|
|
||||||
|
Frosty Friday in February |
||||||
| FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, February 21, 2003 | ||||||
 Though it was cold yesterday we at our house were not expecting the temperature to be -35ºC this morning. The stillness of the air was a blessing because move this cold heavy stuff around and what is bitter becomes unbearable. Calm air in very low temperatures in a town will result in the layer of habitation fog you see over the town at sunrise (right) or at 9:00 the fog at the top of the page. Only minutes before the picture at the top of the page was taken (below) is the scene looking South downtown. Merchants were sweeping their sidewalks, people were going about their business and those on foot were moving a step or two quicker. A block East of the main street the town crew were opening up yet another intersection where a problem had developed with the town's water system. |
||||||
 |
||||||
 At 11:30 it was time to get out and enjoy the sunshine, after several days of dull, dull and more dull even super cold air with sunlight was better and the sun casting ice cold shadows on the snow was an easy decision. Do we go North. East, West or, well it's definite, we went South. The tractor with the low-boy was out ahead of us and a couple miles South I pulled over and let him get ahead as he was disturbing the tranquillity of the midday light. About fifteen minutes later we were stopped at the Barrier Valley observing the motor toboggan freeways both directions all the little stream. A young man in a white car saw us pull over and brought his car to a haul turned around and drove back to us to see that everything was okay. |
||||||
 |
||||||
 At -35ºC a dead car could turn its occupants into former people pretty quickly so I really appreciated the young man's concern, but after all this is Tisdale area and that kind of consideration is pretty much what one expects. This wilderness area twenty minutes South of Tisdale is a place of remarkable beauty as the stream is lined with conifers and brush. This is looking (right) West and the image below is from the other side of the highway and the South side of the bridge looking East. With the exception of ourselves and a few other vehicles making their way from Tisdale to Archerwill or Archerwill to Tisdale it was cold and peaceful, completely and totally silent. People often speak of the silence of the North, on Wednesday as we walked along the street with snow falling in Aylsham one person remarked about the silence |
||||||
 |
||||||
 in that village. As you probably are aware silence is not an absolute but is instead one of those quantum elements in the slipstream that we call reality. Silence is in fact relative. Sound itself is vibration transmitted through the air and of course if there is no being to observe the vibration then there is in fact no sound. For those of us with mild to moderate hearing loss silence is truly "unheard" of for indeed in my case the noise in my inner ear is a constant din, loud enough to drown out ambient sounds around me. So even in a tranquil and otherwise quiet environment, for me every place sounds about the same, a constant ringing that muffles and confuses. |
||||||
 |
||||||
 I really like this long shot (above) as you can see down the stream to the East and see an old and in somewhat poor condition bridge that once carried traffic over the water below. Back in Tisdale looking North of highway #35 the streets are lined with 12:30 vehicles as people have stopped for lunch at one of the four restaurants in this one block of the equally quiet town. The sun is in full up position but its blue shadows knife across the streets and yards. In our own yard I photographed the blue shadows and the trees that made them then blended those two images together. I always wondered where that saying came from "that will be a frosty Friday when _____ happens." Suggesting that it would be a rare or never to occur event. Well today was a "Frosty Friday." |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
