Winter’s Presence
Our resident nature journaling workshop leader, Shilpa Agashe, muses on her changing perspective of winter through her experiences on the heath and elsewhere.
Photo: Shilpa Agashe
As winter loosens its grip and the first snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils quietly emerge, I find myself pausing to reflect on what this season means to me.
Every year, we travel to India in December, trading the chill for warmth and sunshine, knowing that upon our return, the landscape will be wrapped in cold and muted shades of grey. Yet, despite the contrast, I have come to appreciate the quiet beauty of winter, especially on the heath.
A book I borrowed from the library, Winter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik, shifted my perspective. It opened up the idea of seeing winter not as a season of absence, but as one with its own distinct presence.
In winter the landscape reveals its hidden architecture; a sprawl of lines, branches spreading leisurely across the sky. One notices the quiet nests left behind by birds, and the elegant, thorny brambles that in summer are concealed beneath the softness of foliage. I love watching the willows around the ponds catching the low winter sun and glowing a rich honey gold. Seed heads are particularly beautiful during early winter. Wild carrot, hogweed, teasel, and dock, all found on the heath, are some of my favourites, especially on frosty mornings.
Photo: Shilpa Agashe
There is a peculiar delight in walking over frozen mud, feeling the brittle ice crackle beneath my well-worn wellies. One of winter’s simple gifts is the ease of witnessing the dawn. Through much of January, the sun takes its time, rising around 8:00 am—a reasonable hour to catch golden light spilling over Parliament Hill. There, the world seems to hold its breath, the skeletal trees silhouetted against a sky streaked with pink and amber, and for a moment, winter feels less like a season to endure and more like one to savour.
I have used the idea of "Winter as a Presence" across my winter nature journaling workshops this year on the heath. As a group, we have focused on paying attention to details of the landscape that reveal themselves in winter.
One of our participants had a rather interesting thought to share, which I am paraphrasing here: Often, most of winter is spent in anticipation of spring or summer, but I realise that there is a lot to enjoy now in winter rather than waiting for it to finish.
Photo: Shilpa Agashe
