Despatches from Derbyshire Ice Field (3)

0645 GMT  07/12/10 Successful expedition.  Grytviken basking in balmy zero.   Back on shelf at minus 14, well stocked with lamp oil, whalemeat, blubber, pickled cabbage and two bottles of aquavit!!  Freezing fog.  When we speak outside, the words stay in the air and hang around the tent.  Voice message from Oates... Read more »

Midas in Winter

  A hesitant dawn, you silence the bells  And change the scene with that touch of myth    that turns every  living thing to ice.   Flakes bristle from every twig, spicules sparkle like Christmas, then detach and sink, swinging through a sunlit sea.    The trees, decked like brides, Mock hungry deer with confetti No... Read more »

After the rain.

A curtain falls across the secrets of the ghyll, the pond whispers, trees tap, rocks - the very earth turns darker still and sense is flooded with despair.    And after the rain,    a drowsy peace,     the melancholy air warms, thickens, grows darker, greener. Buds burst, leaves stretch, reach out to fill the gaps.     Close your eyes, rest, listen, feel   how soft lamentations of blackbirds heal the wound, and when... Read more »