January 2009

[Sweder]

More glorious early morning sunshine. The light was already on full-beam by the time I dragged a weary set of bones out of a seductively warm bed. I confess to feeling less than enthused as I pulled on a variety of gadgets and garments. Any doubts that I should be out there were soon dispelled by the most glorious January scenes.

The landscape lay draped in a veil of mist, peaks and ridges detailed in dazzling, sun-lit clarity above the fog. I rattled along at a modest pace, the dogs forraging along withered hedgerows, apparently miffed at having missed rabbits' breakfast-time, having to make do with the occasional lunge at the odd pre-occupied magpie or a lone, tardy rook.

Up in the hills Monday's snow lay, powder-fine, crunching under my heavy tread. At the turn I stood to marvel at a fabulous scene. Below and to my left the Ouze valley slumbered under a thick, still blanket. Ahead layers of horizon stretched away, each tranche less detailed that it's near-neighbour. Up close the sheep field, green grass flecked with white frost and lingering snow, the only window in colour; next the tree-line, thousands of tiny bare branches in dark, sharp relief against mist-blurred hills; then a layer of cloud, grey and thick, like loitering gunsmoke. Beyond the distant peaks rose out of the mist, giant sharks' fins cutting up out of the foam, ridges sharp against the risen sun.

Musically the day started on such a high it was hard to see how it might improve. Led Zep's 'cover'* of Howling Wolfs' How Many More Times set us on our way. The Yardbirds' classic (and garage-band staple) Train Kept A-Rollin' perked me up but it didn't quite soar aloft with rocks' definitive dirigible. As I loped steadily back down the slopes, dogs trotting in orderly fashion beside me, Bad Company nipped in with Runnin' With The Pack. The song has a fine orchestral ending with a hint of Kashmir in the same sense that a Cadbury's Fruit & Nut bar has a hint of nuts about it. Once again I felt blessed to be out there, soaking up a magical scene. For all the grey and dismal days, full of mud and rain and filthy skies, just one morning like this is enough to keep me coming back time and again.

[SIZE="1"]*Wolf's piece was entitled How Many More Years. The song was taken by Jimmy Page (and Robert Plant, though Plant wasn't credited at this point due to a contractual wibble) as a blue print for the last track on the bands' first album, Led Zeppelin. It's a bit cheeky to call it a cover - the 8-minute Zep version bares little resemblance to the 1951 original - but if Jimmy Page acknowledges it's influence then so should I.[/SIZE]