Nighttime on Still Waters
162 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsA narrowboat-based audio journal on canal life, living aboard, the elements, and the night. Perfect late-night listening for dreamers, insomniacs, night owls, nocturnalists, drifters, and nomads. For lovers Fagen's 'Nightfly', Auden's 'Night Mail', Hopper's 'Nighthawks' and the 'drifting sea-dark streets' of Dylan Thomas. For all those who used to listen to the transistor under your pillow, love the sound of distant trains and rain against the windowpanes, canals and drover's tracks, lost music, splashed puddles, fireflies and bats, hares by moonlight, windsong among pines, owl-light, the shipping forecast, and all the wonderful, terrifying, grand and tawdry avenues of the night. Cosy listening for bedtimes.
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Episodes
A Rhythm of Cycles
December 05, 2021 13:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBYou join us on (another)stormy night, but this one is moonless and black as tar. It is the night of the new moon – the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon. The phases of the moon give us an opportunity to contemplate the intricate play of cycles all around us and how the mirror, challenge and provide direction for our lives. Journal entry: “3rd December, Friday The tops of the trees is Shakespeare’s wood have disappeared in cloud. A defrosted world, smothered in mist and pearled with be...
It was a dark and stormy night...
November 28, 2021 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.22 MBThe after-effects of the booster jab are just beginning to slam into me and so tonight’s episode is going to be fairly short. However, you join us on a very cold and stormy night as Storm Arwen with its ‘screaming northerlies’ batters the boat and brings with it our first snows of the winter, but the boat is warm, the hatches are battened and, as always, there is a very warm welcome awaiting you. Journal entry: “27th November, Saturday Mum, you would have loved days like this. And to s...
Tuzzy Muzzy & Traveller's Joy
November 21, 2021 14:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MBThe pace of autumn is gathering and a chill is creeping into the air tonight, but the stove is warm. In tonight’s episode we go off to encounter Traveller’s Joy, and explore the potency and importance of names. Journal entry: “19th November, Friday The ash tree held its breath as the moon grazed the darkness, Between cirrus sandbanks, in a halo of light. A handful of stars, misplaced and constellation-less, Breadcrumbs, no longer able to lead me home. And now the dawn rises ochre an...
Traveller's Joy
November 21, 2021 14:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MBThe pace of autumn is gathering and a chill is creeping into the air tonight, but the stove is warm. In tonight’s episode we go off to encounter Traveller’s Joy, and explore the potency and importance of names. Journal entry: “19th November, Friday The ash tree held its breath as the moon grazed the darkness, Between cirrus sandbanks, in a halo of light. A handful of stars, misplaced and constellation-less, Breadcrumbs, no longer able to lead me home. And now the dawn rises ochre an...
Episode Out of Time
November 14, 2021 15:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MBAgainst all odds, this episode comes a little out of time! Events have conspired resulting in a slightly truncated episode recorded in the afternoon!! Nevertheless, duck chatter and babies (with a little help from John Moriarty) help us to find a path through the tangled thickets that many of us are possibly facing. Journal entry: “10th November, Wednesday A light mist, like smoke, has begun to sweep down the hill turning fields and woods to smudgy greys. Scattered across the gentle curv...
A Dance of Firelight (and After the Fireworks)
November 07, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBWhat is it about fire that holds our fascination? Last weekend the clocks went back and in the span of one night darkness began to lap at the edges of our late afternoons. The encroachment of night leading the tide of winter into our daytimes can no longer be ignored and it is understandable that at this time of year we are so drawn to the image of an open fire. In this episode, with the help of the poet Robert Service, we explore the ways that fire can touch us so deeply emotionally, reawak...
By Swede-Lantern Light (Halloween)
October 31, 2021 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBTonight, you join me on a wild October night with the rain rattling against the cabin roof - so there is a little background noise in some places. But it’s warm and dry inside. Penny is snoring in front of the stove. Settle back as we look at life and Halloweens through the flickering light of a swede-head lantern of my childhood. Journal entry: “26th October, Tuesday Gloaming. Civil Twilight. The ash in the south field is losing its denseness; Filigree silhouette, like a Victoria...
