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A week of glorious spring weather has heightened springtime activity along the canal sides and nearby fields. It also coincides with a particularly busy period personally. My response and those of the birds and animals around could not be more different. We dip our toes into the worlds of the polar north and the work of Kosuke Koyama to explore some possible explanations for this.  

Journal entry:

25th March, Friday

“The fresh sun glances off the surface of the canal with a shimmering, silver warmth, that sets the night-time chill a-dance.

A clutch of moorhens squabble, fluster, scold, and court, in plain view, transforming the dark waters into a crystal maelstrom. It is so unlike their normally timorous behaviour. 

A mallard pair doze in the sunshine on the bank.

I stand on the stern deck and beat the dust of winter from our rugs. 

We have stepped into spring.”

Episode Information:

In this episode I make a brief mention of the work of Knud Rasmussen. You can read his account of his work and explorations in:

Knud Rasmussen People of the Polar North: A record published in 1908 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner. 

I also mention Kathleen Jamie’s beautifully written, insightful, and extremely thought-provoking book Surfacing published in 2019 by Penguin Random House. 

Kosuke Koyama’s Three Mile an Hour God has just been re-issued (2021) by SCM Press. 

David Johns’ canals and boating vlog Cruising the Cut can be found here: Cruising the Cut

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For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters

You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.