The cold continues
Argyle the Gargoyle: Carlisle, UK)
This guy lives in my mother’s back garden and is affectionately referred to as ‘Argyle the Gargoyle’. Aside from being aesthetically pleasing to my parents when he was installed, he also has another more practical purpose; to aerate the pond water and keep the surface of the pond unfrozen. This usually works as the movement of trickling water prevents the pond’s surface from freezing, but in the sub zero temperatures of this extreme British winter, it is hardly making a difference.
You may be able to detect, aside from his cheeky little whiskers, a small dribble of flowing water in the ice fall spewing from his mouth – a little water is surrounded completely by a Father Christmas beard-like glacier joining his chin and the pond. Somewhere under that inch thick layer of ice are several goldfish, or rather probably several little goldfish carcasses. Usually they all make it through the winter, but with this being allegedly on the way to being the coldest December in a century, I don’t hold out much hope for the little beggars. The birds are having a tough time of it too – the bird bath is frozen too, but it hasn’t prevented them from trying to drink from it and bathe in it – my mum keeps refilling it with warm water. For Argyle, however, there is no escape from icy beard syndrome. Not before New Year, anyway.
– Today Rosie is coughing and hoovering the house in Carlisle, UK –
