Hampstead Heath

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Winter Wonderland

Hampstead Heath is marvellous in the summer, and even satisfying in February in a muddy sort of way. But when it snows, it is transformed into a magic wonderland, as these photos, taken in January 2001, show.

The northern slopes of Parliament Hill offer some of the finest vistas on the Heath. When it snows properly, this is the best sledging run on the Heath - indeed in London. On this occasion there was not quite enough snow - but it was magically for walkers.

Even the trees can have a dark mysterious range of dark colours in the snow.
Here we see the foothills of Parliament Hill, looking across one of the Highgate ponds towards Highgate itself on the slopes beyond. .

But if there wasn't enough snow for sledging, there was at least enough snow to indulge in a family snowball fight!

If you looked hard enough, there was just enough snow to do a little gentle sledging, in this case on the slopes in front of Kenwood House.