I have a valuable lesson to share.  Ice is “see through”!  I expect you thought that was “transparently” obvious, didn’t you?  I simply found it quite difficult to obtain effective photographs of ice sculptures, out in the street.  Excuses over, I did thoroughly enjoy myself trying, at York’s Festival of Angels.

The city of York was as festive as anywhere I’ve ever been at Christmas time, and the Festival of Angels added its own charming dimension.  Local businesses sponsor the ice sculptures, most of which are traditional Christmas images of angels and snowflakes.  The large handsome slug produced an exclamation or two, however.  The sponsor?  A certain restaurant chain that accompanies its food with “green stuff”.

Mr. Slug illustrates the fact that I should have waited a while to let the frosting on the ice sculptures melt a little.  I’ll know better next time but I was keen to see them all before too big a crowd gathered.

The crowd were mostly in good spirits as they wove in and out of the narrow streets.  The presence of an “Ice Bar”, selling delectables such as Baileys in a frozen chocolate cup, undoubtedly helped.  Mulled wine flowed sweetly too.  And there was always Earl Grey in the tea shop.

York’s a good looking city, and there’s always something to see.  I was also checking out Vintage shops, and in passing couldn’t resist a few more shots.

I would have liked a few more ice sculpture photographs, but they do say “life is for learning”, don’t they?

My apologies for not doing full justice to the amount of work that must have gone into these incredible pieces of artwork.  I hope you managed to gain just a flavour of the event, and my thanks to York for being gracious hostess to the Festival of Angels.