There have been so many photo opportunities this past two weeks, which has lead me to indulge heavily in this particular pastime but by consequence means that I've now found myself with an inordinate quantity of images to sort through and pick out the good few to share. It's great in a way but oh it's going to take a while. The good news is that I can bunker down until mid-February without needing to take another look through the viewfinder should I wish (which of course is unlikely, but at least it's an option).

These pictures were taken on New Year's day when I couldn't think what else to do but visit Sparham Pools. We anticipated it to be muddier than it turned out to be, but it was fairly monochrome thanks to the bleakest season of all, no leaves, no sun, hardly any colour to be found. There was no frost so it was a fair few minutes before we figured out what was odd. I commented that only a few parts of the lake had choppy water from the breeze, which I put down to parts of it being sheltered. After a scavenge for a stone, Chris threw it down and we promptly heard it bounce. The lake had a layer of ice! Most exciting as I've never seen a lake frozen over before (though to be fair I still haven't as this one was only frozen over in parts, though in majority).

The ice must have been pretty thick as even some stones from a height or thrown hard just bounced off. The branches frozen into the water were fascinating to me along with the branches that sat on top of the ice. It looked like a little water had washed over the ice which helped disguise it's frozen state and also made the reflections sit bolder.

I did find a few spots of colour; red berries, yellow gorse flowers, bright green moss, a few golden leaves and a fungus. We also observed a few birds standing on the ice who looked perplexed, heard some geese laughing loudly – must have just missed the joke and learned that a stone bouncing on such thick ice has the most peculiar sound; akin to a skipping rope smacking the tarmac of a playground and hearing the echo.

Have you ever seen a frozen lake?

Sophie