drizzle softly

18°C, soft drizzle, warm, humid & demotivating. Cycle 38miles

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Third ride this week where the start and finish were in good conditions but the middle- miserable penetrating drizzle.
Packing bags again. See you…

Fugitive Motel : 

Lost in a lullaby
Side of the road
Melt in a memory
Slide in a solitude
Not ‘til I can read by the moon
Am I going anywhere
Not ‘til I can read by the moon

Chorus
I blow you a kiss
It should reach you tomorrow
As it flies from the other side of the world
From my room in my fugitive motel
Somewhere in the dust bowl
It flies from the other side of the world

‘I’m tired’ I said
‘You always look tired’ she said
‘I’m admired’ I said
‘You always look tired’ she said
Not ‘til I can read by the moon
Am I going anywhere
Not ‘til I can read by the moon

Curtains stay closed
But everyone knows
You hear through the walls in this place
Cigarette holes for every lost soul
To give up the ghost in this place
Give me strength
Give me wings

[Elbow]

 

 

Fargo

17°C, heavy showers, cold wind from the northern approaches, cycle 24 miles.soaked.

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Coen Brothers: Fargo– I’m seeing a pattern now, the landscape is different in this film, but its role is the same. This one is funnier than the last one (No country for Old men).
I’m tired and don’t really know why; well, I do but can’t confide. There is someone out there.
The iPod collection is growing rapidly with generous loans from Peter. The gadget has developed a dominantly melancholic mood; that’s my iPod!
Somebody Loves You

 Somebody Loves You

Woke up with a bang
And a bug on your face
It crawled in your mouth
And gave you a taste of
The good life you left behind
But I think you’re gonna be fine

Somebody loves you
And you’re gonna make it through

This nagging malaise
Is more than a phase
It feels like a job
But no boss ever pays you to lay there
And think how you’ll die
While the tears start to well in your eyes

Somebody loves you
And you’re gonna make it through

One more Saturday
All alone through the night
You’ve got to be sure
When you turn out that light
That it’s going to turn on again
You’ve got to be your good friend

Somebody loves you
And you’re gonna make it through

E

Rivershoes

18°C, the rain moved away

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Searched & Searched: before going to France, I turned over the house looking for these shoes. Made by Speedo, which I bought for swimming in rivers. My poor feet can’t abide the sharp stones. They would have been brilliant swimming in the ‘frozen lake’ or that time wading under the waterfall in that plungepool. That one was so difficult I wore my hiking boots (poor boots).

the madness is in finding these shoes after the holiday.

The Reader

22°C, blue then greyer, humid all the while

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New film to add to the top ten: The Reader: based on the Bernard Schlink book. I’m left so stunned that I can’t really make much of a post here. With a background of Germany dealing with it’s recent history, the relationship is however, inseparable from that background so it is not really a background at all. Their story looks at an impossible relationship that spans a whole lifetime.
In fact I have just deleted most of this post because it is best to meet this film with no fore-knowledge. Go and see it, just as an incentive– there are no car chases, no shooting so special effects.

on top

24°C, fair +

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Prepare for the Alpine adventure. Stuff organised. I failed to buy travel insurance from my bank today. In I walked and found someone to deal with, who sent me to an empty room with a phone to get a quote. The phone number I was given patched me through to one of those press-#-robots. the reason I walked there in the first place was to avoid those infuriatingly tedious machines. I wanted to speak to a human being, I’m not lonely and seeking the company- but humans are easier to deal with. So I hung up and bought the package elsewhere. Lloyds; are you reading this?

No, I thought not.

Such a draw.

19°C, rain band, cleared eastwards now

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Why is climbing mountains such a draw?

You meet the most remarkable people on these mountains. As long as you stay off the honey-pots, the other areas can be quite remote (in feel). It’s the feel that is so important in this, on those wilderness places, there is some kind of magic that builds a certain ‘feel’ inside. Mostly in your chest, but it does sometimes clamber up inside and reach your throat. It’s also a very physical experience, though that can’t really be separated from the sensations outside and inside. They are all woven together. I am comforted by the fact that I can go on long enough for the experience to be engrossing and no passing nuance. Some of those walks were ten hours, though mostly more like eight. I took time to shoot photos, to eat, to tend to my poodle and to look and to see.there were streams for Rosie to drink from, ponds/lakes for me to wash and rocks to injure myself on. Once walking across a flat grassy plane, all squelchy marsh but harmless looking, I plunged my foot down into an unseen cavern up to my knee. That hurt enough to justify using the F word. You can never be off your guard out there.
That’s nothing compared to getting lost on the Glyders in the cloud & rain. It took over 2½ hours to find a route down and that was on the wrong side of the mountain down a very steep heather covered slope. A slope that took nearly two hours to get to the bottom plus a six mile walk back to camp. I was very close to phoning for mountain rescue up there. I felt trapped but remembered something once read- keep making decisions, don’t give up making decisions.
That was one stressful day but I got happily back to camp before dark. Sunset is late this time of year though, a valuable safety net.
Relief.

The marshfield in the Rhinogau with hidden traps. Tread and squelch with caution.

Paint in from the rain

18°C, rain

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Rain: it’s turning into a washout, there is a break in the gloom forecast for tomorrow so I am probably shooting over to Wales to do a few peaks while I can. It’s a desperate chance to make use of that new tent & test myself to some extent too.
Starting some painting after a week’s wind-down. It’s been a few months and I have only finished two pictures this year. Another one had to be painted over this week because it simply wasn’t working. the picture is really rough right now, it has a layer of swirly loose turps oil that is vaguely starting to form an image- I love pictures at this stage. Would it that there were some way of freezing them as an image at this stage so they made a legitimate image.
It’s torrential now & the ladies haven’t been out, probably later though.

If the drops make bubbles, then the rain is heavy- I would say.