By Swede-Lantern Light
October 31, 2021 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBTonight, you join me on a wild October night with the rain rattling against the cabin roof - so there is a little background noise in some places. But it’s warm and dry inside. Penny is snoring in front of the stove. Settle back as we look at life and Halloweens through the flickering light of a swede-head lantern of my childhood. Journal entry: “26th October, Tuesday Gloaming. Civil Twilight. The ash in the south field is losing its denseness; Filigree silhouette, like a Victoria...
The Elf of Plants
October 24, 2021 13:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBThis week Vanessa from ‘The Mindful Narrowboat’ vlog got me thinking and so this week we begin to explore how our knowledge and (perhaps) attitudes to fungi are changing and leading us back to older ways of thinking about the environment and our place within it. Journal entry: “21st October, Thursday A Hunter’s Moon swinging high Across a highwayman’s sky Of racing clouds. The streets of Birmingham run wet With the glittering jewels of Brake lights and shop front signs. Later, A ...
Worlds Turning Gold
October 17, 2021 10:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBAlthough the trees and hedgerows here are still holding on to their greens, further afield their transformation into golds and yellows and reds is unmistakable. This time of year never fails to trigger a memory of a young couple I once saw in a park in the middle of England who were entering a world that was turning to gold. Journal entry: “16th October, Saturday 7 degrees and the dawn is still an hour away. Flecks of dew on Penny’s nose. Not a breath of wind. The still air carries ...
Shipping Forecasts and Weather Logs
October 10, 2021 12:00 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBWhen I meet people who listen to this podcast, one of the most frequently mentioned features is the inclusion of the weather log with which I end each episode. This week I talk about what inspired it, one of which is my childhood love of the BBC’s Shipping Forecast. What makes these stark lists of climatic data ring so powerfully in our minds? Journal entry: “8th October, Friday Laundry-water coloured skies Heavy dews Clumps of willow-herb hang like desolate sodden paper tissues. T...
Rook Ravaged Skies
October 03, 2021 13:00 - 30 minutes - 20.8 MBThis has been a week of blustery winds and storms. Perfect weather for the wild choreographies of the rooks jousting on the wind. The devil has spat upon the blackberries and we (rather hurriedly) mark our first birthday – this podcast is one year old! Journal entry: “2nd October, Saturday Below a thrown scatter of rooks South-westerly gusts kick up leaves not yet ready to drop. Rains seeps into the cuffs of my coat Autumn glory.” Episode Information In this episode I refer to: Jo...
Call of Wild Geese
September 26, 2021 13:00 - 32 minutes - 22.5 MBThese are the mornings of mist that ring with the call of geese. What is it about catching sight of the flight of geese and hearing their wind-borne calls that evokes such feelings restless longing and yearning within us? And yearning for what? We listen to the words of Wendell Berry, BB, David Whyte and Mary Oliver to find ways to capture those powerful emotions. Journal entry: “24th September, Friday A tangle of Victorian girders Russet brown; a lacy filigree of metal, rivets, and ...
The Gongoozler and the Nomad
September 19, 2021 12:00 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBThis week we catch up with news of our little swan family and explore the strange word ‘gongoozler’. What does it mean? Where does it come from? In some ways it functions as a shibboleth. Its use identifying the ‘true’ canal people from those outside the community. However, it also shines a light on tensions of modern day living. Journal entry: “15th September, Wednesday Dawn filled with the scent of autumn notes. Rooks stream like smoke or falling leaves Across the ragged sky ...
Shrewley Tunnel: Sailing dark waters
September 12, 2021 12:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBJoin me tonight on a journey on the dark waters of Shrewley Tunnel. In this episode we travel not just through the tunnel but also through history and try to capture the life of those who worked the canals by physically 'legging' boats through. Journal entry: “12th September, Friday Having Brunch at the Gongoozler’s Rest Café. The smell of wet earth and fallen apples A frisson of rain among rowan leaves Scarlet berries decorating the ground. A sleepy wasp crawls over my hand. I ca...
