Nature
The Crocosmia in my garden is flowering. I am pretty sure it is a bit early this year, usually it stealths into August – but a couple of weeks into July and already bright colour is exploding above its tall green leaves. The plant originates from the planes of South Africa but is seemingly very happy almost anywhere, and so like many others I enjoy it’s late season colour each year in my difficult south-facing London back garden.
As much as I enjoy its arrival, there is also something about it which reminds me that we are well past midsummer, closer to the next season than the start of the current one. Although I am someone who loves changes – the exciting time from spring into summer where plants make the most of the abundance of light available is galvanising. Things will slow down from now on.
This year that exciting burst into life in the UK was particularly welcome; the natural world’s exuberance brought excitement and momentum to our hunkered down, cautious existence.
Nature’s timeline has been something that has historically underpinned, but increasingly exists next to our way of life. When we engage with it nature connects us to our world, but also to time. Our own relationship with time and particularly the passing of it often feels a battle, the natural world is hard to distinguish from it.
Samples.
The Stubborn Light of Things
Melissa Harrison is a novelist and nature writer whose understanding of the natural world, and its relationship to our own has helped me to understand both better in recent years. Her most recent book All Among The Barley left me a different person from the one that started it; her podcast The Stubborn Light of Things has been a friend throughout this growing season, and the tumultuous times we experienced in it.
Music.
Akio Suzuki & Lawrence English – Boombana
Skee Mask – MDP5
Sylvain Chauveau – or
Christopher Bissonnette – Black Will Swallow the Red
TM404 – MC202 Quartet
AKAI SOLO – An Ode To The Isolated (prod. argov)
Viktor Udvari – Boring
Error Lake – Nameless
Choppers X Screwers – Pop Smoke – She Got A Thing (Nammy Wams Grossbeat Chop)
Jynxstarr – Duffle Bag Instrumental
SBK & Eyez – Bits
Lijah – Boss (Instrumental)
Logan – All Together (Vocal)
Phossa – Static
Ago – Flashin’
Pinch – Qawwali
Lukid – The Clappers
тпсб – Dream Houses Of The Global North
Secret Pyramid – Ceremony II
Valiska – Across a City, Across a Country pt 3
Mary Lattimore – Quintana
Krust – True Stories
Cover image thanks to Lotus Johnson on Flickr