This, for me, is the month of darkness that even the twinkliest of lights and brightest of candles cannot completely dispel. As the shortest day looms large I grab every moment I can get in the light and revel in the bite of the wind even as I slip and slide on wet leaves and … More A Year in the Woods: December
The leaves are now falling, the paths carpeted in lush russets and yellows. It is the time of year I find myself playing “leaf or fungi” as I approach fallen trees and see, from too far away to see detail, spots of paler colours dotted across their bark. Mostly the splotches are leaves but every … More A Year in the Woods: November
June is the month where I see quite a lot of 4 o’clock in the morning thanks to a body which really likes waking up with the sun. Not that I’m complaining since it means that I pretty much get the woods to myself and, if I’m quiet, see the young rabbits and foxes and … More A Year in the Woods: June
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
In the Ramtops village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away – until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. … More Outdoor Advent Day 6
Kizzia Mildmay 