Timing is everything
Tyne Valley Winter Carnival catches a break from mild weather
Mother Nature helped the Tyne Valley Winter Carnival survive a meltdown, with an 11th hour burst of cold weather and a bit of snow layered on top.
“We were worried early in the week before the carnival,” admitted sculpture contest organizer Ashley Bishop.
But the timing of the change in conditions turned out to be perfect with a temperature drop and several centimetres of snow enhancing the activities.
“We had a moonlit snowshoe event Saturday evening that we had to delay for half an hour to re-groom the trail.”
But the event was all the better for it, she noted.
The extra layer of snow was also a bonus for Saturday’s snowmobile run and the Sunday afternoon horse-and-sleigh rides.
The change of conditions encouraged a lot of last-minute
activity, especially among the 26 contestants entered into the community snow sculpture contest who wanted to refresh
colour and form before judges passed by.
“The sculptures were above and beyond expectations,”
Bishop assessed.
Attendance reflected the heightened spirits a mid-winter carnival is designed to inspire.