A New Season

It is remarkable the difference that a few days can make as the seasons turn. Just a few days ago it looked as if there was autumn hint just around the corner, today it looks as if the season has really started in earnest.

The start of autumn marks an important anniversary for me too as its one year since I moved to my village and fell in love with my forest. And what a year it has been. If last year someone had told me that I would be living my life as I am now doing, I would not have believed that person. While living in this former mining village has had its difficult moments, where I was living was far worse. It was a very deprived inner city area, which was so depraved that in the morning I could look out of my window upon the view of people injecting drugs, openly, in the street. It was so rough that it was impossible for the town to get twinned, but I believe it did have a suicide pact with Beirut.

Thus moving to this village was and has been a breath of fresh air for me. I have always been in love with the natural environment and had I not been able to reconnect with nature in the way that I have been able to do, then I think I would have gone mad. Not in any metaphorical sense, but very much in a literal sense. I already had to take anti-depressants, what I called my happy pills, as I had to live in conditions and an environment that no human should have to live in. But that was then, now I have a beautiful forest on my doorstep, and I have encountered so much wildlife that I have to remember that my old life and living space is still only ten miles away.

The other positive aspect of the move to this village has been the reawakening of my creative sprit. While I tried hard to retain previously, it almost impossible to be creative when all you can see is destruction and destructive people around. As I have said before its far easier to destroy something than to create something.

That’s not to say that there are not destructive forces around the village, but fortunately they are still in the minority. Nor am I saying that living here is some kind of rural ideal, it is far from that. But I would rather live with the beauty of the countryside and wildlife than in some inner city hovel.

The picture is of the reflected wood in the Derwent River.