Seeking Wisdom
It seems I am having a wave of synchronicities from last weeks post. I bought a book by Dr Tara Swart “Signs” from listening to her on Jay Shetty podcast and same day I began reading it a Robin turned up whilst I was photographing November in Bakethin Nature Reserve and kept me company. The Robin was significant in Tara book as it was a sign from her passed away husband. Maybe my little friend was a spirit from my parents just to see what I am doing.
My last weeks post was about loneliness and on the 1st I drew my monthly Tarot card “ The Hermit” which collaborated with my seeking wisdom and my quest to be at peace with myself. Our inner journeys are always alone and as each and everyone of us are different, we have to find our own truth. The card is gentle reminder of giving myself the grace of time , energy and compassion to work through aspects of my life so that I may evolve.
Then by chance of a free hour I watched another Jay Shetty Podcast with the neuroscientist Emily McDonald. Some of her work with regards to how our minds work I already knew but it is refreshing to listen to another’s perspective due to their own life experiences. Part of the Hermits path is there maybe other teachers and they come in all forms and even though Emily is a young person , there is great wisdom in her.
In the podcast Emily said something which hit me really hard and I struggled to sleep for a few days after as it kept on coming back with into my mind “what is it that I cannot see ?” Our minds are programmed throughout our lives and more significantly as children which creates our reality. We often think ourselves as failures but the reality is that our minds may just not be programmed in the way of others.
We can change our perception and what we want to be and a good antidote for moving passed what our subconscious is through feeling, self talk and rewarding ourselves of change. I was really taken by Emily method of asking “what feeling do I want to experience when I create the life I want to live ? “ and “why do I want to have the feeling ?” I am spending the remaining year in getting deep into clarity of what this means to me as I quite often lazy in just taking other peoples words without meditating on them.
I realised my old patterns had not changed and I am still chasing validation , acceptance, inclusion and being beholden to people mainly indifferent to me.
My thinking has been so limited in my worthiness and belief in what I can create in my life. My struggle with the “why’ is suppressed with old stuck generational beliefs and thinking about identity and maybe even more deeper stuff which I am not aware of. My simple answer is “I love what I do “ I feel free and lit up when I paint , or wander nature with my camera and I feel that it has worth to others.
The last synchronicity was along with the “Hermit” I drew am Angle card and it is “evolution” .
Things appear into our lives when we are ready for them and the work we do is levelling up to align ourselves to what is to come. Emily stated this is like being in a computer game and accessing higher levels. We have to be intentional to create a reality of what we wish to become through action and reminding ourselves of our truth through self talk and affirmations whilst giving ourselves grace.
Hareshaw Linn
It was a beautiful warm November morning for my photographic visit and there was anxious thoughts to what I would find. I had the same both at Bakethin & Bull Crag but the outcome was good and would have been better if I had realised my stabilisation on my macro lens was switched off.
It always surprises me how much nature shows itself to me and I think each and every time I go my connection deepens to the place and my ability to see more through what I love deepens.
I am waiting for the temperature to crisp up a wee bit for my next visits as this changes the colours whilst having lovely frosty embellishments.
I couldn’t move in October without bumping into a mushroom but now that’s diminished and I have to go hunting. My seeking for scenes which tell the story of late Autumn intensifies as not everything is on a plate like spring and summer. It is the increasing absence which tells the story of late autumn and winter.
Along the Burn bank proceeding the approach to the woodland are Alder trees with their two types of catkins ( male and female) , Sycamore and Hawthorn trees. The sycamore seeds are almost now fallen and dispersed into the area due to the recent storms and will be popping up indiscrimently in the summer mainly to peoples irritation. The Hawthorn tree now stripped of their leaves reveal the gnarly lichen encrusted branches and twigs holding ever darkening constellations of red.
Some old plants have lovely white seeds which I think are as beautiful than their summer flowers. I love the monochromatic feeling they have.
Bakethin Nature Reserve
My first place to visit for my November photographs which was meant to be a day outside painting, but when I saw the frost I could not resist going to take photographs. I must admit as it was going to be painting my plan was 9am rather than 7.30am so I missed the best of the frost It is a beautiful thing to get here in summer at 5am and feel the summer warmth and its vibrancy but I love the chilly weather , the cold hands and breath most of all the muted chromatic effect it has on nature.
At the beginning of the walk there were multi coloured leaves with a touch of frost on their tips and slight skim over the leaf muting down their hues which feels so calming and pleasing . Autumn colours seem to have a homely feel to them. Once the temperature rose everything had a glistening sheen to them allowing what little light the forest had to offer reflect on tiny mushrooms hiding in the moss.
