Eats plants
Last weekend when I took Elizabeth to highland dance I decided to cycle her in Hoss, our cargo bike, because the bike path was looking icy and I thought it would be safer. Big mistake. The bike path near our house wasn't too bad but the further we got from the city centre the icier… Continue reading The icy Deeside Way and an ant drowns in honey
Today was a good day. It has long been a dream of mine to ice skate outside in a natural environment and today I ticked that off my list. Aberdeen has had several days of sub-zero temperatures, freezing the water in lakes and ponds. We found what is really just a puddle of water on… Continue reading A dream come true
One of the ponds at Duthie Park has frozen, partly defrosted, and then refrozen over the past few days to create a strange effect where it looks like there's chunks of ice floating in the water but actually the entire surface is frozen solid. On our walk today we saw lots of children walking on… Continue reading Moonwalking on ice
Ben is working from home starting today. After the Christchurch earthquakes, he was unable to access his office at the university for several months. This time he has had advanced warning and so yesterday he didn't leave the office until after midnight because he was packing everything he needs to work from home. The earthquakes… Continue reading University staff now working from home #COVID2019
We woke up to a glorious winter wonderland this morning which was followed by a lovely sunny day. I cycled to Newton Dee like I always do. It wasn't slippery but it was hard work cycling on the snow. There was lots of resistance; a bit like cycling on the grass. I was grateful for… Continue reading Winter wonderland
There are big chunks of ice on the River Dee today. I took pics. It's very pretty.
I've just run my very first campaign as the new Campaigns and Communications Secretary of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum. The campaign was to raise money for the purchase of two books on Designing for Cycle Traffic for the Aberdeen City Council and the Aberdeenshire Council. If you check our Go Fund Me page we raised… Continue reading Designing for Cycle Traffic
The River Dee is looking particularly beautiful today. I've never seen it with so much ice, not this close to the harbour. Much of Scotland has been blanketed in snow over the past week except for Aberdeenshire. We've had crisp, dry, cold, but sunny days. If I can't have snow then my second choice is… Continue reading The mighty River Dee
After a very mild Christmas the temperature has suddenly plunged. There were a few flakes of snow today and the pond at Duthie park is starting to freeze over. It's funny how enthralled the kids are by a bit of ice. It won't be cold enough to freeze the River Dee. I took this photo… Continue reading An almost frozen pond at Duthie Park
Yesterday there was lots of snow in Aberdeen and the Martin household was jumping with joy! It's very pretty when it snows. There was much excitement in the school playground with snowballs flying in all directions. Somehow I managed to avoid getting hit. Today was a different story. It rained on the snow yesterday afternoon… Continue reading Snow in Aberdeen!
We had our first frost last week and there's another heavy frost this morning. I went outside to take some photographs. It's very pretty. I used to miss frosty mornings like this when we lived in Auckland. Here are my cyclamen surrounded by frozen leaves. Can you see the pink flowers? Despite the frost in… Continue reading Frozen
A shop in Aviemore was selling chains for shoes to increase the friction on icy pavements. We bought a couple of pairs and they're fantastic. Why doesn't everyone have these? They slip onto the soles of your shoes and make a huge difference. No more slipping over for me. Here's another must-have product: Trotify. I'm going… Continue reading Chains for shoes and Trotify
I'm Busby the Bakfiets, Rachel's bicycle. It was very cold last night and everything froze, including me: My mistress tried to ride me this morning but couldn't. First she tried to open the cover to let the two wriggly creatures inside but the cover was frozen shut. Eventually she got it open but the lock was… Continue reading A guest post from Busby the bike
It snowed a bit late last night and then today the temperature didn't go above 1°C so the snow froze on the roads and pavements creating a a bit of an ice-skating rink. I wasn't sure whether to cycle the kids to school but I did and it was absolutely fine. In fact, I think… Continue reading Snow and ice
It's getting close to the shortest day of the year now and according to BBC weather, sunrise is at 8:36am and sunset at 3:26pm in Aberdeen. However it's light at both of these times, I guess because we get the sunlight before the sun appears on the horizon and also after it disappears. The temperature range… Continue reading Enchantment on a bicycle
The Festival of Angels was running in York this weekend and we went to have a look today. There were sculptures made of ice, outdoor entertainment and some fake snow. I'm still waiting for some real snow but the fake stuff was enough to get three Australians very excited. The city centre seems to be… Continue reading Festival of angels
Yesterday I took the children to the snow and the beach on the same day. There are few places in the world where you can do this and I don't count Auckland as one of them because the snow was fake snow at Snow Planet. Christchurch is just such a place though. Although the beach… Continue reading Where are the penguins?
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