The winter solstice is the darkest time, but with all the celebrations around then I always think of it as a multicoloured time, and a time to be cosy indoors. Now, at the end of January I consider it mid-winter. It is becoming lighter, slowly, and if there is snow it is even lighter. I very much think of late January as a blue month.
This is a perfect time to be looking again at Silvana McLean's work. On so many days the clear cold light brings sharp, pared down views out of the dark, so that we look for and find tiny indicators of the spring to come.
This year so much spring activity is starting even earlier than of late. Squirrels are chasing around the oaks and willows, showing off with their leaps across the great gap from the electricity wire to the poplar. The male mallards are practising their rape techniques, the pheasant struts with his harem of five, six, elegant beautiful quiet wives, ....
Late January is a lovely time to enjoy the shapes of winter, and to anticipate the increasing small delights of growth once more, especially when still cosy indoors with a warm drink to hand!
It is striking how we see slots of time linked to colour. I see January and February as a mixture of grey and brown. When driving around here just now, that is especially noticeable. Light levels are low, trees are mostly bare, and skies so often leaden. This afternoon, as I write to you, that is particularly apparent, though if we get the half-promised snow, all that may change ...
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I suppose so much of it depends on what we each focus on, and how we are feeling, as well as what the now largely unpredictable weather is doing. Still no snow here so far.
DeleteGreat readiing your post
ReplyDelete