VIVIENNERICKMAN

Visiting the ice hole this morning felt a little like returning to some kind of sacred site, it felt special, treasured. The surface was completely frozen again and I was trying to anticipate to what extent, covered in a gentle blanket of snow.

 Rumour has it one of these Spruce's can hold up to 2500kg of snow! As I sit here looking out the studio window I've just seen one drop a huge amount of snow... Slightly intimidated about a walk in the forest...

I've been reading a lot just lately. In 'A Winter Book', Tove Jansson (who wrote the Moomin's) writes in 'The Iceberg'... 

"But all the same, I had been a coward, scared of two inches. I could feel it in my tummy. I think all strong feelings start in the tummy; they do for me at any rate"

... and me!

'Everyone smiles fat smiles at the big green carpet.' Edward Burne-Jones had written, 'but I like other landscapes better, and now and then I want to see hell in a landscape.' Well here it finally was.

(Willilam Atkins, The Moor - discussing Kinder Scout)

It's the first day of winter, according to the astronomical calendar today, with is also the day of the winter solstice. Astronomical winter will end on the spring equinox on 19 March 2017.

I love the darkness for the heightened awareness it gives you. Tonight both dark above and below the surface, my senses were in overdrive. With each new twist and turn, my feet with a feather-like touch, brushed against tiny grasses and rocks, the 'peg leg' in overdrive. The wind on the surface and the blackness all around me was filling my head with overwhelming joy. I felt euphoric, blissfully happy and totally alive! 

It's not often I can't swim, but I couldn't even break the ice on the edge of Llynnau Mymbyr this evening as the sun was going down. It was bitter, the souls of my feet screaming at me just from the walk across the frozen turf. I tripped and fell I don't know how many times, more uncoordinated and clumsy that usual. The lake looked truly beautiful and really wasn't for swimming, there was something about just being there, that filled my heart with joy.