(Un)Naming of Parts
September 05, 2021 11:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MBHow did the willow threaten a powerful king? What has bloody fingers to do with St Withburga? How much does our knowledge of the world dictate the way you see it? The names we give things are useful (vital even), but they are not passive. Names frame the way we view the world. In this week’s episode (with apologies to Henry Reed) we ‘unname the parts’ to find how rediscovering local names and stories can connect us in new (or older) ways with our environment. Journal entry: “3rd September...
Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows' (Summer readings #4)
August 29, 2021 12:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBThis week we explore and listen to extracts of Kenneth Grahame's (1908) children's classic The Wind in the Willows. The story follows of the lives of various (anthropomorphised) animals that live by a river, principally, through Mole (Moley) and the Water Rat (Ratty). Their friend, the wilful, spontaneous, and exuberant Toad (of Toad Hall), acts as (almost literally) the driver of the plot. Toad's escapades and recklessness result in the need for Moley and Ratty and their friend, the wise ...
Kenneth Graham's 'The Wind in the Willows' (Summer readings #4)
August 29, 2021 12:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBThis week we explore and listen to extracts of Kenneth Graham's (1908) children's classic The Wind in the Willows. The story follows of the lives of various (anthropomorphised) animals that live by a river, principally, through Mole (Moley) and the Water Rat (Ratty). Their friend, the wilful, spontaneous, and exuberant Toad (of Toad Hall), acts as (almost literally) the driver of the plot. Toad's escapades and recklessness result in the need for Moley and Ratty and their friend, the wise b...
Summer Heavy with Fruit
August 22, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBIs August high summer, late summer, or early autumn? Does the Queen own our little cygnet that went missing? Who looks after the canal banks? This week’s episode addresses all these pressing questions, as well as dealing with my existential angst at the threat of being robbed of ‘summer’. Journal entry: “19th August, Thursday This week, each day fills and swells with the stresses and anxieties of work. Familiar pulses of panic surge up as the seconds tick by. They overwhelm my skies. I...
At Milepost 16
August 15, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBUnder the poplars beside milepost 16 is a place of enchantment and quiet sanctuary, particularly in times of broiling heat. Join me in tonight’s episode as revel in its soundscape and its dappled beauty as we explore its very particular genius loci. You can also hear about the saga concerning our little swan family and what happened this week to their young cygnet (happy ending). Journal entry: “11th August, Wednesday Geese calls across the dawn skies Haunting echelons Black a...
Night Walking
August 08, 2021 14:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBAfter a 3 week break, Nighttime on Still Waters is back with episode 40! In this episode we catch up with what has been happening on the moorings and reflect on the place of night walking in history and culture. Journal entry: “5th August, Thursday High in a tree a blackbird Sings into the night. A river of notes Pours into the cabin. There are no stars Just music.” Episode Information In this episode I refer to: Miles Hadfield’s (1950) An English Almanac published...
Night Walking
August 08, 2021 14:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBAfter a 3 week break, Nighttime on Still Waters is back with episode 40! In this episode we catch up with what has been happening on the moorings and reflect on the place of night walking in history and culture. Journal entry: “5th August, Thursday High in a tree a blackbird Sings into the night. A river of notes Pours into the cabin. There are no stars Just music.” Episode Information In this episode I refer to: Miles Hadfield’s (1950) An English Almanac published...
Lucy M. Boston's 'The River at Green Knowe' (Summer readings #3)
August 01, 2021 10:00 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBFor our final summer readings session we are looking at a very different piece of writing. It is Lucy M. Boston’s The River at Green Knowe. Lucy M. Boston is probably better known for her earlier book The Children of Green Knowe for which she was runner up for the 1954 Carnegie Medal for best children’s literature. She would later win it with her fourth book in the series, Stranger at Green Knowe (1961). The River at Green Knowe is the third of her six books set in the ancient house of Green...
Temple Thurston's 'The Flower of Gloster' (Summer readings #2)
July 25, 2021 10:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MBIn this second Summer Reading Special we discover the delights of Ernest Temple Thurston’s The Flower of Gloster. Published in 1911, Temple Thurston is writing about a very different world to the one in which last week’s authors (Hassell and Hollingshead) were writing. It is a nostalgic nod to a world that Temple Thurston recognises is dying. Described by LTC Rolt as unashamedly romantic, it is a lyrical description of his journey aboard the horse boat (pulled by a horse) ‘Flower of Gloster’...
