As a photographer, I attach great value to walking the same route again and again. Repetition is never mere repetition. The light changes, the wind shifts, small details reveal themselves that you missed a hundred times before. You think you know a place, but each return unsettles that certainty.
For my long-term series There Is Always Time for Another Wave, I have walked the same stretch of Belgian beach for nearly ten years. I still haven’t seen it all. Each return feels both familiar and new, as if the landscape were quietly re-composing itself in my absence. Perhaps true seeing begins only after familiarity has stripped away novelty, when what remains is attention itself.
We've kayaked on the same pond near our house for the last 10 years, often everyday. It’s not a large pond so we can circumnavigate it all in 20 minutes. Still, it affords daily surprises - blooming turtle head flowers, a new herons nest, a balancing turtle, the beavers at work on a new tree. The magic of the light, the seasons, the silence is extreme if you give it time to penetrate deep.
Your missives do that to me. Thank you. Your writing is delicious.
This is a charming piece. I admit, I don't always take the time to read your posts, but very pleased when I do. And, as someone who hasn't been to Paris in a while, I'm longing to go again, this time on my own, and to spend more time, to linger. Many thanks.
As someone else whose desire lines are as much about that sense of a familiar place as anything else, I adored this. One small thing our local council has done is seeding verges and some of the more gritty/muddy corners of parks with wildflowers. They are astonishing in their beauty.
Thank you for these missives..."the roses filled the room with a scent so powerful it was like an emotion..." I love the wildness of (seeming) unattended gardens, where life is allowed to do its own thing in perfect concert. And I too, am a stickler for habit on my walks (I must be a dog in another life, because my dog appreciates the familiar also!)...it is when you see the unexpected there, that attention sits up and listens.
As a photographer, I attach great value to walking the same route again and again. Repetition is never mere repetition. The light changes, the wind shifts, small details reveal themselves that you missed a hundred times before. You think you know a place, but each return unsettles that certainty.
For my long-term series There Is Always Time for Another Wave, I have walked the same stretch of Belgian beach for nearly ten years. I still haven’t seen it all. Each return feels both familiar and new, as if the landscape were quietly re-composing itself in my absence. Perhaps true seeing begins only after familiarity has stripped away novelty, when what remains is attention itself.
I love this, and you're so right. The light changes, the wind shifts, the familiar dissolves and changes slowly.
We've kayaked on the same pond near our house for the last 10 years, often everyday. It’s not a large pond so we can circumnavigate it all in 20 minutes. Still, it affords daily surprises - blooming turtle head flowers, a new herons nest, a balancing turtle, the beavers at work on a new tree. The magic of the light, the seasons, the silence is extreme if you give it time to penetrate deep.
Your missives do that to me. Thank you. Your writing is delicious.
Some moments don’t ask to be understood.
Just to be noticed before they disappear.
I adore your writing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read 💜
This is a charming piece. I admit, I don't always take the time to read your posts, but very pleased when I do. And, as someone who hasn't been to Paris in a while, I'm longing to go again, this time on my own, and to spend more time, to linger. Many thanks.
🙏
These are such lovely little pieces, all on their own. Thank you for sharing them!!
Thank you!
As someone else whose desire lines are as much about that sense of a familiar place as anything else, I adored this. One small thing our local council has done is seeding verges and some of the more gritty/muddy corners of parks with wildflowers. They are astonishing in their beauty.
Thank you so much Jennie. I love when people put in wildflowers, and how they develop over time xo
Thank you for these missives..."the roses filled the room with a scent so powerful it was like an emotion..." I love the wildness of (seeming) unattended gardens, where life is allowed to do its own thing in perfect concert. And I too, am a stickler for habit on my walks (I must be a dog in another life, because my dog appreciates the familiar also!)...it is when you see the unexpected there, that attention sits up and listens.