Skating on Spofford Lake

2012 has been a winter of skiers’ discontent: a promising dump in late October followed by fluctuating temperatures and very little snow. Most winter seasons we would keep the skis waxed with hard wax covered with a thin layer of hope while pulling on ice skates and heading outside. But most of the year the ice has been of the rink variety with all of us adding to our life’s list of rinks as the kids criss-cross New England in search of yet another hockey game.

Last week, though, the temperature plunged and held for a few days following a thaw and the ice on Spofford lake set up beautifully. Mark went out on Saturday to play hockey with Friday night friends and on Sunday Mark and Chris and Ellinore and Sophie and Max spent a late afternoon spinning around on beautiful ice in the middle of the lake with sticks and pucks and cold fingers.

The cold fingers warmed once we laced up the skates and danced over the uneven ice out into the center of the lake where the smooth ice stretched far and wide.

And so the February afternoon unfolded out on the lake that the following week warmed and no longer invited sharp skates and skaters.