Hassell and Hollingshead - Early canal writings (Summer readings #1)
July 18, 2021 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBThis is the first of our Summer Reading Specials devoted to one or two books that are in some way related to waterways or life on them. They replace the normal format while Penny, Donna and I are away, off-line, and having adventures of our own. The first episode explores two very different authors who are writing when the canals were in their heyday. The first is John Hassell’s account of the Tour of the Grand Junction, published in 1819. We then embark on the almost exact journey some 40...
The Heron's Gaze
July 11, 2021 12:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBThis week we explore and reflect upon a wonderful poem by narrowboater Steve May (NB Blue Phoenix), ‘The Magnificent Heron’. There is a growing appreciation of genuine encounters with animals and birds and, with the help of Martin Buber and Jacques Derrida, we reflect upon changing attitudes and understanding about how we relate to the non-human world. Journal entry: “9th July, Friday The air is oppressive and sticky. At this hour only jackdaws have the energy to yap. Chance meeting wi...
Twilight Blue
July 04, 2021 13:00 - 39 minutes - 27.1 MBDid you know that each evening we experience THREE twilights? Each one with distinctive features and that during this period we respond in physiological ways. Similarly, our ancestors appeared to have taken advantage of these liminal periods of transition in ways that we might do well to remember. We finish the episode with a lovely passage from Tom Rolt’s Narrow Boat and there is also some sad news from the moorings. Journal entry: “1st July, Thursday The day dawns with a silver ligh...
Summer Sounds - canalside
June 20, 2021 14:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MBThe hot weather has broken with rain and slab-like grey/white skies. While we wait for the sun’s return, it’s probably a good time to remember those lazy sunny days of long ago (and not so long ago). In this week’s episode we explore the sounds of canals in summer from bees to lock sluices and enjoy the words of John Betjeman and E Temple Thurston. We also discover the meaning of the word 'haysel'. Journal entry: “16th June, Wednesday The summer heat has come, dustily settling across the...
Fractured Beauties of the Night
June 13, 2021 11:00 - 33 minutes - 23.4 MBThe hold of early summer along the canal-side grows firmer each day. However, sometimes the changes and shifts in the season can affect us in surprising and sometimes disconcerting ways. This episode reflects on the birth of the idea that would eventually become the Nighttime on Still Waters podcast, and a reflection on radio and encounters in the night-time. Please note that this episode discusses mental health. Journal entry: “13th June, Saturday The lowering sun is now caught in ...
Fledglings
June 06, 2021 11:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MBThe world is filled with new life, fledglings of all kinds. It is noisy, messing, sometimes cruel, and so full of vitality and life. It’s an boisterous energy that cannot be contained or ignored. From vetch, to rabbits and birds and even humans, fledglings fill this world with a fragile, exuberant colour. In this episode we also discover some of your ‘first poems.’ Journal entry: “2nd June, Wednesday Great God, I love this weather. When mounting, rock-grey slabs of clouds climb into ...
Fledglings
June 06, 2021 11:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MBThe world is filled with new life, fledglings of all kinds. It is noisy, messing, sometimes cruel, and so full of vitality and life. It’s an boisterous energy that cannot be contained or ignored. From vetch, to rabbits and birds and even humans, fledglings fill this world with a fragile, exuberant colour. In this episode we also discover some of your ‘first poems.’ Journal entry: “2nd June, Wednesday Great God, I love this weather. When mounting, rock-grey slabs of clouds climb into ...
Rhyme & (sometimes) Reason
May 30, 2021 11:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBWhat was the first poem that you ever learnt? This week marks the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death and, for some reason, it has brought to mind poems that she loved and that I shared with her as a child. There is something strangely powerful, evocative, perhaps even reassuring, about rhythm and rhymes. Sometimes, it might be, that the rhymes become the reason. Journal entry: “28th May, Friday We’re together again, Hands deep in soil. Planting seedlings Nurturing the earth, C...
Into the Night
May 23, 2021 12:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MBWhat is ‘dead sleep’ and ‘morning sleep’? Why are 'duck hatches' invaluable? What should we do with the feral ducks? In this far ranging episode. we explore the night-time of history and discover that, perhaps, the importance of the night for our well-being might not be purely as a time for sleep. We also talk about what scenarios we employed for choosing the right boat for us, and the problem of the feral ducks, So far month has been colder and wetter than the average. However, the world...
