Outdoor Advent – Kizzia Mildmay

A crocheted Christmas pudding decoration (a circle made of brown yarn with its top covered in white yarn appliqué and, two green stitched holly leaves and a red stitched berry) hangs from a pine branch on what is clearly a real Christmas tree. In the background are strands of thin gold tinsel, tiny glass baubles and wire lights.

Outdoor Advent Day 24

December 24, 2020

On Christmas Eve we bring the outdoors indoors! This is our tiny little potted Christmas tree which is small and crooked and all the more perfect because of that. Once the holidays are over this tree will be thanked for its service and planted in the back garden where I’m sure it will be welcomed … More Outdoor Advent Day 24

A close up of some old man's beard (the climbing shrub with seed pods that are long white and furry) next to some bright red berries. Nature doing its own Christmas decorations.

Outdoor Advent Day 23

December 23, 2020

You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear. – page 239, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman When I first read these words I had to put the book down and have a bloody good cry. Since then they have been written into the first page of every … More Outdoor Advent Day 23

Outdoor Advent Day 22

December 22, 2020

This peaceful little video of one of the local coots doing a spot of dabbling in the mill pond is for anyone who is having a hectic, frustrating day and everyone who isn’t but would like a moment to just breath. ___________ Today I am the sort of tired that hurts. This is mostly thanks … More Outdoor Advent Day 22

The mill pond on an extremely overcast and grey day with the wood rising behind it in the background. The water is coloured green by the reflections of the trees. On the opposite shore there is a boat platform and steps leading into the woods.

Outdoor Advent Day 21

December 21, 2020

This afternoon feels as if it sits outside the flow of time, needing to be filled with solitude and small quiet thoughts rather than flurries of words. So I offer up one of the most achingly beautiful poems I’ve read recently, instead of any words of my own: Hymn to Time Time says “Let there … More Outdoor Advent Day 21

A view of the stream from a bank set on a sharp bend, so it looks as if the photographer is standing in the water to take the shot. The water is dark and muddied, the reflections of the woods surrounding it partial and shaken with the ripples in the water. The banks are a tangle of greenery, the trees bear moss and ivy rather than leaves. In the distance is just possible to pick out the bridge crossing the stream.

Outdoor Advent Day 20

December 20, 2020

The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration – how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone … More Outdoor Advent Day 20

A very autumnal corner of the wood, with a leaf strewn path leading away through the trees to the right. The ground to the sides of the path is green as well as as russet orange thanks to the ivy and ground plants mixed with the leaves. Most of the trees are bare but a few have yellow gold leaves clinging on.

Outdoor Advent Day 19

December 19, 2020

I believe that the great stretches of forest in northern Europe, with their constant seasonal changes, their restricted views, their astonishing biological diversity, their secret gifts and perils and the knowledge that you have to go through them to get to anywhere else, created the themes and ethics of the fairytales we know best. There … More Outdoor Advent Day 19

A close up of vivid green fluffy moss growing on a rotten branch. Behind, out of focus, are orange brown fallen leaves and a dark green growth of what might be ivy.

Outdoor Advent Day 18

December 18, 2020

Look to your soul, for that is where you originate. You write the story of you every day with your thoughts, words and deeds. You create yourself. You get to decide your story. No one else. You. – The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge I’ve said before that change is the human condition. What I … More Outdoor Advent Day 18

A dead tree trunk lies on the floor of the wood surrounded by brambles and fallen leaves in various shades of greens and browns. Growing on the trunk is a fungus (type unknown) with beige/white colouring that make each section of it look like flattened, browned marshmallows.

Outdoor Advent Day 17

December 17, 2020

A good one, if you’re starving, could saveyour life. A bad one would kill youafter only one bite. Step on its poison head,it billows black fumes. – a stanza from Fungi by Tamar Yoseloff I found this poem by accident when I was wandering down a few internet rabbit holes after trying to attribute the … More Outdoor Advent Day 17

This picture is mostly shades of woods and forest green. It is dominated by two huge trees looming above the camera, leaning towards each other to make a pointed arch. They look to be covered with so much ivy and other evergreen climbing plants that you cannot tell they've lost their leaves for autumn. it is almost impossible to see a path through them.

Outdoor Advent Day 16

December 16, 2020

This I choose to do. If there is a price, this I choose to pay. If it is my death, then I choose to die. Where this takes me, there I choose to go. I choose. This I choose to do. – page 10, Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett How I think about choice has made … More Outdoor Advent Day 16

A leaf strewn path meanders away through the trees. The trees that border the path have mostly bare trunks but those further into the wood (and the one closest to the photographer) have ivy climbing all over them and hints of moss too. The sky, seen through the tree branches, is mottled grey and white.

Outdoor Advent Day 15

December 15, 2020

‘There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’ ‘It’s a lot more complicated than that-‘ ‘No it ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re … More Outdoor Advent Day 15

Kizzia Mildmay

Word Herder and Yarn Wrangler

Category: Outdoor Advent