04 February 2012

Trudging through the snow in Cambridge

The punts at Magdalene Bridge appeared to be frozen in the River Cam tonight (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

Cambridge is covered in snow tonight.

It started to snow just after darkness had fallen, and by the time it came to leaving Sidney Sussex College for dinner with friends in their house this evening, there was snow everywhere.

Walking to Alpha Road, where Peter and Lisa Waddell live, seemed like a sensible option earlier in the day – after all, it’s less than a 15-minute walk. But a taxi seemed a wiser option by 8 this evening.

Calling a taxi was impossible at the end of evening. Well, that’s Saturday night for you anyway – snow or no snow. So it was a walk down the hill to Chesterton Road and Chesterton Lane, below the Castle Mound and Saint Giles.

We turned into Magdalene Street, passed Magdalene College, and stopped for a while at “Mag’s Bridge,” where the punts looked as though they were trapped into the ice on the River Cam. I expect that by the morning, the river is going to be frozen over.

The Round Church at Bridge Street looks pretty and silhouetted in the snow tonight (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

There was plenty of life along Bridge Street through, and the Round Church looked pretty and silhouetted in the snow, which makes everything look bright.

Despite the snow, it took less than 15 minutes to walk from the top of Alpha Road to Sidney Sussex College, where Peter is the chaplain and pastoral dean.

Below me tonight, Hall Court and Cloister Court are covered in snow.

The last time I was in Cambridge to preach was in February 2009, when I was a guest preacher in Christ’s College for Candlemas. The snow was so heavy that time that I was unable to keep a preaching engagement in London later that week, missed a flight from Stansted, and had to get a train to Birmingham to get a flight back to Dublin.

Perhaps I should learn to accept snow, and to live with it. After all, Sidney Sussex College was founded to be “some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance of good learning.”

Snow covers Hall Court in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, tonight (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

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