Sometimes you have to take your walks where you can get them: staying in town so I can get to work, covered miles into and around the city centre this afternoon. Snowing steadily, treacherous pavements, glum faces, a net full of satsumas in the Co-op with a free "Christmas Stress Ball" included (pur-leeeeease!), Christmas coming at you from all sides, "offer MUST end Sunday" (why?)and perhaps most bizarrely of all, a girl crouched in the front of a shop window painstakingly sticking polysterene snow onto it as the real stuff floated down outside.
Still, at least some kids were enjoying themselves throwing snowballs and a man in a kilt stood playing the bagpipes as the snow settled on his sporran, so it wasn`t all doom and gloom.
And why do so many people stand and shiver at a bus stop for hours, waiting for a bus that will then be gridlocked in traffic jams rather than set off walking?
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Sunday 28 November 2010
Sunday 28.11.2010
Another day, another blizzard. Everyone`s parked at the bottom of the hill tonight in preparation for more snow and increasing wind in the next 24 hours.
Meanwhile it took me an hour and three quarters to trudge through knee deep snow a distance that usually takes me about 20 minutes.
Came back on the road, hard packed and slippery but not quite so hard on the legs and lungs. Winter wonderland and it`s still November.
As long as Frank Turner gets to Aberdeen on Wednesday all will be well.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Thursday 25.11.2010
At work all week so have to take my chances where I can. Today it was round the ring road again, dog and I in the warm sunshine and slush and snow. Yup, the year`s ending like it started - stunning snowscapes, skidding cars, jack-knifing lorries, blizzards, ice....hey ho, what larks, Pip.
And a slightly more convincing start from our cricketers would be nice.
And a slightly more convincing start from our cricketers would be nice.
Thursday 18 November 2010
Thursday 18.11.2010
The thing is, you don`t necessarily have to be out in the wilds with a strong pair of boots strapped on to enjoy a good walk. Dog had to come to work with me today and at lunchtime we walked up into town and then took a detour through a housing estate, nosey-ing (sp?) into people`s gardens and back along the ring road with a good view of Bennachie in the distance and a nippy wind keeping us trotting along at a brisk pace.
And the afternoon went a lot better for it.
Yesterday I was out in the wilds, or at least the woods, with the strong pair of boots on and against all the odds it was one of the best walks I`ve had lately. After a morning spent with one of those lie-very-still-under-a-blanket-until-it-goes-away kind of headaches I crawled out to peer at a grey,very windy and postively inhospitable looking day.
The trick at this point is to tell yourself you can always turn round and come back.....so I donned woolly hat and jumper - and the boots - and once we got going it was, well, fantastic.
The clouds were grey alright but above them were shades of blue and pink and coral. The trees were tossing and thrashing about, the wind in them sounding like the roughest of seas. The pylons too were singing their own particular song and then the light began to fade and simultaneously become strangely translucent.
The night before I`d heard someone describing why they liked living in Manchester despite - or rather because of - the weather. They ended up using the word `vital`. And that`s what it was all about yesterday: vitality, exhilaration...in fact let`s hit the Thesaurus:
"a rush, animation, cheerfulness, delight, elation, electrification, elevation, enlivenment, euphoria, exaltation, excitation, firing, gaiety, galvanization, gladness, gleefulness, head rush, high spirits, hilarity, inspiration, invigoration, joy, joyfulness, liveliness, mirth, quickening, sprightliness, stimulation, uplift, vitalization, vivacity, vivification "
Stand at a window in a warm house and look out at that sort of weather and you`d not think it but get out in amongst it and, as some wise person once said, "At least you know you`re alive."
And the afternoon went a lot better for it.
Yesterday I was out in the wilds, or at least the woods, with the strong pair of boots on and against all the odds it was one of the best walks I`ve had lately. After a morning spent with one of those lie-very-still-under-a-blanket-until-it-goes-away kind of headaches I crawled out to peer at a grey,very windy and postively inhospitable looking day.
The trick at this point is to tell yourself you can always turn round and come back.....so I donned woolly hat and jumper - and the boots - and once we got going it was, well, fantastic.
The clouds were grey alright but above them were shades of blue and pink and coral. The trees were tossing and thrashing about, the wind in them sounding like the roughest of seas. The pylons too were singing their own particular song and then the light began to fade and simultaneously become strangely translucent.
