Blue Monday?
On a Blue Monday in January with a Golden Sunrise. A Round Trip, Up and Down a Hill.
North Wales, January 2024.
Photographs a mixture of 35mm film and digital.
It’s cold. Early and before dawn. The Sun yet to make its presence known in the southeast, its cradle in the depths of Winter. Arrived at Bwlch Penbarras. All hard surfaces white with frost. Still, calm. Everywhere blue-black.
Layered up. Boots, heavy coats, hats, gloves. Cheeks, mouths and necks covered. Snug as a bug. Up we go, side of the hill, the short sharp route. Ground is frozen, hard underfoot, but there’s more grip than first inclinations betrayed. Onwards then, up the hill to the top.
The Cheshire Plain comes into view. Somewhere in between an invisible border, here Wales, there England. Fantasy. Human constructs. A slice of deep pink on the far horizon now — cloudless ahead, but clouds behind to the west. The wind is ice. Gloves off, the pin-sharp pain in the fingers is near instant. More pink hues in the eastern sky — the cameras are out, shutters singing their song. Frames of film exposed to the world in a moment’s light.
Moel Famau is behind. Silent and beautiful. Pink clouds sail by above, catching an eastern offering of faint light. Everything is smooth and soft, like pastels on canvas. Then the crows come, across the tops. Ravens and jackdaws. Their black wings beating, no cackle or call. Just watching. Then diving, spinning, mobbing. Gone as fast as they came, away down the range that time has named Clwydian.
Over the eastern layers, the Sun itself bursts over the horizon. Racing upwards now, all around is assaulted with golden warmth, before the wind steals it again, and just light remains.
Across Fenlli’s top now to the cairn. Add a small rock ourselves — just symbolic. More than the sum of its parts. Then to the western slopes, away from the fresh light, back into the cold blue hue.
Away over there, high peaks catch the day’s first light — the Snowdon Massif, the Glyderau, the Carneddau — brothers and sisters. Utterly silent and ominous from such distance, mighty and splendid. Memories from walking the southern slopes of the Carneddau two days past fresh in the mind. Happiness wells up somewhere deep inside. We’ll be back soon, friends.
Sidle onto Offa’s path, that which splits the land. Following the hill around towards the north. A sudden offensive blast of wind, beyond icy cold, intense, almost unbearable, lasting longer than it has any right to.
Bare heather and gorse launch wildly to and fro. Almost ripped clean from the hillside. But they endure, settling back into their cosy trench that scars the hillside.
Then it’s gone, disappearing as fast as it came. We’re protected now by the far hill’s western shoulder. Back down to journey’s start. Full circle. Such a way to start a day. Pink and golden. The proper way. Blue Monday?
By A. Milne
Foel Fenlli, Clwydian Range, Denbighshire, North Wales. 15/01/24
