Category Archives: Kerry farm Ice Rink

Farewell, Kerry Farm Ice Rink

It’s the beginning of March, and the feel of spring is in the air.

Secret Wish: I am holding out for a blizzard or two, as we need  more moisture in Southeastern Saskatchewan.

Just before we move into spring, I will share these photos of the grasses, leaves of Grandmother Willow and that noxious weed, Baby’s Breath, as they are found in around the Kerry Farm Ice Rink, and inside the ice of some lanterns (now melted). I love them all. I love how their forms are expressed in ice, that temporal art form.

Canary Reed Grass in ice lantern

Canary Reed Grass

Although canary reed grass is an invasive species, I love her form, especially in winter against the whites and blue and purple shades of the snow.

Willow leaves on ice


Willow leaves in ice. Lantern mold is an ice cream pail.

Willow leaves in ice lantern, bottom view

Grandmother willow

Baby’s Breath in ice and growing nearby in snow

WinterSoul#2 – Ice Lanterns

 

“And guess what? Marina’s god mother has given her a star ice lantern mold. The perfect thing! How could she have known? We create our first ice lantern. It is magical. It is a pillar shaped star with a hollow inside it for a candle. We take our brand new ice lantern down to the rink. Once lit, the softest light shines from within the ice. And so begins the creation of ice lanterns. We are old hats at making coloured frozen blocks for snow forts using water and food colouring. Each day we make a new coloured lantern. Their soft light during twilight is magical. They are lit up like miniature igloos in a twilight world. We begin to skate less during the day and more in early morning and around sunset and after.” from my Journal of an Ice Rink, 2007

Looking back at this journal entry from 12 years ago, I am reminded how difficult (nay, impossible) it is to keep them lit if there is any breeze at all. A day without wind in Saskatchewan is a rare gift. I wonder if the winter of 2007-8 was a relatively calm one? In the years since, I have a list of people who I text if it is going to be an “ice lantern evening” (in other words, there is no wind), because I don’t really know for sure until the sun starts to set. Sometimes 2 people come, and on one memorable occasion 20 or 30 came. Amazingly, no one got hurt , many of us skating in wonder as the lanterns lit the ice. I was in total amazement at the hockey players amongst us, mostly young, who were zipping around like hummingbirds on steroids, having a ball!!

The next entries are from the same journal that starts this blog post. And while the sun rises I describe were often pale salmons and pinks and golds, the limitations of my phone camera are such that it can’t catch the exact light when the lanterns are lit. Perhaps between the writing and the photos, you can get  a bit of the feeling of how it is to skate during these magic hours.

My favourite skates have been around dawn and dusk. In the morning, when the sky is still dark and gradually lightens, the sunrise quite visible from the dugout, reflecting off the steel barn, fingers of light touching the rink.  The wonder of skating at this time is that the morning beauty remains planted in my soul for the whole day.

This morning – ALMOST no wind, some stars still out, a luminous half moon, bright shadows, hoar frost. I light the star lanterns. They are so lovely and simple (water, food colouring, a candle). They add to but do not blind the nightlight. Dark prevails or a sort of twilight dark. How I love it! A simple peace fills me, a quiet joy. I feel right with the world. After awhile, I sit quietly, just breathing, in out, joining heart and head, puffs of breath joining the morning air. The gift of being right here, right now fills me. I feel love all around. I skate again, feeling so connected to the ice, the bleached dry grass in snow, the snow drifts, the sky, feeling my body move, my soul expand, my spirit flying across the ice. A holy place, a holy time. Indeed.

In memory the ice rink has become a string of dawns and dusks, a necklace really, each soft dawn and dusk like an opal. Around sunrise, this is the hymn that comes to mind.

Bright morning stars are a’rising

Bright morning stars are a’rising

Bright morning stars are a’rising

Day is a breaking in my soul (Traditional/Appalachian)

Journal of an Ice Rink, 2007

Ice lantern molds can be ordered from Lee Valley Tools.