We love a challenge. So when Coquest Island threw down the gauntlet to create something better than their snow puffin, we brought together a crack team of snow crafters and set out for the reserve early one morning.
Using inventiveness that Blue Peter would've been proud of, we packed up a gannet making kit consisiting of cereal box cardboard for eyes, orange squash to tint the snow on its head, wool for its black beak lines and a detailed scale drawing (so we wouldn't build a kittiwake by mistake) and threw ourselves into action.
But as we dug into the snow, our enthusiasm took a dive.
No matter how much we patted and packed it, it just wouldn't compact. We had been sent the wrong kind of snow for building. This was dry powder. We needed sticky stuff.
Disappointed, we trudged back but then nature stepped in and lifted our mood. By way of consolation, we saw a solitary hare sweeping across the snow-covered landscape. Amazing.
More snow is forecast...we're hoping for the right kind.
The site for our proposed work of art.
All we needed to make a sensational snow gannet.
Confounded by the wrong kind of snow.