Tuesday, December 10, 2013

You, to teach me to see it

On November 30th after sunset I went for a walk at Tremanskärr swamp, returning via lake Kurkijärvi. It was the time of the blue moment, and the cold weather had frozen the lake, and a little bit of snow had fallen on top.

I commuted by bicycle on Monday, even though it was cold, about -7 °C in the morning, and -9 °C when returning home. The commute took longer than usually, about an hour, because the street was covered by ice and some snow on top. The ice was not smooth, as the fallen snow had melted into slush, which had frozen so that footsteps and bicycle trails had left marks in the ice. One had to be careful when riding the bicycle to avoid crashing because of wheel getting stuck in a rut.

It felt good to get exercise, and the lobster-style bicycle gloves proved their worth once again. The feet got a little bit cold in the toes when returning home, but not too bad, thanks to the merino wool socks which I bought this autumn.

It is remarkable how much the type of sock can mean, last year I wasn't able to use the same shoes and overshoes when the temperature dropped below -5 °C. But nevertheless, I have ordered new neoprene overshoes which should be good enough for even below -10 °C temperatures.

(Posting title is from the poem Accidents of Birth by William Meredith.)

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