Walking to my parents through the churchyard at the same time every evening, it was light last night whereas it was still dark last week - I'd hardly noticed the shift until then!
Standing at the backdoor with a cup of tea to enjoy a perfectly timed sunset and dusk chorus featuring the first thrush I've listened to here for too many years.
Thank you...it is week one of the Japanese 72 micro-seasons. I followed them last year, with a small WhatsApp group. And this year we are trying to follow 5-7-5😊
@janeythompson I love the Japanese 72 micro-seasons, but I have struggled to find the equivalent ones for the UK. I am not a knowledgeable nature lover and I am trying to learn more. Are you in the UK? Do you have any resources you could point me towards? Many thanks x
@katemotley Oh that's an interesting question? I was just inspired by the idea of noticing the tiny incremental changes in weather every few days. Some of the (few) people who joined my WhatsApp group are 'proper writers' and I feel wrote at too great length (though beautifully)- so this 'year' I have restricted us to 17 syllables. Personally I plan to keep practising 5-7-5 haiku within that. I post a piece on the first day of each micro-season, others share theirs and then I collate them on my old blog (dusty storeroom of scribblings).
Spotting teeny tiny lupin leaves in the garden, which was given to me as a seedling from my daughter’s nursery school many years ago - she’s now 18. The little umbrella leaves giving me a glimpse of spring.
Reconnecting with the garden on a beautiful sunny morning, with the sound of the wind in the trees all around. Removing the old hellebore leaves to reveal the newly emerging flowers, finding snowdrops I’d forgotten I planted and hearing then seeing my first bee of the year.
Snowdrops, aconites, fragrant daphne and even some daffodils bringing the first spring colour in the face of winter. But winter can be brutish at this time and the east winds are beginning to bite...
Watching the moon doing the do-si-do with planets and stars, first Venus and Saturn, then the Pleiades, then Jupiter. Loving this cosmic dance.
I made the February cake from the Almanac (delish!) and started clearing up in the garden. But the frost covered grass sparkling in the morning sun yesterday was the best.
A lovely cold and sunny walk in Epping Forest in the good company of a dog. The trees were lanky shadows and great pools of water spilled on to the path.
Not seen much this week. I’ve been in bed a lot with a horrid cold. But the perfect velvety blue sky that appeared one evening at the back of our house was stunning. It only lasts a few minutes before the dark seeps in but I stood and watch it, breathless. (Although that might have been my cold…)
The feeling of the days stretching out so I walk to work in twilight, and walk home in twilight. Cold, pale skies with hints of pink and green, studded with bright white moon.
Wishing I could have gone to the woods yesterday, beautiful misty frozen world waiting to be explored (but I had to go to work). I did get out earlier in the week for a beautiful sunny woodland walk, water flowing and trickling down the hillside to tumble into the brook lined with emerging wild garlic. A bonus I didn’t meet or see anyone, I had the wood to myself, magical ❄️
I have started my own Living Almanac page in my notebook and have produced a January poem (with full credit to Lia and this community for the inspiration). I’m finding it’s morphing into a record of my internal life and circumstances as well as observations of the natural world (although I’m trying to keep that as a focus). How wonderful it would be to read many different big beautiful poems of the year to reflect the diversity of our big beautiful world!
For me, finally clearing the leaves and emptying the pots with corpses of the summer and autumn blooms
A trek to northern Michigan for a weekend of ice fishing with my uncle, brother and cousins. Catching pike on tip-ups, panfish on poles and enjoying being on the frozen lake all day long. Occasional nips of whisky and schnapps as a warmer-upper, under a rare blue sky with clear sunshine. The wildlife appreciating the winter weather as well; a bald eagle soaring high overhead, and a small flock of trumpeter swans scanning the lake for any open water before realizing it's 100% ice and flying elsewhere.
Walking to my parents through the churchyard at the same time every evening, it was light last night whereas it was still dark last week - I'd hardly noticed the shift until then!
Standing at the backdoor with a cup of tea to enjoy a perfectly timed sunset and dusk chorus featuring the first thrush I've listened to here for too many years.
Braving the cold breeze
the earliest daffodil
strikes a yellow pose
A beautiful seasonal haiku!