The Clerical Heron
May 16, 2021 11:00 - 32 minutes - 22.2 MBWhat is it about the heron that makes it such a frequent subject for social media posts featuring canal and riverside birds? There is something about it that is strange, singular almost. Spotting one is often felt to be a significant event that should be recorded and remembered. This week we look at the heron in the company of Dylan Thomas, John Moriarty, and Wendell Berry, and explore why it has such an impact on us. Journal entry: “15th May, Saturday There are times, sitting here, tha...
May Rains
May 09, 2021 12:00 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MBThis week the rains swept in pushed by great fronts of ocean air – moisture from places with magical names that I hear on the shipping forecast and can only imagine. Life around progressed without a murmur and the ground drank heavily. In this episode we listen to the rain and to Thomas Merton. We also thinking about casting clouts and what that might mean. Journal entry: “7th May, Friday It was -1⁰ when I got up this morning. The sky was lightening in the east and the trees and hed...
A Lifetime Ago
May 02, 2021 12:00 - 24 minutes - 16.8 MBA lifetime ago, almost to the day, it turned cooler after an uncustomary warm and dry couple of weeks. Synoptic charts show high pressure moving up the country dragging with it frontal systems. No doubt, on that day, some looked at the clouds and grumbled. And life carried on as it had the days before. Engines shunted in sidings. People waited at bus stops. Shop tills rang out. Dogs barked. And, in the cabin of a small boat moored on the bank of the Grand Union, I took my first breath of air...
Back Home!
April 25, 2021 12:00 - 11 minutes - 8.24 MBBack where we belong. Under an old ash tree and a full April moon. After nearly five months of restricted movements, we’re back home, out on the canal! Join us as we stop over at one of our most favourite places to tie up for the night. The sun is warm, the air is soft, and the moon is big. Journal entry: “23rd April, Thursday. Sitting up here on the roof of Erica I am surrounded by warmth and the sounds of life. The water beneath my feet shifts in tessellating patterns of light; It ...
On the Grave of Winter
April 18, 2021 11:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBAt the beginning of the week we were waking up to snow and each nights the temperatures have been slipping below zero. However, the days are filled with sunshine and warmth, and a vibrancy fills the word. Spring has arrived. A few years ago, I discovered something wonderful that the isophenes of Spring tell us about the the progress of the season. We also join the poet, writer, and naturalist, Edward Thomas, at the end of his 1913 bicycle ride in Pursuit of Spring and finds, high on the ...
Boat Blacking
April 11, 2021 11:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MBBoat blacking is when the hull of a boat is painted or sprayed with a protective – usually bitumen-based – paint to help minimise corrosion of the steel hull. For painted blacking, it is a process that occurs every 2 to 3 years. This week it was NB Erica’s turn for blacking, a time of convergence between ‘canal time’ and ‘land time.’ Journal entry: “10th April, Saturday. I’ll show you something wonderful. - Go through the little swing gate in front of you. Keep straight on. Go throug...
Canalscapes of Childhood
March 28, 2021 12:00 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MBA listener has asked, "After we left the boat and went to live in a house, did canals continue to play much of a part in my life?" After the boat, we moved to Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. It was there I grew up and found my place within the world. At the time it was still a fairly small village. The main industry was the Ovaltine factory that bordered the Grand Union Canal which bisected the village. Working boats were still a relatively common sight. As well as through traffic from London ...
Man on the Bicycle
March 21, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBThe journey from winter into spring is often messy and ill-defined. Sometimes it feels as if we are making progress and at others the cold and damp of winter days returns. As we are also contemplating moving from lockdown it is not surprising that we can feel a bit of kilter. Reflecting on an encounter in WH Hudson’s book A Shepherd’s Life, there are times when we feel like a small boy lost among the ocean waves of the South Downs and at others the man on the bicycle. Journal entry: ...
