time as we had the frost the moon was the highest in the sky for 19 years, and for the next
19 years. This meant the moon was a bit brighter than usual, since the reflected light
came through a smaller depth of our atmosphere than usual, and also caused exceptionally
high and low tides.
Christmas day was chilly, but the next few days were really cold with snow showers but
no great depth of snow. A family group of us went to Belhus Woods Country Park
wearing wellies for the mud, but the ground was rock hard and the snow powdery, since
the temperature was below 0°C all day in the shade. However, fun and interest was
round the lakes, where ice made large sheets that extended from shallow edges across
deeper water. The children, and their parents, enjoyed walking in the shallows, crunching
the ice underfoot and then throwing pieces across the ice sheet and listening to the
wonderful singing noises as the pieces scattered at speed across the smooth surface. But
more exciting was when someone shoved a half-floating log, and the whole ice sheet
moved with the log across the water. Then it was even better at the next, and largest, ice
sheet, where a careful and sustained push with a wellie-protected leg, enabled a huge ice
sheet to be shoved across the water, leaving a gap of almost a metre against the edge
where the ice had been. The thickness of the ice was around 5mm, and the area must
have been well over 100 square metres or so, (more than 1 Om x 1 Om). So tire volume of
ice moved was in excess of 100 x 0.005, or at least half a cubic metre. This would have
weighed over 400kg, but the weight was moved easily by steady pressure on one leg. Of
course, the friction was low, with little drag on cold water with streamlined flow, ie no
turbulence, since the motion was slow. I still thought this was impressive, and I had
never seen anyone do that before, nor would I have ever thought of trying it. Later I
learned that big ships can be pushed from the side of a wharf with just one man's foot!
Isn't physics wonderful?
On 1st February I went to RHS Hyde Hall, near Rettendon, with my sister for a wander.
The gardens were wonderful, even on a dull, grey, cold afternoon, with colour everywhere:
willow and dogwood cultivars with bright yellow or red twigs, yellow Winter Aconite
out in great swathes, also various snowdrops, and, more amazing, tree-size camellias in
full bloom. Although very pretty, with rambler roses trained into strange shapes and
with gorgeous landscaping (real gardening, my sister said), I kept thinking that actually
I do prefer the wild landscapes with wild plants. Meanwhile, my husband went for a
walk by the Ingrebourne, and saw a Little Egret, the first we have seen inland.
Suddenly, on 12 February, it poured with rain for abit, and rained on and off throughout
the day. This was the start of the school half-term, just when we would have preferred
not to have it, but no-one complained; we all knew it was very much needed. Over the
half term break we had two of our grandchildren to stay, and we went on lots of walks in
Country Parks. One day, by the Ingrebourne, the children had wellies on to go walking
in the river where it was shallow. Nearby a man was fishing, and he smiled as the
6
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 50, May 2006