What is special to me is the little nature scenes of moss , old blackberry plants and fungus which I spend my time slowing right down so I do not miss one.
There is a whole spectrum of fern colours during their winter transition lining different parts of the nature reserve, mostly Bracken which I adore when they turn the coppery colour before turning black and melting back into the ground. There is one place in the reserve which is quite magical for me ever since I have been coming here. In spring tiny unfolded ferns hid behind a fallen tree and still now fully erect and proud, these Hard Ferns are starting to change individually colour into golden yellows and tips of red.
The cold frost brought a new dimension to my favourite nature pond especially when the low sun streamed through the forest highlighting the tall whitened grasses and causing mysterious mist to form over the water. The Bullrush still domains its centre with pride of place . I have got quite attached to looking forward to seeing the Bullrush each month , it magically came into being and now I am determined to see when it returns back with anticipation for spring.
Serenity of the Wild
Making a place within my diary and also my art website for my outside painting in Bakethin Nature Reserve is a motivator for me. In my art website my message is about being inspired by nature but making your own authentic marks along with it is about process not outcome. Art doesn’t have to be manufactured products but expression of our souls and humanness. Just make it anyway regardless of judgement. However , there is another message especially in a digital age with the oncoming AI is that being in nature physically painting is human , it is real , it is awkward and messy , it is connection to what supports our life , it is becoming nature itself.
There is a danger that those Billionaires who support AI will separate us from nature and each other so that they may profit. A new movement of physically making art in nature turns the narrative back to humanity and love.
Behind what you see
lies ourselves
our lines
our colours
our shapes
find yourself
through looking
Christopher Evans
watercolour on A3 heavy weight cartridge paper.
Bull Crag Peninsular
All along the verge adjacent to the lakeside are there most beautiful clumps of grasses which I keep on making a terrible job of photographing. I am in love with the spectrum of greens to oranges on the nearly barren ground into a watercolour painting of soft dreamy hues. I asked a lovely solitary tree whether it could help create a picture to elevate the beautiful clumps of grasses so here we are.
Beauty exists both in the bountiful and within the solitary and when I see the autumn colours the painter Mark Rothko springs into my mind. Mark wasn’t looking for academic colour theory relationships , conceptual art or intellectual meaning he was seeking the spiritualness of colour through our lived experiences and feelings.
This is the same work we do in nature connection with remembrance we all experience life differently so there is not a right or wrong way. A simple 5 minutes of stillness to settle the mind and let those colours infuse into your being , let go of thinking and judgement and just naturally breathe whilst noticing what feelings within you arise.
You may feel a strong impulse to move away but just let that be by placing your hand on your heart for a moment feeling life pump around you and stay with the colours of nature a little longer and then acknowledge your new skill in being with stillness with nature and learning to notice your own self along with loving the colours of nature in your heart.
Whilst walking along the old road along the lakeshore I had noticed some of the pine trees which the needles have yellowed and beautiful cones adorning them. It is the stripping back which manifests the great reveal with the realisation that it is the uncovering of what triggers us which reveals our innate clarity and inner peace.
New research now tells us that the Silver Birch are like medicine trees to a Forest in which they send essential nutrients to other species and that when they are absent the Forest comes sicker.
As things dissolve back into the ground the forest reveals more beauty especially the wisdom keepers of the forest , the tree stumps. Kept alive through mother trees sending them love and their cambium jacket keeping. They have a micro world of their own and I am obsessed with them. The shapes , colours and eco system which of me tells a little story of life.
Now the proud thistle plant is humbled but never disgraced with its transformation into alluring twisted shapes but never giving up its identity of prickliness.
The catkins of the Alder tree become more apparent as the leaves are reduced by the storms.
Alder (Alnus glutinous) is another native tree to the British Isles and steeped in folklore. Alder is a water lover and often found alongside streams which this one is and swampy groves.
Due to its amazing strength qualities whilst in water it was used Scotland for the piles supporting Crannogs which are artificial islands on lakes and bogs and lived in from 800BC or earlier to late 17th century. Alder charcoal has high burning quality which lent itself to forging weapons and jewellery alongside the making of gunpowder due to its ease to coppice. It is forbidden in Irish lore to fell an alder tree and will bring bad luck.. Alder is part of the Gaelic astrology and is assigned to the period of 18th March to 14th April where people born within this time are known as adventurers and pathfinders.
The green tree dye from the catkins is associated to Robin Hood and the clothing of Fairies.
It is said that Deirdre of sorrows eloped from Ireland to Scotland with Naoise , son of Usna and hid in the Alder woods of Glen Etibhe and now has association to secrecy and hiding.
