We grasp a few apples from a wooden box, on our way down the stairs. The snowy roads are quiet, and the snow sparkles in the low sun. We park our bikes up against the trees leaning over the frozen lake.

There are all kind of people out skating. Old and youngsters and those in between.

We can hear the children screaming when one of them gets caught on the frozen lake.
It’s a unified image of joy and desire for life.

The only light on the lake is the sun setting in the horizon and a few street lamps up upon the hill. Yet, it never gets completely dark. Later on the moon lights up the snow, and makes the evening unforgettable.

It is only when the cold overwhelms us that we find our way home after an experience of a lifetime.

This wonderful evocative painting from the Danish painter Anders Andersen-Lundby, refreshed one of many outings I had with my brother, when we were children.

When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks, on either side,
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still
The rapid line of motion; then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopp’d short, yet still the solitary Cliffs
Wheeled by me, even as if the earth had roll’d
With visible motion her diurnal round;
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watch’d
Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep.

William Wordsworth from “The Prelude”