Winter Photos

This week I’m sharing a selection of wintery photos I took during the really cold week back in December. The first five were taken at Belton House, whilst the rest were at Peterborough Rowing Lake.

[Image ID] A photo across the garden to the back of Belton House. There is a glimpse, through some trees, of sunshine reflecting in windows in the roof which is in contrast to the frosty white roof and garden. [description end]

This photo was taken at the far end of the gardens looking towards the back of the house. I liked the way the winter sunset was just slightly visible between the trees on the right side of the house.

 [Image ID] A frosty photo across the garden, at Belton House, towards the Orangery and the church. [description end]

This was the view facing the other way, albeit from the opposite side of the fountain. I liked how the light from the setting sun had fallen on the Orangery (long building in the mid ground) and local church.

[Image ID] A photo of a sunlit front of Belton House. A wide flight of stone steps goes up to a dark door, and there is a cupola with arched windows on the roof. Trees frame the photo either side. [description end]

This view is of the front of the house, the sun illuminated it in a beautiful warm glow that afternoon.

[Image ID] A photo across the parkland at Belton House. [description end]

I thought the strings of lights, which were set up across the parkland in front of the house, made a nice composition with the large tree silhouette.

[Image ID] A photo of the setting sun, through some trees, viewed from the road through the Belton estate. [description end]

This photo was taken walking towards the car park, there was a convenient gap in the trees which nicely framed the setting sun.

 [Image ID] A photo across the frozen rowing lake at Thorpe Meadows. There are lots of different sized and shaped pieces of ice sitting on the frozen surface. [description end]

This is the first photo from Peterborough Rowing Lake. Almost the entire lake was frozen on this day thanks to the extended cold snap.

[Image ID] Swans and seagulls enjoying the one patch of the rowing lake that wasn’t frozen. [description end]

There was one section of the lake which had melted, and all of the local birdlife had congregated to swim in it.

[Image ID] A view through some reeds to where a group of swans are at the edge of where the open water meets the frozen part of the rowing lake. [description end]

The most intriguing thing about the patch of melted ice, was that not all of it was as melted as it first appeared. Towards the left of the photo, a group of swans can be seen standing on some ice which appears the same colour as the surrounding water, but is clearly still solid.

[Image ID] Frozen bird footprints in the ice on the rowing lake. [description end]

I took this photo to show how bird footprints could be seen slightly indented all over the ice. There weren’t many birds walking on the ice when I was there, but given all the footprints there had been a lot of bird traffic at some point.

[Image ID] A view across the frozen rowing lake to where someone was feeding some swans and lots of gulls were flying around. [description end]

A few people were feeding the birds further down the path, and the attraction of the food created an interesting swarm of white as they flew in from around the rowing lake.

 [Image ID] A photo of the gradation from fully frozen, through partially thawed with large pieces of ice to bits of water. [description end]

The various states of freeze in this ice in a nearby stream was very different to the solid covering on the rowing lake itself.

[Image ID] In this photo there is a rim of ice round the edge, which is distinct from the rest of the ice. [description end]

I took this photo because of the peculiar banding of the ice around the edges of this pool. I’d never seen Ice form like that before.

Photography ©Dragonsflyatsunset 2023, all rights reserved.

 [Image ID] [description end]