Ultimate Friday Afternoons

On Friday, I made my escape from work early. It was a bitterly cold day, with occasionaly sudden snow flurries, against a blue sky. I had lunch, I did the shopping, and then I decamped here:-


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I always carry a picnic blanket, fleece blanket and pillow in the car. Now you know why. I don't think I've ever seen Derwent Water so frozen, although that's probably just because when it's this cold I'm usually INSIDE huddled in blankets, not outside on the edge of a cliff.

It was so quiet, and so still. I heard a rustling, and froze, trying to identify where the sound came from. Looking up, I saw three bronze oak leaves in the top of the tree, shivering together in a faint breeze. That slight, soft sound was so stark against the silence. It was so quiet, when I leand my head back against the tree and closed my eyes, I could hear the robin hopping stealthily close.

When I first stepped out of the car I was wrapped in the most incredible scent. It was a green-brown smell, moss and leaf litter, and sleeping, dreaming trees. Sweet and earthy and honest.

Sitting against that tree under my blankets, I could still smell the ancient woodland smell, but could also pick up faint scents of woodsmoke, and that indefinable, sharp, clean scent of cold water from the lake below.


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When I got too cold, I went for a walk. Weaving through old-before-their years oak trees, sentinel descendents of a thousand years of woodland.


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I felt honoured to be allowed to pass.

Now that's a Friday afternoon I can live with.

What's your perfect Friday afternoon?