swiss valley

not quite as ineffably beautiful as yesterday. the sun has shown up, turned up the brightness and increased the contrast by melting salient parts. bit messy. snow is slightly crispier. big hill? go to woods first, less pavement. short route through woods, will probably go to hill; just wish i wasn’t aching so much. lane down from golf club looks like an ice rink. a-ha, can go across golf course and over new gate. snow here is the best. pretty much unchanged from yesterday. nothing hurts as chojecka (hoyeska) through it. find my prints from yesterday and faff around trying to run in them. better get on, half an hour later today. step aside up steep lane for audi estate coming down backwards. don’t understand cars. feet soaked up narrow path of pure slush. two galls at very top of slope moving faster than i’ve ever seen em move. coats solar-powered perhaps. bright orange sun. below, three human figures follow matt ribbons across shiny white field. snow has improved muddy downs way. still aching though. try to appreciate the way the canopy cocoons prettily after the turn. path drops precipitously before going on. looks dodgy. is. use wooden banister posts to tarzan swing down except with feet on ground. works perfectly. on to far side of hill. unfamiliar path looks wider and brighter than the usual one. follow it. mistake. every step unstable. nearly do ankle. path disappears. trees crowd and lower their needley snow-laden umbrellas. crawl out from under last umbrella and look back at impenetrable black and white wall. back on usual path. pause. suddenly notice trees all round sound as if they’re, erm, peeing, too. on to top of monster climb. swiss valley we used to call this, for some reason; not its name but view looks extremely swiss today. snow is deep and even but follow path of footprints. great sledging slope, never crowded. hmm. four or five giant snowballs with long green tails. first comes up to my chest. can’t budge it. very impressive but you’ve ruined some of the sledging slope, should jolly well put it all back. two blokes trudging up with plastic sheet. sledging even half the slope would’ve been a tougher session than the run. easiest running down deeper snow to side, which is fortunate although blokes don’t judder past. plastic sheet has got to hurt. down into pristine ravine, up ‘steps’. funny. snow steps on top of steps. breathing hard. harder still after steps end and slope continues. past flint tower. over other big slope can just see cluster of orange lights flickering. on up main path. takes an age. achilles stiffening. another mammoth snowball on the green. several cars parked in road, wonder if road closed. probably just sledgers. follow least steep path round to front. most slippery yet, worn shiny. whole town twinkling with orange lights. diagonal path down and across sheer front slope. always popular with adrenaline junkies whether it’s for sledging or rolling down or pushing burning cars down. no one takes me out. slope is half mud and grass. pass snow ramp that seems to have sent at least one sledge over the low wire fence and into the equally steep bottom half. another ramp at bottom of path. not sure how you would steer away from thorny trees. hmm, another car going down the lane backwards. turning at the top difficult perhaps. back across fields. bull in other field, gate closed. giant tv flashing away. drop rubbish snowball from bridge. quacks. sorry ducks. dark. back along pavement in orange light. think my feet are numb.