First frozen canal of the winter

Today as I keyboard this on the 1st December it is the first day of winter - the meteorological first day of winter that is - the astronomical one is on the 21st December - the winter solstice. So it was I guess appropriate that on our walk in the valley via the Consall pools we dropped onto the canal just before Consall lock and the canal was frozen over.

I know I go on about the valley we live in but I truly love it. We walked from our cottage down into the valley along over the river over the railway and along the canal then back up Hazles wood to our cottage about 4 miles and a good work out.

In the morning we had had the pleasure of our Eldest son Tom, his wife Courtney and our grandson Teddy Wells stay over for a trip on the Santa express through the valley.