ice

Today we drove out to a rural property at the invitation of one of Jane’s colleagues (Peter). The deal is simple. The house is warm, containing tea, coffee and assorted cakes and biscuits. Outside is clear and frosty with snowy grounds to stomp or ski about, and an open air skating ring.

For myself, it was a stunning success. By which I mean I managed to poddle around the ring several times without once introducing my backside to the ice. By way of context, I can count the number of times I have been ice skating one hand. What is more, the last time I was on the ice would have been in my early/mid teens. I fully expected to hit the ice several times, but was very happy to be wrong.

Tom also had a tremendous time. We got him a pair of ‘Block skates’ to start with. They are skates with twin parallel blades to provide extra stability, that simply strap onto his normal winter boots. Peter’s pond comes fully equipped with a hockey goal net and several sticks, including one that is pee-wee size. Tom shuffled his way down the ice towards the net, receiving and replying to the several passes of the puck until it has his turn take ½ dozen shot at Peter’s very poorly defended goal. Annoyingly, I did not know we had brought the camera, so no pics were taken until later in the day.

Jane took her skates out for a tentative test run, but I think she had a far better time of it in her snowshoes.






Lillian had rather a less terrific day, much of which looked like this.




And finally, here is a picture of Jane showing Tom the proper way to hold a shotgun, or something.