Early Dusk

The day darkened early with the snow.  After an afternoon of reading and thinking and watching the snow fall, we went into Ambleside at four o'clock.  The town is made of slate and white walls and slate roofs; grey walls of slate 'bricks' and a soft golden glow from early lamps lit against the gloom.  We found Kurt Schwitters' grave in Ambleside parish church, a simple slab crisply carved. His body was reclaimed by the German government some years ago, but the thought of him living and working in Elterwater - and visiting the cinema in Ambleside, I learned today - made his domestic life accessible, even immediate.  Some essential shopping in a half-empty town and then home through the snow gloom.  A beautiful, motionless cloud over Windermere; not a breath of wind.