At last - wintry gorgeousness comes to Jeziorki

Sunshine since dawn, -17C outside; time then for a walk. On ice - as Jeziorki's ponds have frozen solid. Below: a dog steps out gingerly onto the ice. Is it safe? Just look at the 150-pound human. Yes, it's safe. Safe, indeed, for cyclists, ice-hockey players, ice-hole anglers, workers carrying chainsaws, and dozens of locals taking a stroll. This is the seventh consecutive day on which the temperature was below -5C, so the ice is rock hard.

Below: looking south along the shore of the main retention pond. Substitute snow for white sand in your imagination, and the scene could begin to look quite tropical.

Indeed - with eyes half closed, you could almost visualise the scene below as being a palm-fringed island in the South Pacific rather than the western shore of the retention pond.

Since the workmen returned to the retention pond project, some new canals have been dug through the wetlands to link the main pond to smaller ones adjacent to the northern end of ul. Trombity. Earth-movers have been crawling though the ice and the mud beneath, clearing channels for flood-waters to flow more easily between the reservoirs. Now it's iced over, I can investigate the new configuration. Below: a new opening onto the swan pond by ul. Trombity.

Below: path in the ice left by a digger making its way to deepen and widen the ponds by ul. Trombity. Chunks of broken ice visible in the digger's wake, frozen solid once again in subsequent days.

Below: until Hurricane Xaver (Orkan Ksawery) hit Jeziorki, there was a row of 16 poplars standing here; today there are ten left. The large dead white tree towards the end of ul. Trombity was another victim of the strong winds.

Two of the fallen poplars crashed onto an abandoned farm building. This looks like an uncompleted investment from the communist times. No harm done then.

Below: closer to home, the path between ul. Dumki and ul. Trombity. Still closed off at the Trombity end; no sign of any work done here since the autumn of 2012.

I walked some 4km today, most of that on ice, which was fun.

This time last year:
Warsaw - the more it snows

This time two years ago:
Get orf my lairnd!

This time three years ago:
A Dream Too Far - short story

This time four years ago:
Compositions in white, blue and gold

This time five years ago:
Dobra and the road

This time six years ago:
Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing in bad weather