Saturday 25 September 2010

Another Dawn

It was an astonishing sunrise; and up on the hills it was autumn already, the braken golden in its death throws, the trees bare and the temperature just a few degrees above freezing. The coombes and the woods were still lush and verdant, not exactly high summer, but warmer and greener; a good place to get lost in. Except that I didn't get lost! At least not in Hodders Combe. For the first time, I managed to find my way though to Holcombe, where, typically, I took the wrong combe back up to the hills and so missed Woodlands Hill. But in so doing I found a pond that I had never before known existed. Big enough but sadly not deep enough to swim in, yet startling and beautiful none the less.






Friday 24 September 2010

Once in a blue moon

As I watched the star in the south west [Jupiter I think] shining bright despite the approaching dawn I looked and longed for a moon, to give light in the darkness of the pre-dawn if nothing else. And on Thursday it was there, casting its long shadows, bright enough to expose my horrifically slow running up to Kingscliff but not bright enough to outshine Jupiter.

The moon is amazing, watching it rise above the Moelwyn, falling into the heather, and the bog, on Illkley Moor at least until Martin and I were moved on my armed police [who were looking for someone else]; and so many other times and places. Yet it is 31st December 2009 that remains with me. It was one of my last runs in Purton, I took my usual route around the edges of the village and, as usual, I left before dawn under the light and shadows of the moon and watched its spectacular setting. It was only after I had returned, running into the newly risen sun that I discover that I had been running under a blue moon. A Blue Moon is, under one definition, the thirteenth blue moon in a calendar year, which means that the next blue moon will be 2028. Once indeed... under a blue moon.

It's worth rising at such unearthly hours to see the planets and the sun, the rising and the setting. Tomorrow will be another early start, and yet another attempt to work my way west to east across Hodders Combe. I have so far tried three times and got hopelessly lost. Not that it really possible to get lost. You follow the rivers downstream and get to Holford, upstream and you hit the moor, but I haven't managed to head due east to Holcombe. If it does work it will enable the completion of a run which will make the Quantock Beast look like a fluffy mouse.

It's good to continue the dawn running; it keeps me sane. Time will tell whether I can continue to sustain everything on top of the teaching [wonderful but exhausting], but for the time being it's all good. Once in a blue moon, such opportunities do arise.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Return to Dawn

There was only the vaguest glimpse of dawn in the east when I left the house at 5.30am this morning, to the west the stars were still shining and under the trees of Kingscliff the night still lingered. When I reached the top of the woods and looked up over the hills towards Broomfield and then headed back down west the land was grey. It was only back in the fields of North Petherton that the sun emerged in all of its glory, the start of an amazing day.

It's starting teaching and the need to be in school by 8am that's forcing me to rise at silly o'clock; really crazy - 6am used to me my standard. But although I miss the newly risen sun on the trees and flowers [pictured from June], returning to predawn
dusk has it's own very special atmosphere, almost mystery.


It is a good preparation for a day spent in the classroom. Would that I could get exercise and sleep, but with only one on offer, I'll go for a run any day!

BTW - school is great, amazing teachers, children just as good. It's worth the paperwork.