Snow in Oxford

Dear me, I did that wrongly... the picture above was meant to come later on... over-size snowmen on Port Meadow... really quite spooky and Easter-Island-ish. I think - no, I know - I suffer mild iconophobia. In fact the one on the left was quite carefully sculpted when we got closer - lady with bosom and bustle, definitely a period figure. One suspects the creators were quite serious artists... maybe sculptors, even. Anything is possible in Oxford.

First time in absolute years we've had such deep snow! We went for a walk on nearby Port Meadow... little wind, so hushed, so still, so like walking inside a picture. Even if some of the logs did make me think of the pictures accompanying Christmas recipes I'd been idly reading whilst waiting for an appointment (of course the magazine was out of date as they always are in waiting rooms.)

And yes, there were fluffed up Robins looking just like the ones on Christmas cards...

Virtual reality? I think it's a bit sad when one looks at real things and finds one is only describing them by relating them to virtual things. I'm very bad at this. For example, many years ago I did a lot of student theatre lighting and for the one show I was very proud of creating lighting to look just like a particular type of dawn. Now when I see a dawn of that kind, I remember that lighting effect and think "Oh, it's just like that lighting effect I did." . Uh? Surely that's the wrong way around?

I feel the photo above looks like some famous work of art, but I can't remember which. I'm not an Art Historian. But why do I want to relate it to a work of art?

Perhaps the power of reality is too much for me and I can only cope if I can relate to a book I can close or something. Or a TV I can turn off. Who knows, (who cares?)

Sad thing is, all this alternative landscape is due to vanish tomorrow morning. How many years before we see the like again? The mad thing is, the snow experience is clearly a major influence in one's life. In fact I can probably count the total number of really reasonably deep-snow years in the whole of my life on my fingers, and not all of them. Perhaps it's all those snow-scene Christmas cards and the association of pleasant ideas... in other words, deep down we live in virtual reality anyway....

Or, we really all were dreaming of a White Christmas. Never mind it arrived on February the 8th. this year and the only year in yonks!