Frozen Marshes

A couple of weeks ago we got snow ! Like a big kid I was out there, bumbling through it with my long cane getting caught and swiping its own little drifts as I scanned it from side to side. In the end I just stamped it down in front of me like a hiking pole.

I wandered down to the marshes as I figured it would be photogenic down there. I didn’t figure it would also be flooded though ! At the convergence of the paths at the entrance a small crowd of walkers had gathered, and were looking at the flooded paths before them. After passing the time of day with them I decided to try the path into the marsh anyway.

I was rewarded with water that got very deep very fast – over my hiking boots and up to my knees ! I was utterly wet through from the knees downwards by then so I figured whatever, I might as well press on. But it was going to get very deep after that it was obvious, so I turned back. To find one of the walkers had come after me (the was wearing wellies) because they were concerned I’d fall on my face and drown I think. Which was very sweet of them.

I trudged home after with ice cold wet legs, and husband was most exasperated with me on my squelchy return.

So – here’s the shot from the marsh that was worth the knee deep ice cold flood water, wet socks, trousers and walking boots !

A clear winter flood water channel runs straight away to the horizon, a quiet corridor of freezing water that has overtaken the usual path completely. Both edges are lined with low shrubs and reeds dusted in fresh snow, the twigs picked out in white so every line looks neat and crisp. The water is a cold slate blue mirror with gentle ripples, reflecting the pale sky above. Ripples caused only by the movement of idiot features, aka me, the photographer, having waded through it.
Here and there the snow lets a little colour through, soft greens of reed leaves and warm rust from the spent stems. Bare bushes stand like charcoal sketches against the light, and the whole scene feels bright and still. In the far distance the perspective narrows the flooded path to a dark dot of horizon. The sky above is the palest blue misted with white hazy clouds.