Ice Stopped Play

 By ‘C’:

Superficially, today may have looked like perfect Green-Gym weather.  After wintry storms at the weekend, this:

The trouble was that after all the wet stuff falling out of the sky, there had not been time, or sufficiently high temperatures, for a thorough thaw everywhere before clear skies meant the mercury fell starkly.  As it is wont to do in this part of the country. 

Actually it was not a deep overnight frost by South-Oxon standards: only down to -8.8 Celsius.  (As recorded at the nearest weather station: RAF Benson, 07:00).  It has to be at least double-digit negative for folks in my village to start admitting that it is “a bit cold.” 

Nevertheless, it was quite chilly enough to ensure that it would be seriously slippery underfoot on site.  This is what it was like riverside opposite the town after which our group is named:

Where we had been scheduled to work, however, perches on the Chilterns scarp, some 500’ above the Thames Valley floor.  The situation on the ground there: quite different.  Green Gym is fun, but, in the words of the reserves-manager who is on the spot: “it is not worth putting people at risk with the travel, weather conditions, and site hazards.”

Thus, with reluctance – we do not like admitting being defeated by the elements – we cancelled the session.  So what to do instead?

Go to ‘real gym’?  [Where discussion between people working out has been about whether ‘Die Hard’ is really a Christmas movie. – Ed.]  Well one of our members did, and here is the photo to prove it – the nearest we could get to a group-use of the time today was for us each to do our own thing, then those of us with digital cameras share our images.

“Not such a ‘greengym’.”
– “No, but a much warmer one.”

There were several ‘green threads’ running through the “What I did this morning” replies which came into my Inbox.  Many of us had opted for a walk.  Properly kitted out, of course, before venturing beyond the ice curtain:

For some, initial views from the inside were decidedly wintry:

“Any stakes or binders here?”

“Silent vigil”

But it was certainly well worth the effort to get into the Great Outdoors if one could.  At Little Meadow (where we have occasionally worked sessions) “the grasses.were.frosted”:

Contrast last time one of us was there on Green-Gym business:

Souvenirsde nos beaux jours de l’été

Rubbish featured in several Green-Gymmers’ experiences.  The commodity, that is; not a value judgement on the morning.  I myself began, as always on a Tuesday (as soon as I am dressed in outdoor togs), by wheeling bins from addresses along the terrace-row where I live.  Then lining them up kerbside ready for collection:

Except that this time I had first checked on the council website that householders were supposed to put their bins out as normal; 26-tonne dustbin-lorries will not be able to make it along some of the roads in the area.  Also I had to port around remnants of an impromptu neighbourhood community-art project, which I think must have sagged in the brief thaw:

Another Green-Gymmer, on the way home from country walk, picked litter …

then “returned to the day’s main task of making breadsticks for an Italian themed Christmas party in the village”:

“A cool reception” from some other figures about this morning was another recurring theme:

“I’ve been chopping logs and making kindling for tonight’s fire,” reported one member.  A quintessentially countryside task in winter!  But as she said, “What a shame we aren’t on top of the hills in this glorious sunshine.”

As for me, after doing what all photographers do when the light promises well – get out there for the half hour before and after the sun crosses the horizon – I hurried back into the warmth.  Then drank coffee and edited all the wonderful copy being sent in by fellow Green-Gymmers as the morning progressed.