Today it has been another day playing in the snow!!
Being a Saturday, Honey and I had a long lie, before heading out on our morning walk at 9.30am.
It was another cold day, but less sunshine.
Not long into our walk I spotted a man skating on the frozen canal!
I later saw him passing Discovery and had a chat with him, he had gone about 3 miles up the canal and back, saying the canal was frozen to Ratho, so could have gone a lot further.
He also said he had to get off the canal at the bridges, as the ice was thinner.
Being a curious dog, as soon as Honey had spotted the man, she was trying to walk on the canal too. She has been tentatively testing the canal for the last couple of days, but always not going for it. She seems pretty sensible like that!
Here’s the guy on the ice –
And a YouTube video I made too.
It wasn’t long until Honey was also on the frozen canal and then there was no stopping her!
On the way back to Discovery, she discovered some slices of pizza that I guess had been thrown for the birds – now I had no chance of getting her off the ice!
Eventually, I decided I would have to venture on the frozen canal too – heading down the sloppy embankment towards the canal, it was not frozen and my feet got soaking wet.
But eventually, after lots of calling Honey came back and she went on the lead for the rest of the walk.
Back at Discovery it was time to do some boat chores – filling Honey’s food up (her 14kg bag of food lives in the shed), getting some more coal and filling the water tank up on Discovery. The hose had been in the Facilities Block over night to thaw out.
It took a while to navigate round all the wood to get to the pipe!!
I am getting more confident doing the water, whilst it was filling up, I lit the fire and cooked some bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. But the water filled up quicker than I anticipated, so when I went to check half way through cooking breakfast I noticed the water was over flowing into the bow! Not to worry – there’s a hole in the corner exactly for this reason!
I must remember, if I fill the water up every two weeks it takes 25 about minutes.
Next, I heard from Danny, asking if I wanted to go for a walk on Arthur’s Seat this afternoon. I was looking forward to a leisurely afternoon canal-side, but jumped at the chance to go for a walk with Honey with someone else!! Despite, trying to leave amble time to meet him, I left later than anticipated so had to jog all the way there not to be late! A nice 3km run 🙂
The Meadows was sooo busy!!
As we walked into Arthur’s Seat, we saw a broken plastic sledge in the bin, deciding to pick it up and have a go on it.
It worked – and spent a lot of our walk sledging 🙂
First we tried a gentle slope – Danny went first, then I tried a couple of times.
When I sledge, Honey runs alongside me, thinking it’s a game – barking and trying to lick my face 🙂
Then we headed to the super steep slope, the other side of the hill. Struggling to get up the path as it was so icy.
We spotted a Robin hoping around nearby, I broke up some of Honey’s biscuits and fed it to the Robin 🙂
We later saw a Robin on our walk, wondering if it was the same one, I gave it more biscuits 🙂
The super steep slope, seemed very icy with lots of bumps, so we decided to give it a miss!
We walked along the road, (anti-clockwise) looking for another slope to sledge on. The hill was super busy, with sledgers, skiers, snowboarders and walkers – it reminded me of when skiing abroad – just so many people!
Honey ran off towards Otter Loch (see Day 320 for why I call it this), by the time I reached her, she was on the ice there too (blog cover photo)!
People were walking on the ice on that loch too, even though there was a sign saying ‘Thin Ice’. Luckily, no Pizza here!
A man said he had been walking on Arthur’s Seat for 10 years and had never seen this loch frozen before!
We found a quiet, but perfect slope to sledge on. Danny didn’t fancy going sledging again, so just watched and took some photos and a video.
This was a lot faster and exhilarating! Having to roll off the sledge at the end to stop going onto the road. After the first time, I got such a big adrenaline rush, I was going again and again!
I was going too fast on this slope for Honey to run alongside me all the way – but she had great fun, chasing behind me!!
On the last run, Danny did a video. It wasn’t such a good one, as I fell off half way down 🙁
You can see Honey chasing after me, before I tumble off. Also a lady is calling for a her dog to get out the way – I was oblivious to this, until I watched the video! The dog, just gets out the way!!!
Then we started heading back and I noticed I was not wearing my scarf anymore. Danny suggested to check the photos, which we did and worked out when I was no longer wearing it. We found it easily on the last slope we had been on 🙂
As we headed homeward, it started snowing again!!!
Danny gave me and Honey a lift back to Discovery.
After seeing Helen (my neighbour) had ventured onto the frozen canal, without any problems, I decided to walk on it too.
Recalling my wet feet this morning, I concluded that walking straight onto the canal from Discovery would be easier.
I tentatively, held onto her, just to make sure the ice wasn’t going to crack.
It was fine, but felt very weird being on the canal looking at Discovery from the water side.
Readers Corner
One comment today.
Robin
Robin posted a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 326) saying:
“Wood wood ice fire 
“.
Thanks Robin – that pretty much summaries the blog in four words !!!
It Made Me Smile
Maverick sent me this photo saying it made her smile 🙂
Ha! It’s great – thanks for sharing 🙂
As I come to the end of this blog, I’ve had such a fun day! Honey the Dog has been fast asleep most the evening, all that exercise and excitement, has tired her out! I am feeling tired today too – but more of a bodily tiredness!
I was reflecting on how great sledging is – anyone can do it, from a young age to older – it’s so much fun and you can get a massive adrenalin rush!!!
I kept the sledge, now bonded with it – so if anyone wants to go sledging tomorrow, let me know!!!
Today it has been cloudy most of the day, with baltic temperatures! No rain, a little bit of snow, it was snowing again this evening. But it seems like the cold snap is coming to an end, tomorrow the temperature is forecast to +4 and Monday up to +7!!! From -6 to +7 it’s going to feel super warm!! I wonder if this is the end of the colder weather or if we will have more snow and a frozen canal, before the winter is over? I hope so!!!
Hope you’ve had a Super Saturday 🙂
Jim & Honey the Dog xx
Jill Richardson
I am envious of the sledging. Looks amazing. So want to do that! I didn’t include my favoritee pics so will know, Sorry