A mum makes incredible snow sculptures in her garden – including Nessie.
Kate Witte (45), gets creative whenever it snows at her home with designs like Loch Ness’s most famous residentas well as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and even Darth Vader.
She recently spent four hours creating the 5 1/2ft head of the Star Wars villain, which sat in the front garden of her home in Blackburn, West Lothian during January’s Arctic blast.
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The tradition began when her teenagers were young, after the family built a gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from snow.
“I did the Stay Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters a few years ago – the kids had been off school for a snow day, and I wanted to do something to keep them occupied,” Kate said.
“The size got a bit out of control, and it ended up on the local Facebook page! They all had good fun doing it.
“With this latest batch of snow, it was a decision to make a snowman – but I wanted to do something a bit different!
“I looked online for ideas that wouldn’t be too difficult and tried to make my creation.”
Kate’s snow sculptures can take between three and six hours, and previous designs include Nessie, Yoda, and a gigantic skull.
“I get the snow shovel and mound up as much snow as I can – it’s quite hard to get the height on it,” Kate said.
“A couple of neighbours have helped to shovel snow into the garden as well.
-“Once it’s in a big mound, I start carving from the top down so the snow doesn’t fall on what I’ve already done.
“It does take quite a while – the marshmallow man took all day. Darth Vader took four hours, and the Nessie that I did took three hours.
“It’s quite a workout as well – I even put it on Strava to see how much effort it took!
“I was really pleased with the Darth Vader, because I didn’t know how it would turn out – it was quite ambitious!”
Visitors from the local area have even stopped by to take pictures of the sculpture – and Kate says neighbours enjoyed a guessing game while she was carving it.
“Because of where it is, out the front, a lot of people have come to see it and it’s made a lot of people smile,” she said.
“We’ve had people come to see it and take photos.
“There’s a couple of people who tried to monitor the progress and see what was taking shape. My neighbour thought it was Tutankhamun at first!
“Luckily, the people across from me are Star Wars fans!”
As the snowy weather threatens to continue, Kate admitted she’s feeling the pressure to impress with her next design – but says she’s received some interesting ideas.
“I’ve had some suggestions from friends of mine – including a golden eagle and Sagrada Familia, which will not be happening, but I’m open to suggestions!”
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