Frozen Eden
(Frozen river: Carlisle, UK)
Before the weather returns entirely to mild, dreary and rain spattered*, here’s a taster of what Carlisle looked like on the day after Christmas. This is Carlisle’s main river, the Eden and at this point, it flows under a bridge in Rickerby Park. I don’t believe it has been frozen like this in my lifetime. What I find amazing is that the ice is patterned with the flow of the water underneath – the Eden can be very fast flowing – I once swam across it right at this point, but at the time it was one of the most frightening, bone chilling and possibly silly things I had ever done. I have done many more since. You can possibly see that level with the tree figures on the right of the river, there are black shapes sitting on the ice, right in the centre of the river. These are stones and rocks that passers by have launched onto the river in order to judge the ice strength. Each time one was thrown, it made a heavy skittering sound that reverberated right down the river. Extreme cold makes everything usual and known into something completely alien.
The white, snow covered building in the background is roughly where my secondary school is. In the 2007 floods here, the entire place was under several feet of water, as was this bridge I was standing on to take this photograph. The empty, flat land on the left bank are the playing fields for the school, I spent many an exhausted hour trekking round them to prepare for cross country races – only some of which I performed even reasonably respectably. Since I am pointing out the sights of Carlisle; in the top right corner there is a tall chimney protruding out from all the surrounding buildings, this is Dixon’s Chimney, once (for a very short time) the tallest in Europe. I heard it had been the tallest in the world, but I fear that someone has taken some license with that statement.
Ying has now returned to China, and I have returned to ‘real life’ after Christmastime. I have lots to do before we meet again in Singapore for Chinese New Year; my flight is booked for later this month and there is much to do in the interim. I, like other self-employed personages, have to concern myself with tax returns, sourcing new work and clearing up Christmas account debris.
* I just checked at the window. It already has become mild, dreary and rain spattered.
–Today Rosie is organising herself for 2011 in Glasgow, UK –
