{"id":748,"date":"2006-12-19T08:15:33","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T08:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dml360.wordpress.com\/2006\/12\/19\/19-december-2006\/"},"modified":"2006-12-19T08:15:33","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T08:15:33","slug":"19-december-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/?p=748","title":{"rendered":"19 December 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"
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None of these penguins are in my family tree, as far as I know. There were some nesting in bushes, however, which is unusual for penguins. This colony is on the shores of False Bay, South Africa.<\/p>\n

The Christmas drama turned out well, amazingly, in view of the lack of rehearsal. It was almost as if some of the actors had read the lines earlier. The weather now is extremely wintry, with the temperature hovering around freezing. Typically, the change coincided with our central heating breaking down, leaving us huddled in front of a blazing fire on Sunday evening. The rest of the house was extremely cold. <\/p>\n

The man from British Gas came to fix it on Monday afternoon, replacing the pump but then discovering that there was a blockage. Beyond the call of duty, he put that right too, and the house began to warm up gradually, but not before I slipped out to play chess. First against Steve Moore – the second replay of our knockout match, this time at 30 mins each. We drew again: he had an advantage out of the opening, but I got some play and managed to hold it despite dropping a knight for his outside passed pawn. We were both down to a minute when he offered a draw.<\/p>\n

This was followed by the jolly Christmas handicap tournament, in which I scored 4.5 out of 8. Two of my wins were at 2 mins against 8, which was quite impressive. One was at 5:5 and the other at 4:6. Started with two losses and ended with two wins.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday (yes, we’re working our way backwards) Dot and I went to north Norfolk to drop off presents at Paston and North Walsham. While Dot went to a public meeting aimed at saving North Walsham hospital (apppalling that such a meeting should be necessary), I drove to a spot just outside town on a road called Field Lane (which I was informed by Dot’s uncle later is actually Hog’s Loke, and only called Field Lane by foreigners and the local council). It was an idyllic afternoon. I parked on a hard standing at the head of a farm track at a high spot looking south-east over the valley of the North Walsham and Dilham Canal and towards the coast. The sky was blue, and the sun was sinking to my right, casting shadows on to the field in front of me. I half-wrote this poem, which I finished yesterday:<\/p>\n

VIEW FROM FIELD LANE<\/p>\n

And now gulls circle,
\nice from the sun beneath their bodies
\nsheer blue overhead
\nswooping above brown speckled waves
\nwhere the land dips toward the canal
\nskeleton trees prick the sky
\nleaves ripped away in yesterday\u2019s storms<\/p>\n

pools quiet on the field\u2019s edge
\nhere on the ancient path
\nnaked, shining, cold
\na stranger at unexpected crossroads<\/p>\n

like longships, shadows slide across furrows
\nhard by the forgotten wood:
\nin a viking landscape like this <\/p>\n

you can see across the miles where you\u2019ve walked
\nand something of where you\u2019re headed
\nthough the path dips to the south through trees
\nbeyond the low sun\u2019s reach<\/p>\n

stick to the ridge
\nmarch through the mud, or fade
\ninto the valley<\/p>\n

there is no talk here,
\neverything is clear
\neverything still
\nsharp edges for the eager soul to brush against<\/p>\n

cut by a heavenly light
\nthe sky starts to burn
\nthe birds return, doodling on the disappearing page
\nspinning out time before evening<\/p>\n

baptised in this bright long year before night
\nI see the horizon creep toward me
\nglowing, its ragged edge
\nripped from eternity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

None of these penguins are in my family tree, as far as I know. There were some nesting in bushes, however, which is unusual for penguins. This colony is on the shores of False Bay, South Africa. The Christmas drama turned out well, amazingly, in view of the lack of rehearsal. It was almost as … Continue reading 19 December 2006<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}