Twelve Months at Tottenham

January.

Mists make
dangerous travel.
The air loaded with
freezing particles.
Attached to fixed
objects.
A blade of grass.
Some garden
shrubs.
Spreading tufts
of crystals.
Gigantic specimens
of snow-white
coral.
An elegant fringe.
The rime falls.
Transparent.
In heaps
beneath
the trees.

February.

Frost.
Followed by
clear sky.
East wind.
Early evening.
On placing a wet
finger on an iron
railing it adhered
strongly.
The handling
of a shovel
might have
endangered
the skin.
Morning.
Thermometers
found rising.
Dryness and
stillness lessen
the impression.
Of cold.
Brilliant sun.

March.

Impediments
presented to
navigation.
A succession
of heavy gales.
Forty sail
of vessels
lying in wait.
For fair wind.
A gentle breeze.
Spring weather
commences.
The sun assumes
a splendour
to which the eye
has long been
unaccustomed.
This change.
From the
beginning.
Obvious to sense.

April.

Wind from the east.
Veered westward.
Blowing
a hard gale.
On the south coast.
Considerable rain.
Meeting a spring
tide occasioned
an inundation.
Vegetation made
little progress.
The swallows
appeared.
A few swallows.
Swallows
amid squalls.
Of wind.

May.

Dry here.
Thunder about.
Distant thunder.
A splendid meteor.
A large body
of blue flame
followed by
a long train
of sparks.
At considerable
altitude.
Travelling with
velocity.
Indicating
the quarter
from which the
wind approaches.
By cold winds.
The leafing of trees
retarded.

June.

The character of
this period.
On the whole.
Ungenial.
Cattle in a
declining state.
Blighting winds
predominate.
Corn suffering
from want of rain.
A shower of
an hour’s
continuance.
In consequence.
Vegetation passes.
From starved
and backward.
Toward
considerable
luxuriance.

July.

Mist resting
on the cliffs
and on the
high land.
Toward evening
subsides.
Appears
on the sea below.
A body showing
close to the
horizon.
On the high land.
Above mentioned.
Walking.
Mist on the sea
advancing.
Spreading
westward.
Comes at length.
Close
under
sandy cliff.

August.

Emphatically wet.
Excessive rains.
The whole season
a series of storms
and inundations.
Not meadows and
villages alone.
Portions of cities
and large towns
also lay
long under water.
Crops carried off
by torrents.
The vintage ruined
by want of sun
to ripen
the fruit.

September.

Depression.
Distinguished
by a splendid
display.
Northern lights.
Appeared most
remarkable.
Waves of snow-
white light.
Rolling from
thin cloud.
Condensed mist.
Matter invested
with a luminous
quality.
Released from
magnetism.
The breath
became visible.

October.

Sea air.
As such.
Is not
necessarily
moister.
In the middle
of the day.
Air blowing
directly.
Carrying an
abundance
of spray.
A fine mist
from the surf.
Out of the mist
evaporation
proceeded rapidly.
At other times
a southerly wind.
Coming along
shore.
Was yet so dry.

November.

Gales from
westward.
Gales prevailed.
Gales of wind
from the coast.
The whole
west coast.
After which.
The wind
changing
northerly.
The night
boisterous.
A fluctuating
depression
of eight days.
It rained slates
and tiles
in the town
and there was
no standing
on the beach.

December.

Sharp depressions.
Not marked by
gales of violence.
Only one noted.
Stormy from the
westward.
A strong wind.
A large amount
of rain.
Fifty hours
without
intermission.
Spring tides high.
Along the south
coast.
Subsequent
rapid elevation
attending the
change.

J.R. Carpenter is a Canadian-born UK-based artist, writer, and practice-led researcher working across print, performance, and digital media. Her pioneering works of digital literature have been presented in museums and festivals around the world. She is a two-time winner of the CBC Quebec Writing Competition. Her first novel, Words the Dog Knows, won the Expozine Alternative Press Award for Best English Book. Her web-based work, The Gathering Cloud, won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. Her poetry collection, An Ocean of Static, was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018.