Greetings from the moss, and apologies for the pun; I couldn’t resist 🤭
I’m pleased to say that summer is still with us. We’ve had some beautiful if chill early mornings and the light - and weeds - have been calling me out to play. Nature doesn't ‘do’ weeds; the label is ours. I remember being taught at college that a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place. Which raises the question: what is the right place and who gets to decide? Nature surely should be the judge.
Watch What Happens: Shifting Focus From Nightmare To Dream
I’ve never really thought much about thistles before. In the wrong place - our place - they are coarse weeds, tough to eradicate, prolific seeders: a nuisance. This year I’m seeing them in a new light. Again it’s the wayside that has been the key and as they’ve come into flower I’ve become fascinated not just by colour but by form, especially that of the emblematic Scottish thistle:-
Fat globes: puffer fish, hedgehog spines, artichokes? Apparently they are edible…
Sharp leaves that end in vicious spines and gift the plant its name of Spear thistle.
Mops of sea anemone-like filaments in a shade that I struggle to capture in paint.
Down into uncomfortable positions I go, looking through the macro lens, sometimes sharp, sometimes blurred, just like the thistle itself.
Amid all that prickliness I find softness and it makes me I wonder - am I thistle too?
Strange But Sure Progress Often Finds The Best Reward
My vocabulary continues to expand: not just plants, but the lives that I find when I look through the lens. To be fair, I didn’t need a camera to spot the pale slug motionless on the spiny bracts below the flower. I wondered how it had ended up there as I made myself busy on the other side. After a while I found I had company as millimetre by millimetre the slug edged round and determinedly up. Was it worth the pain before the pleasure? Only the slug knows. After a few minutes it was down below a leaf taking respite from the sun.
A bit like buses…
You wait for ages and then three come along at once. As well as the forthcoming Q&A podcast for On Landscape a couple of articles have just been published:
The Royal Photographic Society’s Visual Design Magazine: Small Beauty Noticed: Words as a Vessel to Explore Water, Nature and Place
Thank you
for inviting me to contribute this article about writing as part of a visual art practice.Outdoor Photography: In the Spotlight
I do prefer writing - and thinking - to having to come up with an answer on the spot - too much ‘rabbit in the headlights’ for me - but it was good to chat with Nick Smith.
Thank you for your lovely comments in response to last week’s letter, and your questions for the podcast. I was also grateful to those who said they enjoyed the audio as I have no stats to tell me if anyone listens! I enjoyed my chat with Tim and Joe yesterday and will let you know when the recording is available to listen to.
As always I love to hear from you and know what thoughts these letters prompt.
Until next week,
Encore: the extra something at the end
We haven’t even reached thistle down yet… and of course, other thistles are available. I think come the short dark days I will make a book of thistles…
All words and images copyright © Michela Griffith except where otherwise noted
Hi, Michela: As a kindred spirit, loving all beings, including weeds, which are a part of the bigger picture. I have written about them as well, and appreciate your expression of love and wisdom. It is interesting that plants are labeled "nuisance", including "illegal", when, really, who are the ones destroying them? It seems more appropriate to label those who devour for personal gain to be "labeled" with such monikers! Cheers to you! Keep up the great work, and thank you for your compassion and empathy!
Mich, It seems you have God's eyes, or at least see things a little closer to what he sees than the rest of us. It's evident you can seek out and reveal hidden treasures the rest of us just walk past. once or twice, maybe three times, he let me see people or the world around me through his eyes and i was dumb with wonder. Weedy patches were transformed into breathtaking gardens created by a master gardener. Things you see each day were suddenly revealed. But only for a moment or two. Each day I ask him to let me see people and the world around me through his eyes. Washed in love and wonder and revelation. So, you got it going on Girl friend,
Your Frankie