Issue # 50 The Misc Adventures Digest

A short post for the shortest days ahead

Hello! It’s been a strange and busy couple of weeks - subsequently I have had no time to write a proper digest this week. Apologies. This is the first time in a while I have missed a weekly post and I’m a little unsettled by it. Just a blip I think, perhaps linked to the time of year.

The snow has all gone, replaced by flood and storm. All frost and sparkling winter wonder washed away for who knows how long. There is still magic to be found however in this season, a kind that lurks in the darkness of these short winter days. Trees bare their bones, silhouetted against the gloom, seemingly in slumber. Beneath our feet and in the fibres and sinews of living things, things are still in motion. Very soon, a shift will take place. Dark will yield to light. It will not go unnoticed by the wild things that wait for this subtle yet seismic shift. They made preparations ahead of time, storing energy, laying down wood, seeking connections. They are ready; we are ready too.

We are quietly preparing for the festive season here, making wreaths and stocking up on food to feast on. There is a tree in our house. We are having to think of new rituals and traditions to mark seasonal changes; our old ones were so embedded in the woods we lived in that they don’t seem to fit here.

I wonder, if you have time, if you would share what rituals and celebrations you have planned to mark the solstice or how you let the dark magic of this time of year infiltrate your day to day?

Well, that’s all for this week - I hope to be back with a full post next week!

NB: Also keep your eyes peeled for Emma’s winter edition of our seasonal foraging guide for paid subscribers!

With warmest wishes for the shortest days ahead,

Andrew, Emma and Benji

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