Tuesday 16 February 2010

Consolations of Rain

Another day of Haggard weather - but, determined not to be at my desk all day, I set out, raincoated, gloved and umbrella'd, through the cold rain to Holland Park. All this rainfall is making the trees very beautiful, even in deadening winter light, their soaked trunks almost purple against the bright green of moss, mingling with the duller greens and greys of lichen on the branches (lichens are thriving in London, a reassuring sign of clean air). I don't remember a winter where so many of the tree trunks have been so startlingly green... The great thing - one of the great things - about Holland Park is that there are a few places where you can sit in full shelter from the rain and look out at it. This sensation of being in the open air and yet sheltered - and with a view - has a special cheering magic, and, having eaten my sandwich al (demi)fresco, I went on my way that bit lighter of heart. What's more, I spent a while standing under my umbrella and watching the comings and goings at a well frequented bird feeder. The traffic was incessant - mostly tits and finches, but at one point a pied woodpecker swooped down for a quick taster. I was glad to see several coal tits - my favourite, and so far absent from my garden this winter. Work may be grim, but to have sights like these so close at hand is a magnificent consolation.

8 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about the pleasure to be had from standing in a covered spot whilst looking out at the rain - for some reason a cigarette seems to taste better in these places too

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  2. The scene in Withnail and I, at the end when they're at the zoo, captures that feeling well.

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  3. Withnail and I always cheers me up for some reason. And that rainy scene should be depressing but somehow isn't.

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  4. blimey Gaw, after watching that scene I always want to top myself!! You must be made of stronger stuff than I

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  5. Sorry to continue so off-topic, but doesn't 'W and I' suggest that one moves on despite what has to be left behind? You pay your respects to the past but you look ahead. It's a coming-of-age film.

    I guess this may be a fairly ruthless interpretation. It's also dependent on taking the viewpoint of 'I' rather than Withnail but then not many could realistically imagine themselves to be the latter.

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  6. I'm with you on that Gaw - tremendously sad yet cheering, probably because it is about moving on into a possible world. Withnail is, among other things, one of the great films about English weather.

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  7. Withnail a film about the weather? I shall watch it again with new eyes! Now you mention it, there is rather a lot of weather in the film... I'm with Worm though in finding that final scene extremely sad rather than uplifting.

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  8. It's both sad and uplifting. Richard E should have won an Oscar for Best Use of an Umbrella.

    Yes, a lot of weather in it. The improvised polythene boots, the sky is beginning to bruise...

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