Lights out
The days are getting very, very short again. I'm amazed, as ever, at the way this city comes into itself in the early night.
Candles burn small and silent behind the windows of close brick buildings, buildings that lean against each other in the dark, lean over narrow streets and wide canals, lean into the glow of electric light to shrug off the late year's rain.
The raindrops bring the black canals to life and together with the cold and dark shroud bikers on back streets in mystery as they hurry past, the purposeful bikers, their lamps glowing weakly above their tires, disappearing down an empty lane.
And at my stamkroeg, my regular bar, as the days grow cold and short I can sit by the openhaard, the fireplace, and watch the shadows dance along the walls and windows, windows that look out on a huddled brick street where most of the other people in the bar grew up.
Still for the most part I do not like all this darkness. It comes down like a lid, closes us in, and no lit bridge, with arched stone or wood slats, can carry you across it. The people here endure the long night well, and with reason. But it remains a challenge.
Candles burn small and silent behind the windows of close brick buildings, buildings that lean against each other in the dark, lean over narrow streets and wide canals, lean into the glow of electric light to shrug off the late year's rain.
The raindrops bring the black canals to life and together with the cold and dark shroud bikers on back streets in mystery as they hurry past, the purposeful bikers, their lamps glowing weakly above their tires, disappearing down an empty lane.
And at my stamkroeg, my regular bar, as the days grow cold and short I can sit by the openhaard, the fireplace, and watch the shadows dance along the walls and windows, windows that look out on a huddled brick street where most of the other people in the bar grew up.
Still for the most part I do not like all this darkness. It comes down like a lid, closes us in, and no lit bridge, with arched stone or wood slats, can carry you across it. The people here endure the long night well, and with reason. But it remains a challenge.
posted by General Bird at 23:29
4 Comments:
Thanks Byron.
And it's true. Woe to the wheel-less who steps into the bike lane. You'll hear a brief, almost inviting ringing sound -- one of those little bells that go well on children's bikes alongside streamers for the handle bars -- before getting mowed down by one of the popular, tank-like bike models known as an omafiets, or grandma bike.
I'm surprised such an incident hasn't showed up on your site yet. One of these days...
wow! quite lovely, and yet somehow sad imagery of the impending darkness that is descending upon us all as winter prepares to take over. still, there's a certain contradiction in these conditons...because i've always felt a lovely warmth in the glow of candles, and being wrapped in an additional cover to help ward off the chill that winter inevitably brings. i would hope that you have it there, as we do right now in new england, and that is that the sun's short stay brings out the most magnificient colors in the sky, and on the ground (as the leaves drop and create a glorious profusion of color)...and the low sun in the sky casts such gorgeous shadows across the landscape that it's hard for me to think that cold, wet, bone-chilling weather is not far behind.... but enjoy, anyway! fg
I do admire your prose, General Bird; makes dropping by and reading your entries even more exciting to look forward to every time.
It gets darker early here in Manila as well. By 5pm it seems as if it was already 6:30. There was also a 15-minute brownout in the neighborhood last night, which made us bring out the candles (and now appreciating your entry even more).
But then again, perhaps, it's time to bring out and hang the Christmas lights :)
Thank you both, fg and se. Also lovely, fg, what you've written. And I was about to write, se, that it's still early for Christmas lights, but we're getting along in the season quickly now. They like to string white lights over all the streets here -- very nice.
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