Hello, how are you? Are you feeling joy, maybe excitement, or curiosity at the turn of the new season? Or maybe it’s dread, fear, or sadness? Or, just, nothing, that the change of seasons doesn’t really impact you?
Musings on autumn and how we respond to it seem to be a common theme at the moment, and I want to add to this. I want to nudge you to connect with nature and it’s seasonal joys and so hopefully embrace and enjoy every turn of the year. I will carry on writing the Nudge from Nature posts on how to connect with nature whatever the season, but I hope my weekly noticing and how it’s inspiring my art also helps you to note what is happening around us whether you are in a city, or country, inland or sea. It feels particularly important to do it in Autumn as, along with winter it is the most maligned if, I believe, wrongly.
(Apologies here to those who live somewhere that doesn’t have four seasons, I hope my micro-level seasonal noticing, along the lines of in his excellent book Light Rains Sometimes Fall and Nature’s Calendar, gives everyone something to notice and engage with whatever the weather or time of year. )
I’ve been down to the sea three times this week, so there’s going to be a watery theme this week. Even if you don’t live near the sea, I hope you all have a stretch of water you can access to get some blue space goodness.
Noticing
Being by the sea, being in the sea is, I think, one of the immersive (literally! - sorry, had to!) sensory experiences you can have in nature. Sometimes it’s in the background, the sound, the feeling on your skin. But if you tune in, you really are in the moment, experiencing everything. The sights, sounds, smells, sensations and salt on your skin.
This weekend was the 6th anniversary of my swim group - the Salty Seabirds. Some of us came together to celebrate at sunset, with the Harvest full moon waiting her turn to rise. The warmth of September, air and sea makes the Harvest moon swims particularly wonderful. The sea is still warm (relatively - it is at its warmest at this point but is still classed as ‘cold’), your teeth aren’t chattering as you get dressed after but snuggling into a fleece is justified and sunset happens at a much more reasonable time for getting home to dinner and bed!
I haven’t been into the sea much this summer, it’s been uncharacteristically rough here in the channel and I can’t handle the waves. But the low spring tides brought by the Supermoon means you can bounce without taking your feet off the ground, how could I resist? Even now, a few days later I can be back there in my mind. The feeling of the salt on my lips, the first splash of a wave before I’ve fully immersed, slightly taking my breath away. The tangle of seaweed around my legs nudges me that this is a natural environment however much man has tried to shape and control it. The sunset is amplified by the rippling sea, turning an average landscape into stunning beauty.
The sounds of the sea and the joy of my fellow swimmers are all around. In the water, that is all there is, only when we turn to see if the moon has appeared does the city loom large again (as usual, thanks to Brighton’s tall buildings, the moon doesn’t actually become visible until we are out of the water, we always face the choice - swim with the sunset, or the moon).
And so, for a few moments, while you’re nice and dry, come with me into the water, and I hope you can understand a few of these sensory experiences, including the joy of my friends as an addition to the soundtrack!
While, as you may have realised, I am a huge advocate of swimming outdoors, just being by it can bring as many benefits; calm, joy, peace, and mindfulness. Just look at how many meditation tracks have the ocean as background music. There is so much research into this, the science, the psychology, the geography, but I don’t have the brain capacity to go into it now. This is about noticing it, not needing to understand it.
So the moments where I’ve stayed completely dry on the beach, have been just as important, and fruitful. The pebbles provide endless mindful (and creative) moments, gazing at the patterns, shapes, and colours. Even more so when you spot a heart, a fossil, a hagstone (those with holes through the middle), or those that the sea has smoothed to be perfectly round. That I know certain friends collect these connects me with them even when they aren’t there.
Then there’s the wildlife, admittedly there isn’t as much here as in some coastal areas, but the chance of a seal or dolphin means every random shape on the horizon is analysed. While some may discount all the gulls as ‘seagulls’ ready to steal your chips, I was very excited a few weeks ago to realise one exceedingly large version was, in fact, a Great Black-Backed gull that I’d previously only seen in the wilds of Scotland. Even the most everyday wildlife can provide nature connections. During a brief beach break I had a lovely conversation with this Crow (fairly sure it’s a Crow, it could have been a juvenile Rook - anyone better at me at id’ing them?)
I hope you can get some blue space moments in your days, even if you are inland, even if it’s just a pond or stream, it will be worth it. Just stop for a few minutes and look, listen, and connect.
Creating
There has been a fair amount of sea based inspiration and experimenting, but no final pieces I’m entirely happy with, so you’ll just have to put up with snippets. I had been fully focused on continuing with my abstract landscape adventures, but the sea has called and put inspiration in front of my nose and demanded not to be ignored.
I mean, how could I not paint this Sea troll found lurking on the prom! (actually, a mussel shell colonised by seaweed but it reminded me of those strange plastic trolls teenagers had in their pencil cases in the 90’s)
Then, this line of seaweed on the pebbles called to me and immediately started painting itself in my brain, I just haven’t yet got it right on paper yet. If only you could see what I create in my mind!
Hopefully I’ll have the energy to sit back at my desk soon, I’ve been restricted to crochet on the sofa after the sunset bounce.
Reading
Most of my reading is currently taken up by my book club’s current read but as it’s not really a bedtime read, I have started Guy Shrubshole’s ‘The Lost Rainforests of Britain’ and I’m really enjoying it. Eloquent and informative, it’s taking me to these precious environments that are so undervalued and misunderstood in this country. Yes, we do have rainforests in Britain, not tropical, but temperate and just as wet and green. I’m lucky enough to have visited one of these Lost Rainforests and although it was a few years ago now, it has stayed clear in my mind, so comes to mind vividly as I read. I urge everyone to read it, or at least look at the website. I have long been frustrated that we view habitat destruction as something other countries do and important landscapes as something other countries have. Tropical rainforests were the first posterchilds of the environmental movement and it is of course right that we fight for their survival and restoration but the focus on these faraway places means we have not noticed, that habitats just as important are here in this country and are being destroyed. They capture carbon just as much as the tropical versions do. These habitats (peatlands as well) are now relegated to small pockets of land or so degraded they are ghosts of their former beauty and value.
And that’s only from the first chapter - I’ll report back more once I’ve finished it.
So, thank you for reading, I’m still getting back into the swing of writing, not back to the timetable I published to before, but thank you for still being here. If you think someone might enjoy this, please do pass it on, all posts are still public.
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What a lovely piece to read and beautiful photographs. Our artist journeys sound similar and I really resonate with your bit about having the energy to get back and create. The beach is a tonic, so much to see and to spark creativity. 🙏💜