6am, and I languidly rise from my lightly, dream dusted slumber...
Kicking the bedpost, an act of habit never learned from, despite the pain of yet another stubbed toe, I raggedly dress in the dark so as not to wake the rest of the household.
I have never been able to sleep in on Christmas morning, as a young lad so exited to see what Santa has brought or a flaky student staying up at some digs until being kicked out in the early hours.
These days it’s more of a hope that the snow has come and with it a fantastic sunrise may occur…
Christmas 2010 and the westerly winds had blown in fat, white flakes of snow covering the peak district eastern edges, blanketing the crest of harsh grey/black gritstone edges and the knarred trees that grow out from the frozen earth.
The smell of winter filled my senses in the dull light as I made my way, with skin shuddering in the razored wind to the aptly named Windy Corner at Stoke near Grindleford.
Altogether it made a perfect setting for the white cold moon hovering in the dark sky, which made way for the yolky sunlight to appear and illuminate the land over Curbar Edge.
The magnificent grit edges of Froggatt and Baslow peeked out from the top of the cold mist, which rose from the streams and rivers like some large primordial phantom of romance. The church bells in Calver began to peel and the twinkling lights of the local villages appeared in the valley as people were waking up to their Christmas presence.
A fellow early riser appeared from Jacobs ladder from Stoney Middleton, on a lone walk towards Eyam and we nodded and gave our Christmas morning greeting.
The sun was being lazy, disinterested and troublesome, however I managed a capture of the buttercup-hued skyline with the breathtakingly Christmassy scene scape.
The biting wind on my face and licking cracked lips, with the picture in the can, meant I decided to start back down the icy road to Mum’s house then Dad’s for the rest of the Christmas day, safe in knowledge that I had spent time being that early rising as a giddy, excited kid again……Happy Christmas all! Si x
PS: I hope these picture I have taken in the past might be reciprocated this year!! ;0)
ReplyDelete