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