online: 22 january 2011
modified: 21, 22 january 2011

19 january 2011 sun and north wind


pond 2 and Parliament Hill

....first walk on the heath after many days... of travel... and of being indoors in cold weather...

...today is almost spring... except for frost this morning and cold air ever since...

....water birds and gulls on glistening water... the ground is wet and muddy in the sunshine...

...no sign of leaves or buds... but the air does not seem wintry any more... i feel the season may already be changing...

...as i look about i see a mistiness rise above the water surfaces that are between me and the sun... and extra clarity of air in other directions...

...people with dogs and small children... and some men with a pneumatic drill (with its rapid hammering and high pitched clink) are repairing the roadway over the dam between ponds 2 and 3...

...the trees are still bare... the sky is blue, with only a few clouds... yes the winter seems to be ending and spring's begun... (at least in my thoughts)...


Parliament Hill:

the city too is in mist (not low cloud but moisture rising from wet earth)... i cannot see the details of tall buildings that are usually visible from this spot...

...two small dogs chase a police horse (while its rider is dismounted)... and another police horse (with rider) goes in pursuit...

...a new building has grown to be about 25% taller than the existing ones (since i was here a month or two ago)...

...and now to recover my ability to walk across the heath in half-an-hour or so (after being indoors for several weeks and perhaps losing some mobility)...

...on the way home i bought an apple cake which i ate with yogurt... after some celery soup (which i cooked according to a recipe of Arturo Toscanini, who took it before conducting... the soup 'won't turn you into a gifted conductor'... but here is the recipe (i replace the rice by soya flour and the stock by vegetable bouillon)

...Andrew Chevallier (a distinguished herbalist) told me that celery is the basis French herbalism... so i've been cooking and eating celery soup ever since... previously i didn't like it...


evening:

and now (after some sleep and editing the above) i am drinking herbal medicine and resting before resuming what i call my lifework... which during recent days has changed from responding to local circumstance to attempting to relate the present to both distant past and distant future (all three being seen as connected constructs)... from the viewpoints of this public writing place and of the city forest...







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