The floods, pools and puddles in the fields have frozen, but they are not solid. The ground beneath thaws during the day, allowing the water beneath the ice to drain away and leaving a suspended skin of crunchy tinkling ice that shatters as you try to walk across it. This has fooled rescue dog Tia, who has a favourite pastime of running through shallow water, kicking up spray as she twists and turns. Over the last couple of days she has galloped enthusiastically across the field to run through the pools that she has spotted, with the sky reflected in the smooth surface. She has jumped into the water, only to be surprised by a dry tinkling noise rather than the watery splashing, and she stops in her tracks dabbing at the surface with her paw. Clearly disappointed with the reaction of this puddle, she spots another, and races across the frosty grass towards what is hopefully a better behaved puddle, only to find the same reaction from this other uncooperative aqueous body, and she sulkily returns to me, spending the rest of the walk sniffing hedgerows, which at least are in the same state as she left them a just few days ago.
Yesterday we took a route around the wildlife ponds, where the river had overflowed for long enough to flood the track, and the water froze solid. Despite engaging 4-paw drive Tia did a couple of ungainly slides, and I had to guide her onto the adjacent frozen mud where she found traction much easier.
