online: 21 december 2009 modified: 19, 21 december 2009 19 december 2009 seagulls and others
on snow and ice
...i looked down to write of seven gulls who were standing still on the ice looking west... now i look up and i see that they flew away while i was writing this...
...i'm standing here at the edge of a frozen pond...
...and now there is an audible fluttering as five ducks arrive simultaneously to stand on the ice... all but one is facing east...
...and apparently none of these birds minds the cold even under bare feet...
...now one of the gulls returns and a second (a black-headed one) circles twice at one metre height before landing on the ice and standing on one leg... they are both facing south...
...i pause a few seconds before replacing the glove on my writing hand and continuing this walk on the heath... the first one for weeks... and i listen to the crunching of dry snow beneath my shoes
...now sitting on a seat that someone has cleared of snow... looking round at bare trees glistening in the weak sunshine and almost expecting the snow on the many branches to start melting...
...interrupted by three teenagers with a red plastic sledge which the eldest, a girl, is directing... as she seems to know how the others (one a boy) should use it... they take turns to ride down the steep hill where i'm sitting...
...and before getting up to walk on i remember a jay and a squirrel i saw playing or eating together... and when i came nearer they both fled into the same bushes... as if they were friends
...on a seat overlooking Hampstead Garden Suburb across snow-covered fields inhabited by almost black L.S.Lowry-like figures and dogs... and occasional tall grasses... and seedlings that may never becoome trees... now a white dog comes by and then runs into the distance where it is camouflaged against these white surfaces...
...a clear sky above and only slight wind... now a large black dog sniffs around where i sit before defecating and then digging the loose earth but missing the spot...at the horizon is a long stretch of smooth grey cloud and yellow gold sky which gradually shades into pale blue... and then into slightly bluer...
...now it's getting colder so i rise to walk further...
...i walk through the suburb to visit the two semi-modern churches... at the first (which i think is Anglican) i hear organ music but the door is locked... at another doorway (in a deep alcove) are hundreds of cigarette butts... the second church also has locked doors... which does not seem fitting for a 'Free Church'... and i remember that Roman Catholic churches are often kept open all the week but Protestant ones are often locked, even on Sundays... part of the hard ethic of the north, i fear... and is it going to end?
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