Test Card

[steepholm]

I took this last Monday in Romsey, by Sadler's Mill (near the Salmon Leap of my childhood, though sadly the salmon don't leap there any more). I think it captures something of the beauty of my home river, though not the startling swiftness of it. Limpid yes, limping no.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Lovely! I wish I were dangling my feet in it.

Nine

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I can't promise you a fish pedicure, but you may be kissed by minnows.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Will have to counterdict this with pics from the Pyrenées; stay tuned to the quirly sound of Eno's Another Green World!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I was already impressed by the tiger in your userpic! Presumably an obscure tributary of the Rhein?

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I've often been accused of being golden (from golddigging, what else?) just because of my shade of beige. But, butt, no fish pedicure and still its only one of my totem animals, the other one is resting its bones from jogging with Yellow Dog Dingo.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I've often been accused of being golden (from golddigging, what else?) just because of my shade of beige. But, butt, no fish pedicure and still it's only one of my totem animals, the other one is resting its bones from jogging with Yellow Dog Dingo. Upper lefthandside, in case of doubt (there is always one in Mollberg Spokeswomanship).

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ooh! yes please!

[consonantia.livejournal.com]

That is gorgeous!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? I would walk there more days than not, when I was young.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I mean on the bank, not the water...

[consonantia.livejournal.com]

haha an important difference!

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

So beautiful.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It is. And you have to imagine the roar of the mill race, just upstream, lapsing into glass.

[sovay]

I think it captures something of the beauty of my home river, though not the startling swiftness of it.

It's beautiful. Is there waterweed showing the current under the surface? It looks like seaweed, streaming.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You're right. That's really the only clue as to the speed of it. Of course, when I was a small child I thought all rivers looked this way, which set me up for a future disappointment!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's beautiful!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love the spot.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

My home river is so much bigger of course and there are ships! :o)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Once the Test gets to Southampton it's a different kettle of fish, naturally.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Yeah- the Medway's really pretty in the upper reaches too.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Then came the Bride, the loving Medway came,
Clad in a Vesture of unknowen Geare,
And uncouth Fashion, yet her well became;
That seem'd like Silver, sprinkled here and there
With glittering Spangs, that did like Stars appear,
And wav'd upon, like water Chamelot,
To hide the Metal, which yet every where
Bewray'd it self, to let Men plainly wot,
It was no mortal Work, that seem'd and yet was not.

Her goodly Locks adown her Back did flow
Unto her Waste, with Flow'rs bescattered,
The which ambrosial Odours forth did throw
To all about, and all her Shoulders spred
As a new Spring; and likewise on her Head
A Chapelet of sundry Flow'rs she wore,
From under which the dewy Humour shed,
Did trickle down her Hair, like to the hore
Congealed little Drops, which do the Morn adore.

On her, two pretty Handmaids did attend,
One call'd the Theise, the other call'd the Crane;
Which on her waited, things amiss to mend,
And both behind up-held her spreading Train;
Under the which, her Feet appeared plain,
Her silver Feet, fair wash'd against this day:
And her before there passed Pages twain,
Both clad in Colours like, and like Array,
The Doune and eke the Frith, both which prepar'd her way.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Memories! :o)

[andrewducker]

Very pretty. And a nicely captured shot!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the watercress beds of Alresford...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are both chalk streams, which is what gives them their wonderful clarity and makes them the site of my wasabi dreams.

I tried to evoke the Test in Death of a Ghost:

Fifty miles inland she rose, a slip of light amidst the chalk and flint. Gargled by rock, she bobbed under the blown grass, hummed fat bees across her banks, ricocheted the dragonflies downstream and followed thirstily to the plain. At length she became a divider of fields, made way through rich harvests of oats and wheat. Sheep’s teeth nipped her shallows and cattle curved their tongues to reap crystal sheaves, while in her silted depths the slick trout threaded pennants of luminous weed. Then, tiring, she slowed and muddled through ill-assorted islets, reserving solid clufts of land to the use of coots and ducks, to the remote ghosts of swans. Sulis shifted comfortably on her pillow. This was Lychfont, her own country.

I think this captured the luminous weed, at least!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Pretty - and, yes, I recognise that landscape...

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I sometimes buy Knorr's Watercress Soup (in a packet full of powder, the origins of which seem more than doubtful to the wary eye) but it's just not the same as the fresh one I once ate in Oxbridge, of all places. (A birthday present;)

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I sometimes buy Knorr's Watercress Soup (in a packet full of powder, the origins of which seem more than doubtful to the wary eye) but it's just not the same as the fresh one I once ate in Oxbridge, of all places. (A birthday present;)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

My own childhood river.



Nine

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Here's a stream I saw last week (apologies if you can't see it; steepholm should be able to): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205859618588821

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful - and how different from the home life of our own dear Test!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's a lively one! Is it in spate, or does it always look like that?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Hm, I thought it was just meandering along. It's been quite dry here (even on the Olympic Peninsula, which is famously rainy).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

My 'spate' comment was in reply to Nineweaving: I wouldn't call her a picture a meander!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Arrrrggggh, maybe I need new glasses. I keep making threading mistakes (and why it doesn't occur to me to check the threading when I get a reply [what I think is a reply, that is] that doesn't make sense, I do not know).

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Very beautiful. I shall not counter with pictures of my childhood river, which is mainly famous for being so brown that everyone joked about it. Loads of bad Australian jokes, and it's actually beautiful in its silty self these days (cos of cleaning up) but it was a bit dank during my youth.