When you see weeds in a new light

This’ll do nicely: judgement is all about context

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. 

Needle and thread

The stuff of folklore

Amid all that prickliness I find softness and it makes me I wonder - am I thistle too?

Yes, it may be late July, and sunny, but I’m still wearing a coat! It’s cold first thing.

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

Nicki Gwynn-Jones

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.

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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