Alastair Humphreys on IG says:
al_humphreys A year ago, I bought a cheap old film camera on eBay and took one photo of a tree every Thursday morning.
It took very little time or effort. Just one photo. No fuss, no overcomplication, no editing, or anything else likely to put me off. Noticing nearby nature can be as easy as remembering to look up at a tree on your next walk to the shops. But my good resolutions always fade and habits get forgotten unless I schedule them deliberately into my routine, like this.
It guaranteed that I got out briefly each week to see how my tree was faring, and perhaps also to notice how I was getting on too. I came to really look forward to each tiny outing. It became a quiet ritual stitched into my week.
Returning to the same tree every week made me aware of how my own internal weather coloured what I saw. I suspect the weeks I least wanted to be there were probably the weeks I most needed to get out into the woods.
Scheduling time in nature like this reminded me that although change is slow and incremental, it is also enormous, whether that is the seasons in a wood or other long-term goals and projects.
My tree is not a special tree. But by looking at it every week, it became special to me. Photographing it taught me to be attentive, to be observant, and helped me forge a relationship with this place.
You do not reconnect with nature by being lectured into action, or waiting for a grand, life-altering moment. You rewild yourself by stepping outside for 15 minutes, over and over again, and looking closely at a tree as the seasons roll round and round and round.
People fly thousands of miles to chase spring blossom or photograph the colours of autumn. But over the last year, I've enjoyed a wild lap of the solar system every Thursday without having to go anywhere. If you're patient enough, all the seasons come straight to you.
Later in the week, he posted on his new project: painting the tree once a month
Last week I posted here about the year I'd spent photographing a tree once a week. Well, it turns out I missed my tree, so I've now decided to try to paint it once a month for a year!
I limited myself to 30 minutes for the painting because that feels like an achievable amount of time - and also because I would otherwise still be sitting there in 10 hours' time, growing furious at how bad my picture is, and then quitting the whole stupid project.
I really enjoyed this first attempt. Not because of the finished product (despite the evidence, I am NOT in fact six years old), but my satisfaction came from paying attention to the woods and focusing hard on a single task for a period of time.
I'm already looking forward to returning to see what has changed in March.
On This Day (02/15):
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