Ice

A week ago I proposed a bicycle ride to Mies, before stopping at the Port de Crans for coffee. Quite a few people joined the chat but no one committed to turning up. I woke up in the morning and said “I’m thinking of setting off early, since no one had confirmed. When no one said “wait, wait, wait” I set off on my bicycle ride.

The conditions were excellent. I was warm, the roads were quiet, and the views were pleasant. I even thought “These are fantastic cycling conditions, it’s a mistake to stay indoors and zwift when the weather is so pleasant.

Every single time I go from driving an EV to driving a petrol car I am struck by old fashioned and smelly old cars are compared to new ones. In this context an old car is any car that has a petrol engine rather than an electric motor.

I had to play musical cars just now, and put the winter tires into the petrol car, to get them swapped so that I can drive in winter safely. In the process I had to move two cars around so that the petrol car is in front.

Although the name of this blog post is bizarre it is inspired by the site of a fountain with a big block of ice, serving as a mirror to the tree, and sun, in front of me. The weather is still nicer, more springlike than it has been. More people are out on bikes cycling together. They are taking advantage of the good weather. In theory we could have rain in the next few days but the likelihood, as usual, is very low. An app said that it could be 90 percent certain, but I think it is 100 percent unlikely.

Yesterday we had rain and with that rain came a night cold enough for everything to be covered in ice. As I came out of the train station in Nyon I could feel my feet slip frequently. In the process walking was treacherous for those who are not experienced with the pleasure of walking on ice. For others it is an opportunity to look for possible pictures.

On a minivan I saw this pattern on the windowscreen. Water seems to have been blown by the wind at just the right speed to create this fun little pattern. It’s the type of pattern we should look for right before defrosting a car. This isn’t my car so I was just looking to see whether it was a boring sheet or more. In this case it looks like pine needles from a pine tree so it’s nice to look at. Nature finds elegant solutions.

I would like to see more climbing documentaries where there is a timelapse of people making their way up. They look like ants rather than humans as a result. That part is 2 minutes and 20 seconds in.

Thermal inversions are a great part of life in valleys. Whilst you’re living down in the glacial trough you’re waking up every morning to the knowledge that you won’t see the sun for the next few days… until the wind shifts. If you’ve got the time during daylight hours though you have the option of going up to the mountains. It’s at this point that you can enjoy the sun. As you walk in the Jura at the moment you’ll find that there are long plaques of ice and they’re slippy whilst in direct sunlight. In the shade traction from normal shoes is possible and walking is not that complicated. There are different types of ice, that which is transparent, where you see the leaves and other objects, that which is white, from too much oxygen and then the mixture where it’s a little of both. Many families were walking today, some were struggling and others treated the landscape like a giant playground. Some people spoke French, others, German, Italian, Spannish and more. It was international. Sometimes when I walk there are hardly any sounds and it’s good, a break from London and student life.

It’s winter, I can tell. There are icicles hanging from the metal parts and the wooden covers are on fountains to prevent them from freezing entirely. Add to this my birthday yesterday and the winter tires today and there’s no mistaking this time of year. I worked on my dissertation yesterday, seeing how familiar I am with certain elements of the documentary genre. I watched a few open university documentaries about the university and there’s one that makes me want to go back to Sienna to see the building in more detail. I’ll wait till the summer.