Thank you...it is week one of the Japanese 72 micro-seasons. I followed them last year, with a small WhatsApp group. And this year we are trying to follow 5-7-5😊
@janeythompson I love the Japanese 72 micro-seasons, but I have struggled to find the equivalent ones for the UK. I am not a knowledgeable nature lover and I am trying to learn more. Are you in the UK? Do you have any resources you could point me towards? Many thanks x
@katemotley Oh that's an interesting question? I was just inspired by the idea of noticing the tiny incremental changes in weather every few days. Some of the (few) people who joined my WhatsApp group are 'proper writers' and I feel wrote at too great length (though beautifully)- so this 'year' I have restricted us to 17 syllables. Personally I plan to keep practising 5-7-5 haiku within that. I post a piece on the first day of each micro-season, others share theirs and then I collate them on my old blog (dusty storeroom of scribblings).
Here it is...mimsy-smallstones.blogspot.com, if you'd like to look. And mssg me your number if you'd like to join us.
Oh and yes I'm west Wales 😊
Thank you, I'll have a look. It is such a good idea.
I loved your blog and the haiku's. I cant join at the moment as I am moving house and too much going on, but I will continue to read them. Great idea!
Spotting teeny tiny lupin leaves in the garden, which was given to me as a seedling from my daughter’s nursery school many years ago - she’s now 18. The little umbrella leaves giving me a glimpse of spring.
Reconnecting with the garden on a beautiful sunny morning, with the sound of the wind in the trees all around. Removing the old hellebore leaves to reveal the newly emerging flowers, finding snowdrops I’d forgotten I planted and hearing then seeing my first bee of the year.
Snowdrops, aconites, fragrant daphne and even some daffodils bringing the first spring colour in the face of winter. But winter can be brutish at this time and the east winds are beginning to bite...
Watching the moon doing the do-si-do with planets and stars, first Venus and Saturn, then the Pleiades, then Jupiter. Loving this cosmic dance.
I made the February cake from the Almanac (delish!) and started clearing up in the garden. But the frost covered grass sparkling in the morning sun yesterday was the best.
A lovely cold and sunny walk in Epping Forest in the good company of a dog. The trees were lanky shadows and great pools of water spilled on to the path.
A lot of firsts this week!
Spotted my first lambs of the season on the way home from the osteopath
First big buzzy fly in the kitchen
First lunch outside (had to imagine now, but we did have a mild sunny day!)
and just now I saw that the first buds have opened on the wild plum near the school gate, it's always the first to blossom around here
Not seen much this week. I’ve been in bed a lot with a horrid cold. But the perfect velvety blue sky that appeared one evening at the back of our house was stunning. It only lasts a few minutes before the dark seeps in but I stood and watch it, breathless. (Although that might have been my cold…)
Hope you’re feeling better soon Helen x
The churchyard is full of snowdrops and bright yellow aconites. A really cheerful sight.
The feeling of the days stretching out so I walk to work in twilight, and walk home in twilight. Cold, pale skies with hints of pink and green, studded with bright white moon.
Wishing I could have gone to the woods yesterday, beautiful misty frozen world waiting to be explored (but I had to go to work). I did get out earlier in the week for a beautiful sunny woodland walk, water flowing and trickling down the hillside to tumble into the brook lined with emerging wild garlic. A bonus I didn’t meet or see anyone, I had the wood to myself, magical ❄️
I have started my own Living Almanac page in my notebook and have produced a January poem (with full credit to Lia and this community for the inspiration). I’m finding it’s morphing into a record of my internal life and circumstances as well as observations of the natural world (although I’m trying to keep that as a focus). How wonderful it would be to read many different big beautiful poems of the year to reflect the diversity of our big beautiful world!
For me, finally clearing the leaves and emptying the pots with corpses of the summer and autumn blooms
A trek to northern Michigan for a weekend of ice fishing with my uncle, brother and cousins. Catching pike on tip-ups, panfish on poles and enjoying being on the frozen lake all day long. Occasional nips of whisky and schnapps as a warmer-upper, under a rare blue sky with clear sunshine. The wildlife appreciating the winter weather as well; a bald eagle soaring high overhead, and a small flock of trumpeter swans scanning the lake for any open water before realizing it's 100% ice and flying elsewhere.
What a picture!
Thanks, it was a beautiful place.
The blackbird singing on the top of its lungs every morning at dawn.