Month: Mar 2020

Golden hour

Martyna2 Comments

Two days ago I was woken up by the sunshine going through the window. Completely unusual event – I can’t remember the last time the sky was so clear during the whole day, without being interrupted by a sudden rain. I took my dog for a morning walk. Despite the sun, in the beginning I could still notice frosty grass in the shadow, and breath in a bit chilly air; but before we started heading back home, the temperature had risen, tempting to continue our stroll. We were crossing my village’s vast fields, sometimes so muddy that it was quite difficult to move the shoes forward, meeting lambs, horses, hens, and wild deer on our way.

As the weather was too stunning not to take advantage of it, after finding my lost camera, in the late afternoon we went out again, towards the golden hour. It’s been such a long time, two years probably, since I brought the camera with me and took some photos of nature. Just for the sheer pleasure of it.

The reality was far beyond all my expectations – the sunset’s light was just too perfect, giving the surrounding an orangey tint, softening the contours, deepening the shadows. Simply breathtaking. Such a pity it can never be properly shown in pictures!

We were coming back at dusk, with the sky slowly turning into violet. Nothing adventurous happened but it felt so magical. You don’t need to travel far, sometimes the biggest beauty is literally just around the corner.

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Last week I came back home to my little village in the south of Poland. Quite a spontaneous idea of my worried family due to the coronavirus outbreak in Veneto – but the moment I found myself sitting in a cosy café in the centre of Katowice after 14 hours spent on a bus, I realize how wonderful that idea was. No matter how much I enjoy spending time on my own in another country, it’s always a nice feeling of having all my friends in such a short distance away from me.

Right now I’m sitting by a large desk in my room, being embraced by the silence, sometimes interrupted by calm sounds. There are birds chirping in the woods nearby, the cat snoring on the bed (yes, cats can snore!), a dog barking somewhere far away. When I look through the window, I can notice the line of my beloved mountains, waiting to be visited as soon as the weather stops being so inconsistent. It happened that during one hour I could witness all conditions, one after another: rain, hail, snow, sun, repeated.

Four days after my arrival, I woke up seeing all the neighborhood covered with a layer of snow. I took my dog and we went for a long walk before breakfast. The next day the snow was entirely gone, a day after we had almost +15 degrees. Winter wonderland doesn’t seem to happen again but still, I’m beyond happiness that I could have that white landscape, even if only for several hours.

This is actually my favourite place in the village, that S curved road going down the hill, with the only “cow” sign in the area (a plot twist – I’ve never seen any cow here). The best spot to watch the sunset, as behind those trees there are only large fields and some tiny hills on the horizon. Nothing to interfere with the sky.

All that nature, the silence around, the feeling like I am in a totally different world, inspires me so much to create and to transfer my thoughts into words. Countless handwritten pages to my penfriends, some of them waiting for my answer since December. Days when I can’t even find my desk under the stacks of art materials and tons of pieces of ripped paper; when my fingers are covered with glue. Liters of tea and coffee.

I’m trying to get as much as I can out of that “home time” before going back to reality – as well as going back to adventures, both big and small, local (all in all, I’m still under that precautious “quarantine” thing). Getting ready for wandering again.