Vignettes: Day I
13th January 2025
The sky this lunchtime was a dull silver drift, allowing no sight of the mountains beyond the hills, beyond the firth. The woodland floor was sodden, the temperature having shifted from minus eleven degrees less than forty-eight hours previously to eleven degrees. Every last scrap of last week’s substantial snow had vanished almost overnight. It was strange walking through the woods, feeling almost springlike after a deep midwinter. Nearly at the edge of the woods on the return leg, I was surprised to hear the drumming of hooves. Many hooves, not just a single horse. I looked around, to see if there was any sign of a herd of deer, even though I couldn’t imagine the sound having been made by deer. Deer almost seem to float above the ground. In any case, there was nothing. Two crows flew up from the woodland floor, startled, and bickered off in the direction of the dun. The drumming continued for a second or two more, as I turned a full circle trying to find the source, then faded to nothing almost immediately. Walking back down the hill towards home, the sun broke through the first bank of cloud. Still mostly hidden, she sent shielded rays earthward. It is a full moon tonight.
I chose this diary note for the first vignette of the latest iteration of my personal newsletter, launched in January 2025. Each edition includes updates of any recent creative activity, as well as skits and whatnot of a more personal nature. It was this new structure for a newsletter that inspired me to choose “Vignettes” as my theme for this December notebook, so it seems fitting to start this season with the same excerpt.
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