Hello friends,
How is the landscape colored in your part of the world right now?
I’ll get back to this question in a moment. But first, here’s a bit of background. I live in the Northeastern USA, a region that used to consist of long, snowy winters. The weather patterns are changing though, and we no longer have winter from October-May. At least not what I consider to be winter (several feet of snow and cold temperatures).
When I first moved to New York State, close to twenty years ago, I was used to mild winters (having grown up in Southern England, the Southern USA, and the Bahamas). I used to dread the first snow of the season, because I knew I’d be frightfully cold for the next six months. How funny that winters started to become less severe a few years ago, right around the time I learned to love winter.
And I do love winter. I love the snow. Especially on a ridiculously cold yet sunny day when rainbows appear in the blanket of white.
People often comment on how bleak and colorless the landscape is in my part of the world in winter, and this always leaves me feeling surprised. Colorless? Really? How can they not see the colors of the winter landscape?
On my walk today I noticed….
Bright red winter berries
Brilliant purple blackberry canes
Various shades of deep green from evergreens
Luminous gold and silver trunks and branches of birches and beech trees
That’s a lot of colors! But now, I want to talk specifically about the color purple through the seasons, as the blackberry canes were what caught my eye the most, and I started thinking about how purple is such a prominent color in all seasons.
As we cycle through the year, purple can be found in winter in blackberry canes, the first crocuses of spring, spring violets, late spring to midsummer milkweed blooms, summer ground-ivy, flowers of herbs like chives, late summer chicory and sweet joe pye, and autumn asters. And these are only a few of the plants that grow in the wild around where I live. I didn’t include garden flowers such as lilacs and irises, or the wild fruits like grapes and blackberries.
With this in mind, next time you are out walking in nature, I urge you to notice the colors all around you. See if you can choose a few colors for each season. One of my favorite things is noticing how the landscape around me changes with each season, and how certain colors can be found in every season.
Flowers pictured are crocuses, asters, chicory, and flowering chives. All are found in the wild around where I live.
I hope you enjoy this tip for embracing a life of enchanted simplicity and finding beauty and magic in the ordinary.
With love,
p.s. My first published poem of the year will be up on Kind Over Matter on January 27th! And, because I’m “supposed” to promote my work, here is a reminder that my poetry chapbook True North is available to purchase in paperback and e-book format. The paperback version is on sale for $7.28 right now! The Wistful Wild is also available.
Wow, what you have written here is so inspiring ✨ - it almost feels as if I could step through your words into the wintery landscape you are describing, red berries and all. It’s such a beautiful, gentle reminder to pay attention to what is present. I am reminded of my own time spent in Colorado, on the edge of the desert lands. When I first arrived there, I looked at the land and saw only barren dirt and a few scraggly trees. But over time I began to notice the ins and outs of thriving life in the desert - the little lichens that grow on the rocks, and the varying environments that ranged from sage lowlands to pinion pine heights, to the cottonwood trees along the riversides.
Besides the colors of nature, I like to observe the wildlife and in particular the different birds in my area and how their behavior changes during the seasons. It helps that I put out wild bird seed in the winter and keep water in the birdbath. Most of them get quite tame and trusting over time and a few I recognize each day, especially some of the doves that stay year round.