Thursday 8 January 2009

An Icy Calm.



Golly, don't think I have blogged quite so much for a long time. I feel so inspired by the wintry weather at the moment which is not generally my way. Something about the light calls me out of my warm house to search out the effects the icy days have wrought on the landscape. A cup of tea and some cake - yes, we went with the coffee and walnut in the end - sets me up before I head into the freezing early morning. Not much cake left is there?



The day is strange, the sun taking a break behind the leaden clouds and leaving a steely glow in its wake. Lichen on the old pear tree is bleached of all colour, the gnarled branches providing a wonderfully textured backdrop for the swirls of softest green.



Lady Isabella is already testing my patience today even though she has only been awake a short while. This escape into the quiet of the garden is soothing, but I can hear her lusty lungs bellowing at her elder sister and know I must return to calm her down. On seeing me enter the kitchen she throws herself on the floor in a display of despair worthy of an Academy Award, her tiny prostrate form a study in tragedy and her muffled voice declaring she is 'a bit poorly Mummy. I not fulling well', her ready excuse for when she knows she's in trouble. Oh dear, it's going to be one of those days. Wonderful big sister Lauren tells me she'll look after Isabella while I take Lucy to school and I am gone before her words have completely left her mouth! School, then to the beach I head.



I choose Swanpool Beach from the many close by and am surprised to see the sand glistening with a deep frost. Rifts of rimed and spangled seaweed crunch underfoot as I make my way to the chilly water's edge, stopping all the while to capture the novelty of such a scene. How beautiful it looks.



Everywhere I turn there is more, the frost turning the seaweed into so many strange creatures with icy horns and spiky twisted tails. This one brings seahorses to mind...



and in this I can see a mouse (and I hadn't touched a drop!)



Eventually I move toward the sea and as ever time passes without my notice as the gentle surge of the tide holds my eye. I love this so, love the sea in all her moods. Today she is mellow yet the unusual light casts strange flashes of colour onto the oily surface and I wonder if there is change on its way. I hunker down and lift the camera, and a sudden thought crosses my mind. It makes me laugh as I realise that I have my own form of surfing, trying always, always to catch the perfect wave only for me it will be through the lens rather than on a board. How many hours have I spent doing this? And won't the next one be even better? Just one more...



Today it seems less about the waves as they are little more than ripples, but I want that light, that jade green swirled with summer-sky blue like some amazing marbled cake, but as ever it eludes me and I finally realise I am completely frozen, my breath coming out in painful gasps of ice air. Time to head home and rescue poor Lauren.



As I reach the car, I glance over to the lake opposite the beach after which it is named Swanpool. It is solid, the surface a huge sheet of ice on which the birds stand desolate.



Home once more and the day doesn't improve. Ah well, thank you for some precious time alone, my lovely Lauren. Hmm, actually that reminds me...could she be the reason the cake disappeared so hurriedly?



Quite possibly!

Keep warm xx

21 comments:

  1. Beautiful words - very poetic, and beautiful pictures (I can see the mouse too). You're in reflective mood. And tell Lauren (gosh, how she looks like you!) to leave me a bit of that cake. x

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  2. Wow, how remarkable! I've never see a frozen beach before. sounds like you deserve those precious few minutes alone. I know exctly what those days are like!

    Thanks for the Lostwithiel info, I've sent you a quick email.
    Stephx

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  3. I have been wondering if Swanpool was frozen, haven't seen it like that for a few years now. We used to like to see the seagull skateing.

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  4. Best wishes to Lauren, and all the cakes that she might like. What a lovely daughter of a magic mom, to let that mom have the gift of time.

    How could a daughter be more generous? Giving her mother time to recharge, to touch her own individual identity, and ... upon that mom's return home, to let that mom know just how great a cake she had baked.

    Pipany, I cannot praise you and your family enough!

    xo

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  5. Swanpool, yes, I'm sure it's wonderful under the layer of ice. Anytime there is good without the emmets.

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  6. Very lyrical and the pictures are fantastic - a joy to read. I wish I could enjoy cold weather as much!

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  7. You would love the area around the Fens earlier this week, when they flooded over and there was the famous fen skating. It hasn't been cold enough for this for many years now, so the area quickly filled up with skaters. There were the old pros amongst them, older men who have been doing this, when weather permits, since boyhood. There were the newbies, eager to try the real thing after the pretend-almost of a quickly erected skating rink in a town or suchlike. Then there were those who weren't terribly serious 'cos they had no skates, just relied on their footwear to glide them across the glassy surface. But with everything around rimed with sparkly frost, it looked so beautiful. What a shame I was camera-less....

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  8. Beautifully written. Thanks for sharing the frozen beach....

    A winter walk by the sea is so exhilarating isn't it? Is that the north coast? I loved walking on Sennen beach in the winter...followed by hot crab soup in the local...nothing like it!!

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  9. How DO you get the time to do all that you do AND take photos, AND wait patiently while SLLLLLOOOOWWWWWww blogger loads them AND write your blogs. You can't have time for sleep, surely.

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  10. Lovely lovely lovely. pictures are marvellous. i love my home in the hills but do sometimes miss the sea.
    I also recognise Isabella's tactic in Samuel's line of defence. He also has a great line for being about to do something evil "I be right back"!

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  11. Fab, fab, fabulous pictures, Pipany. I know I say that every time, but today's really take my breath away. The lichen is totally spectacular - you must live somewhere very pure and unpolluted to have such lush lichen.

    The thing I find with digital cameras is the lens always clicks about half a second after you press the shutter; by then I've missed the perfect wave or the dog has bounced out of the picture. How do you do it?

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  12. Beautiful day and gorgeous photos - I could smell the cold salt air.
    Please package up that last piece of cake and send it on over here!

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  13. Images and words are both so lovely.. I adore your blog, wish I could take photos like yours!

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  14. What a lovely piece Pipany. Thank you. You have quite inspired me though I think this second batch of flu will smite the inspiration before it matches the actions tomorrow, so thank you for having a lovely walk for me.
    CKx

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  15. I don't like to see the pictres of a frozen beach, far too challenging, they are lovely though.

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  16. Lovely Pipany, thank you. A visit to your blog is a tonic.

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  17. Pipany, you should write poetry. You are soooo eloquent. You could put your poetry to your lovely photo's too, what a beautiful gift that would be x

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  18. This is so beautiful! You are very lucky to live so near the sea.
    Hope you had a lovely Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all!

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  19. One of my favourite beaches. My children used to swim there when they were little. Thanks for the memories!

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  20. Gorgeous post, lovely words and beautiful pictures.
    Twiggy x

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  21. I have never seen ice at the beach. I am enjoying your posts, partic. where food and scenery are involved. How lovely to go to the sea after dropping chn at school.

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