Wintery

So, it was a bitter, dark winter evening and I was home here on my tod so I thought I’d go out for a run. I was thinking moonlight and stars. What I got was somewhat different.

I stuck the music on the phone on shuffle and as the first notes played, I thought… ‘What?’

I listened to the slow intriguing intro and wondered Kate Bush? But then again, no, as Sir Elt sand. Not her piano. Then I recognised Tori Amos.  The song was nicely unfamiliar still, so the music revealed itself as I started to run on the slippery frosted path with the street lights all surrounded by huge auras of orange in the mist.

I turned on to the road – salted for the buses – but there wasn’t a soul or a vehicle around.  So eerie running with a beautiful song unfolding and everything around me dark and hallucinatory – blurred by mist. No noise except Tori’s voice and my breaths – not an owl, nor the rustle of a black bunny hopping on the short whitened grass.

It was very very cold. Bitingly cold. The frost seemed to be gathering on the grass as I ran. I only wore a thin silk top under my cycling jacket so I felt it immediately but warmed up soon. The cycling jacket is shortish and warm and has reflective piping so no excuses for running me over, but no vehicles anyway.

I had no idea it was so slippery and so freezing.  Dangerous really but the eerie atmosphere and the song made it special.  I love that kind of experience.