After last year's hiatus, the cold snap that's brought Warsaw a proper winter has at last frozen over the ponds to the point where it's safe to walk, ski or indeed cycle over them. No sign of car tyre tracks, as in previous winters - nor is this likely, as Wednesday's forecast is for rain and +4C high. Between 01:45 and 07:45 this morning the lowest temperature recorded at the airport nearby was -20C.
Time then, to cautiously descend upon the ice. Below: many have gone before, but none have ventured so far out. As always, caution is the watchword. Listening for cracking below at every footstep, pausing as a plane flies over (the noise drowns out any potential warning sounds), placing one's weight evenly, steadily.
Below: the gabions that form part of the retention ponds to the west. You can see that the water level is low; usually it is above the dark line halfway up the gabions. On the horizon, the wood where the herons nest. No longer accessible on foot without a machete to cut through the dense reed beds.
Mid-Jan pictorial round-up
This time six years ago:
UK migration and the NHS
This time nine years ago:
Miserable depths of winter
This time ten years ago:
From - a short story (Part 1)
This time 11 years ago:
A month until Lent starts
This time 12 years ago:
World's biggest airliner over Poland
This time 13 years ago:
More pre-Lenten thoughts
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