Residence

The River Greta begins to calm and subside, her pace does not falter, but the raging depth has lowered and revealed the gritty banks again – and with that the resident pair of Goosanders ambling in the shallows or making their way hastily cross-current – but perhaps most enthralling of all a Dipper has taken up feeding from the gray shale on the far side of the river, just below the pencil museum car-park; at first nothing more than a vivid white patch against the mottled backdrop, it is soon easy to recognize by it’s regular bobbing motion and of course submerging into the water, like that of a grebe, to feed –

River Greta, Keswick, Cumbria 22/11/06

Blind

Ascending Falcon Crag – snow tops Skiddaw and the remaining high peaks – there are natural elements abundant in every view: water, rock, foliage, snow – from altitude Derwentwater appears to glimmer with ice at it’s fringes; the marshland at the southern end near Ludore is waterlogged, the shape changed from summer’s dry shallow curve – the air is bitter – and the river feeding the Ludore charges , coming on fast over the rocks at Watendlath, menacing, spilling gobs of foam and rushing white horses all the way – a pair of Buzzards and a Great Spotted Woodpecker, both of which I cannot see properly through my binoculars which have lost the ability to focus at long distances, I can only see double - (ghosts?) - through them which just isn’t any good – I am effectively blind beyond twenty feet – I'll have to revert to stalking again –

Falcon Crag, Cumbria 19/11/06

From A Window

A large crow – dark, silhouette 07.40 – hovering around the tops of a thinning oak – the rain driving east, low cloud shrouding Skiddaw’s crown; it almost disappears, just the low spike of Dodd visibly pale, and when it does finally all go it becomes a different place, as if the fells there never existed (reminds me of Table Mountain, SA) – there is a swatch of weak blue behind the shifting clouds, edgy, non-committal like a poor brother; when the rain comes it’s hard and sudden on the flat roof above, pummelling throughout – there are concerns the river may flood once again; she’s already moving swifter than ever, fulsome at the banks, her waters turning redder with the upland silt –

Keswick, Cumbria 17/11/06

Upland

We walk over the river nightly – the orange gashes of light there from the reflected street lamps above – the fastness now after so much rainfall, she flows higher than we’ve seen in recent months –

Piano’s and cello’s close – the workingman’s club is dark, the last building out -

Now for winter and already the winds are dominant, come crashing in all night long, the trees hoarse coughing and shaking nearby – we are all prepared, there is no other way at this latitude.

Keswick, Cumbria 12/11/06