ALTHOUGH the weekend’s snowfall could hardly be described as epic, there was enough of the white stuff to build a snowman.
And on Sunday morning agreeable creatures with frozen features sprung up out of the hard earth like a bumper mushroom crop.
Some were crudely formed, and others simply looked like one giant snowball placed upon another. Yet, there were an intricate few carved by a more detailed and patient hand.
These snowmen had faces that seemed eerily human and if seen in the right light, possessed an almost haunting quality of those whose existence is all too fragile and fleeting.
It was one such statue of ice and artifice that gave Chronicle reader Mr. Olaf a bit of a turn when he was walking his portly Pomeranian in Croesonen Parc on Sunday evening.
Mr. Olaf explained, “Panda and I were taking our regular constitutional around the field to walk off the roast beef and Baileys. It was twilight and there was an atmospheric mist hanging in the air.
"It sounds silly but all the snowmen that had been made during the day had taken on a sort of slightly spooky quality almost as if they were patiently waiting to come to life, like in that cartoon with the Aled Jones song.”
Mr. Olaf added, “Although the snowmen were frozen on the spot, I could tell they were upsetting Panda because when he’s distressed he rolls on his back and starts yelping like he’s having a seizure.
“Naturally , I picked my fur baby up and went to leave, but as made my way through the murk and mist I came face to face with am snowman I hadn’t spotted before.
“Never in my life have I seen something made of snow look so life-like and if I’m to be honest, slightly menacing. Panda had fainted by this point, so I quickly took a picture of this frozen fiend and got the heck out of there. I thought I’d share the photo in case anyone else suffered a similar experience.”
Unfortunately, by the time the Chronicle arrived on the scene on Monday morning to investigate, the snow had melted, the magic had evaporated and all that remained was a lump of soiled and shapeless ice.