Moving On
March 14, 2021 11:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MBThese are the days of swan nests and duck eggs, but the call of a lone swan circling overhead, perhaps captures more precisely the tensions we feel moving through the seasons. The seasonal shifts in the activity of the swans and ducks are becoming increasingly visible reflecting the wider patterns of movement. Boats leaving and others moving in. Everything is in a state of transition; we are all in a state of transition. Journal entry: “13th March, Saturday. Sitting here in the well ...
'Boots as thick as a moderate slice of bread and butter'
March 07, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MBThe fascination of boots and canals. Boots have always been one of the most essential pieces of equipment for canals and canal-life. In this episode we re-join impresario, journalist and social reformer, James Hollingshead on his journey up what would later be known as the Grand Union in the late 1850s. We will discover his fascination with the footwear of those working on the canals and find out that the importance of the boot for canal-life is every bit as true today as it was in Victoria...
A Whispered Spring
February 28, 2021 11:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBEverywhere the world is filled with the whispered spring. The first of this year’s lambs scamper and nuzzle in the field above us and skylarks sing high from under a bowl of Wedgewood blue. A softer, warmer wind blows, and the sun is strong. Humans and non-humans alike emerge to drink in the sunlight and warmth. It’s a spring that the poet John Clare knew well and understood its significance and it’s a spring from which Edward Thomas drew strength. Tonight, the stars of frost garland NB 5068...
Haunted Canals
February 21, 2021 14:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MBStormy nights like this, when then wind howls among the reeds under a hunted moon, are perfect for curling up with a ghost story or two. In this episode we hear about two ghost stories set in locations close to where NB 506812 is currently moored and explore what do these stories tell us about the worlds that produced them and us today. Journal entry: “18th February, Thursday. Each dawn and dusk skeins of geese fill the winter-bruised skies; soundscapes of the enclosing nights of autumn....
When Ice Sings
February 14, 2021 13:00 - 24 minutes - 17.2 MBTonight, the NB Erica is locked in ice. There’s a wolfish southeaster blowing and the night is filled with rasping creaks and groans. There are times when the ice sings. Acoustic lightning flashes that dart across the frozen water surface. Journal entry: “9th February, Tuesday. Last night’s snow low uneasily on the ground, like a miser’s blanket, threadbare and uneven. But it’s enough to see the lacework of indistinct and broken-formed tracks of night-time life. For once, I can see wh...
Canal Time
February 07, 2021 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBOne of the first things you will experience when you cast off onto the waterways is, what is sometimes referred to as, ‘canal time.’ What is canal time and how is it different to land time? Canal time functions not so much as a marker for time passing as a recognition of the many streams of timelines of things and lives that fall outside the sphere of human control. However, there is also a deep irony about it too... Journal entry: “3rd February, Wednesday. This morning the tangled thick...
Snow on Water
January 31, 2021 11:00 - 24 minutes - 16.7 MBThis week the first proper snow of the winter fell. For a while, our world was transformed. If you love snow, a boat is the perfect place to enjoy it. If you hate snow, a boat is the perfect place to escape it! Journal entry: “29th January Friday. The last couple of mornings have smelt fresh. The trees bordering the canal sharp with bird song, not just the aural darts of warning calls but flowing rivers of melody entwined on the wind. Below our feet, last s...
Deep and Wide
January 24, 2021 10:00 - 23 minutes - 16.5 MBAnother January storm has passed over us. But, tonight we have a stock of gingernut biscuits and the knowledge that each day the daylight gets longer and the spring is coming. In this episode, with its usual sprinkling weather lore, we answer some more questions about the canals – principally – how deep are they? It is a subject that I have first-hand knowledge about! Journal entry: “21st January Thursday. Waxing moon in a Russian sky. A flight of gulls high, in clear air. Turned into ...
Morning Sun: Living the dark days of January
January 17, 2021 11:00 - 15 minutes - 10.8 MBJanuary 18th (2021) is 'Blue Monday'. The third Monday in January is considered by many to be the most depressing day in the calendar. As we enter the dark days of January, this episode considers the importance of the hope of spring and how the calendar and weatherlore enabled our ancestors to deal with the uncertainties they faced. Journal entry: “16th January Saturday. This morning the cormorant came on slow deliberate wings, swimming the thick grey porridgy skies. It circled twice bef...