The night before I`d heard someone describing why they liked living in Manchester despite - or rather because of - the weather. They ended up using the word `vital`. And that`s what it was all about yesterday: vitality, exhilaration...in fact let`s hit the Thesaurus:
"a rush, animation, cheerfulness, delight, elation, electrification, elevation, enlivenment, euphoria, exaltation, excitation, firing, gaiety, galvanization, gladness, gleefulness, head rush, high spirits, hilarity, inspiration, invigoration, joy, joyfulness, liveliness, mirth, quickening, sprightliness, stimulation, uplift, vitalization, vivacity, vivification "
Stand at a window in a warm house and look out at that sort of weather and you`d not think it but get out in amongst it and, as some wise person once said, "At least you know you`re alive."
Monday 15 November 2010
Monday 15.11.2010
Chrystal clear sky, champagne air - or should that be Cava in this Age of Austerity...cue song:
"this is the dawning of the age of austerity........"
Anyway - the hard overnight frost lingered in the shade but the sun was warm as we walked the woods at lunchtime.
The sky was full of geese: I know they`re supposed to fly south for the winter but these were heading in all directions.
On top of that the clear skies at night mean the waxing moon and stars make for beautiful drives home from work.
A friend has left her Australian home to spend a couple of months in India but I wouldn`t swap her on days - and nights - like these, much as I like the sound of her Christmas lunch:
"curry and rice followed by gulab jamun, washed down with tender coconut juice"
Been meaning to recommend Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monkton Kidd. Excellent read (and not a bad film either).
"this is the dawning of the age of austerity........"
Anyway - the hard overnight frost lingered in the shade but the sun was warm as we walked the woods at lunchtime.
The sky was full of geese: I know they`re supposed to fly south for the winter but these were heading in all directions.
On top of that the clear skies at night mean the waxing moon and stars make for beautiful drives home from work.
A friend has left her Australian home to spend a couple of months in India but I wouldn`t swap her on days - and nights - like these, much as I like the sound of her Christmas lunch:
"curry and rice followed by gulab jamun, washed down with tender coconut juice"
Been meaning to recommend Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monkton Kidd. Excellent read (and not a bad film either).
Wednesday 10 November 2010
Wednesday 10.11.2010
How interesting. Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor of The Independent, wrote an evocative piece about Autumn -
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/autumn-sad-season-of-sensations-2126714.html
but much as I admire his descriptive powers and recognise his "sights,sounds and smells of fall" I couldn`t disagree more with his conclusion that its attraction is the melancholy mood it invokes.
Melancholy? It couldn`t have been less so this afternoon as dog and I spent a good hour and a half in the woods on the most glorious sharp autumn afternoon.
The whole point surely is that it`s all about regeneration: shutting up shop and waiting out the winter until it`s time to start again. (And, incidentally, see Frankiesoup`s post for Nov. 3rd...great minds).
Or it could simply be that Mr. McCarthy is a melancholy soul and autumn reminds me of pristine unsullied exercise books,fresh beginnings and endless possibilities.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/autumn-sad-season-of-sensations-2126714.html
but much as I admire his descriptive powers and recognise his "sights,sounds and smells of fall" I couldn`t disagree more with his conclusion that its attraction is the melancholy mood it invokes.
Melancholy? It couldn`t have been less so this afternoon as dog and I spent a good hour and a half in the woods on the most glorious sharp autumn afternoon.
The whole point surely is that it`s all about regeneration: shutting up shop and waiting out the winter until it`s time to start again. (And, incidentally, see Frankiesoup`s post for Nov. 3rd...great minds).
Or it could simply be that Mr. McCarthy is a melancholy soul and autumn reminds me of pristine unsullied exercise books,fresh beginnings and endless possibilities.
Sunday 7 November 2010
Sunday 7.11.2010
Blowing up a real hooley out there now but this morning on Mither Tap it was glorious: a nippy little breeze on the top but down in the woods quiet and sunny.
On the way down picked up three plastic water bottles, one of which had been carefully wedged in a seat - why?!
And anyway, why are we so obsessed with this water drinking thing? Thank you Deborah Ross for bringing a bit of sanity to the subject.......
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-water-myth-debunking-the-dilution-solution-2121712.html
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Wednesday 3.11.2010
Exuberance: plenty of that in the air today. Another clear bright autumn afternoon, the shadows lengthening early with the clocks having gone back and the sun creeping round the edges of the sky instead of over it. Skeins of geese overhead (why skeins? the v-shaped formation doesn`t look a bit like skeins of wool)and a golden glow over everything. Parky though - suddenly summer really is long past and there`s a whiff of winter on the wind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
