Ground Angels

Officially Autumn – the Swallows and the Martins will be gone soon – as will the Ospreys here on Bassenthwaite Lake – I’ve seen two both last evening and this, and seemingly they have not moved from their respective perches, their found places, in 24 hours up in the conifers on the slopes beneath Ladies Table –

there’s more within this evening’s ramble, something sweet in the air on the stretch of path leading to the public hide at the south end of the lake – may just be the turning of the dense foliage and wet earth – it’s been a day of torrential rain – the chase up at Spring End tumbles and rages all day; full of dark, reddish water come down from the hills, it's noise carrying across the fields –

I am saying farewell and my eyes, of course, are re-opened by the forthcoming knowledge of my leaving – the features of the land take on a regular glow, a new familiarity –

Earlier, out in the rain, trimming back the dense holly hedge at Green Gables where the view over Derwentwater is one of the better ones, and Cat Bells opposite is a regular chameleon – each time I turn back to look, the peak and surrounding hills have changed character – first nothing more than a dark, hollow shade through the rain; then a kind of crown-topped jewel appears in moving shafts of light and where broken cloud briefly illuminates one particular edge; then the whole is gone beneath another laden mist before parting solely at the crest where it turns away westward and reveals a common stretch of lime green upland and scattered rock – incessant change –

and, sheltering beneath a coniferous overhang, a playful, child-like feeling sits with me; a kind of outward bound tickle of adventure and freedom with the wilderness so close and the rain just there at my fingertips yet I’m dry as a bone (almost) thanks to my woody friend here – and in the tree just above of course a Robin tick-ticks along in time, dipping his head with each call –

now, dusk – the serenity of Bassenthwaite: the reed patches blown, Mute Swans at their edge and a gang of Cormorants charging on in a low line flying over the surface before ascending and making a large arc south toward Derwentwater for the night –

two Swallows ululating inches above the water –

and opposite, rising, Dodd becomes a copper marker for the last few moments of sunset – a cloud cap coloured orange with reflected light – great, illuminated shards of cloud blown east in an acute push, and some caught in the same orange but seemingly outsourced from other points so that the sun appears to be in many places at once – these peaks and their respective ‘halos’ are the ground angels momentarily able to leave the earth –

Bassenthwaite Lake, Cumbria 1/9/06