So are you all set?
Mostly I’m here this week to send you season’s greetings, but as we reach the winter equinox in the northern hemisphere I wanted to share a glimpse of brightness with you.
Snow slipped us into December with a false promise of light. In the days that followed, the weight of darkness has been pressing on me. Our actions and inaction to fellow humans and the planet only serve to amplify it. I read that this time, the period between end of harvest and beginning of lambing, was known in the Celtic languages as ‘the black month’. Each year recently has felt a little more black. We are tilting away from the sun in more ways than one, and every small gift of light, of colour, a moment snatched, feels extra precious.
This week I shared such a moment in Notes in the Substack app. It grew a life and a resonance beyond my more carefully considered compositions. It seems we are all in thrall to the patterns of sunlight and shadow that are ephemeral visitors, briefly decorating our walls.
Some of you have joined me on the back of this vignette; it’s good to have your company, and I hope that you will enjoy what you find.
Often I share words and images from my walks around this quiet place which are invariably shaped by water. After writing last week’s post which majored on the dreich, the sun came out to play and like a child I marvelled at the transformation it effected to even the most mundane of ditches. Here is some ‘small beauty noticed’, which for some reason makes me think of Dali’s tortured shapes.
The gift of brightness I promised earlier comes in the form of a 3 minute video. It began with a working title of ‘Slices of Summer’ and as I spliced together images and sounds, I tweaked it ever so slightly. It was put together for a submission that didn’t succeed; c’est la vie. I thought that it would be good to remind ourselves that this winter darkness will pass, and we do have warmth to look forward to and songs to sing in the coming year. And if you’re reading this in the southern hemisphere, well, hello longest day!
Splices of Summer
Mid-August and though the afternoon brightens there is already the sense of a season shifting. In the wood birch have begun to scatter yellow confetti on a carpet of deep green moss. The rhynes remain dry, the sphagnum lighter green and thirsty. Scottish bluebells and purple Devil's-bit scabious dot the grassland at the edge of the raised bog. Wiry heather wears mauve and accessorises it with silver grey lichen. Despite the summer’s rain, nature shows stress and small sprigs sport scarlet. Autumn is on her way.
In the video collected palettes of colour from this day are mixed with sound sampled throughout summer, from the cuckoo’s call through a crescendo of sedge warbler before the robin calls last orders. Piano notes signify both the steady passage of time and the inevitability of summer’s end. Punctuation comes with woodpecker and bee. The ambiguity of the softly shifting visuals creates space for you to recall your own memories of summer. I hope you enjoy watching and listening - I had great fun mixing the sounds and it takes me back to that warm afternoon.
Thank you for reading FLOW. If you’ve enjoyed this, a like or a comment, a recommendation for FLOW or a restack if you’re using the Substack app will all bring me light in the midwinter.
Until the New Year, I wish you peace, good health and joy. FLOW will be back on 4 January. If you’d like some reading over the holidays you’ll find more of image rich writing on FLOW’s home page.
My photography and mixed media art live here on my website.
Catching up with my substack ‘to read’ folder and was glad I saw this today. Love the video Michela, very hypnotic.
I did indeed enjoy your video ... very much Your writing always resonates with me which is why I subscribed.