Onto the ice, onto the frozen ponds

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 gaps in the rushes on the far shore show how far I've come. My ambition to get to the north end of the ponds the back way is thwarted by the growth of the reeds. Over the past three years, they have completely encroached on the open water that used to stretch from here to the end. No more will I be able to go where the herons nest. Swathes of pond have in effect ceased to be pond and have become marshland.

Below: this waterway, leading west towards ulica Trombity, is still clear. Hares' tracks are visible in the snow. I couldn't see the wild boar tracks that were here in previous winters. How long before this open water is also choked with reeds.

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.

As I made my way back home I pondered on whether last night's low of -20C wouldn't become noted as the lowest temperature recorded in Warsaw this century. Many Poles who remember communist times will have lived through the 'zima stulecia' of 1978/79, which saw record snowfall in Warsaw, 70cm (27 inches) on 31 January. More recently there was the less snowy but record-breakingly cold winter of 1986/87, where the lowest-ever temperature in Warsaw was recorded, -31.0C.

This time last year:

A walk through lights-out London

This time two years ago:
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