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I didn't feel up to going to the Tolkien Varsity Quiz :( Too much to do, not enough sleep. But I got myself out of doors to walk down to the "local nature reserve" Bramblefields.

One of my favorite weathers is when it's raining lightly, but warm. It's pleasent and comfortable, with a touch of melancholy. However, today, it was warm and sunny and snowing. I could barely believe it, walking along with white flakes congealing on my shirt, while the sun beat on my back. It felt like I could step into fairyland any minute.

And there's a little field, one of the scattered nature reserves in cambridge in chesterton I'd never investigated. It's east of Chesterton, apparently not on the way anywhere. I wandered down some of the little roads off Greenend Road, through minute housing estates, one like the concentrated essence of Rose Cottages.

And then into a little wasteland. Like a whole wood squashed into a small field, maybe a hundred metres across, but in the right direction you could think you were as in the middle of nowhere as I ever get in england.

On the other side it seemed to peter out into overgrown stuff just hiding some allotments, and further back a fence with "Danger" signs I couldn't get close to. It felt like it must come out somewhere but didn't; I'm not sure, it could have been getting on for the railway.

And there was a miniature befould pond with a shopping trolly full of ice. I wasn't sure if that could have happened naturally -- the pond had been frozen, maybe if it got kicked and shattered the sheet of ice formed in it? -- or someone filled it. And what magical ritual they needed fresh ice for, anyway? Was there a door into a wardrobe from that cambridge wood?

Date: 2006-03-04 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
Ice forms preferentially around crap sticking through the surface of water, because it provides the lowest energy nucleation sites for the ice crystals.

Sorry...

Date: 2006-03-04 06:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
That's *equally* amazing.

It definitely *looked* piled up in there. My first impression was that there were more chunks area, but in retrosepct, not necessarily. And there was some on the bank, but that might have been incidental to the trolley.

Date: 2006-03-04 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
The bank counts as crap sticking through the surface of the water, for these purposes.

Date: 2006-03-04 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Yeah, but actually *on*: this was about a foot higher than the water. I should have said that.

Date: 2006-03-04 07:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
Ooh, how bizarre.

Date: 2006-03-04 06:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
Oh, what wonderful fun! Did you not take any photos for us? :-)

Date: 2006-03-04 06:47 pm (UTC)