thanks for this, I really enjoyed walking with you and your daughter. Your observations on place always resonate with me.
While M and still live up here in Cumbria, I’ll only walk out late at night with him, I wouldn’t feel safe on my own but sadly that’s a reflection of how women feel everywhere.
Still, we’ve shared some significant walks in the darkness with our (late) dog. Down in Cornwall we hope to live harbour side in a village and it will be a very different experience walking at night : boats a-bobbing rather than sheep a-coughing!
Have you read Under the Stars: A Journey into Light by Matt Gaw? Also: A Passionate Sisterhood: The Sisters, Wives and Daughters of the Lake Poets. Kathleen Jones. The latter is fascinating as I tot-up just how many miles Dorothy (et al) used to walk. Whenever I drive past the Wordsworth’s Ambleside home to Keswick (where Coleridge and Southey lived) I think of Dorothy traipsing those miles in all the weathers, and surely arriving home again in the dark.
Thank you for your comment, Bee. I'm glad you enjoyed this post. I don't know the books you mention so I'll look them out. On reading Dorothy's diaries, I'm full of admiration - she was quite a woman.
It will be such a change for you when you make your move permanently to the south shores!
🌝 One of my favorite things in this world is Twilight. About being on the precipice of change and in-between worlds, both spiritual and earthly. I love the night, night is woman, and we need to take back the night.
Thank you for this piece. I particularly liked your thoughts about moving on to a new day and if anyone had done this before you or were you the first to pass midnight there. Walking at night is a whole different thing to daytime and I enjoy the contrast. We live near the sea and are often at the shore at night. There are, of course, street lights but the difference with daytime hangs thickly. We are also campers even in winter, and my favourite times are leaving our cosy campervan and walking through a dark campsite to the toilets, everyone else tucked up in their vans. Returning I can see the welcoming glow from the windows of my home on wheels.
Yes, Carol, the night is such a contrast - the objects of the night are framed differently, the sounds carry further somehow, the smells are more distinct. When we have less vision, our other senses take over.
Thanks for your comment!
It gives me goosebumps to think about your campervan adventures. Where to next?
Brilliant, descriptive writing - I loved every word...every image that formed in my mind - it was a lovely moment of drifting with you and your daughter in the darkness.
Your story reminded me of how wonderful I felt after an overnight hike...actually climbing a mountain in Switzerland under the guidance of the full moon. We also had torch lights on our head, but somehow, the hike was slightly more thrilling when we turned them off and allowed our eyes to adjust to the light. What an adventure!
Thank you for your comment, Jack, and the story of your moonlit climbing adventure. What is it about the night that is so thrilling I wonder? It sounds like you had a lovely time on this overnight hike. Was it with a group of people?
There were three of us, Yasmin. Looking back and thinking about that night, what stands out the most was the complete focus on every step we took. That level of mindfulness demands a lot from every sense…and that made us all feel very alive.
There’s something magical about the night. I love this line: “…the doubly dark soot-black tree line that marked the park’s perimeter was silhouetted by an urban glow, faint orange, that gently pulsed to the murmuring hearts of human occupation.”
A night walk does allow a certain contemplation and freeing of the mind, perhaps the darkness is effective in masking life's everyday problems. Of course, the silence often enhanced by the solitude helps too. Funnily enough, some years back, I took part in some Oxfam charity walks which took us through the night from 11.00 am to around lunchtime the following day, 100 kms without sleep and with only the wilds and fireflies for company. Plenty of time for thought and getting any troubles in to perspective !
Gosh, Ben, that walk for Oxfam sounds marvellous. What an adventure! I like the night. I used to live in a farm setting, with no people around for some distance. I often used to walk the fields at night, sometimes in my dressing gown!
That was vivid. And inspiring - I’ll get out for a night walk sometime.
My night walking outwith street lights has largely been unintentional, when a hill walk has taken longer than expected. I have vivid memories of one with my partner a few years ago when we had a long walk out down a glen in thick snow. No moon but the brilliance of the stars reflecting off the snow meant that we didn’t need to use our head torches.
Thanks for introducing me to a new word: obnubilating.
Hi Yasmin,
thanks for this, I really enjoyed walking with you and your daughter. Your observations on place always resonate with me.
While M and still live up here in Cumbria, I’ll only walk out late at night with him, I wouldn’t feel safe on my own but sadly that’s a reflection of how women feel everywhere.
Still, we’ve shared some significant walks in the darkness with our (late) dog. Down in Cornwall we hope to live harbour side in a village and it will be a very different experience walking at night : boats a-bobbing rather than sheep a-coughing!
Have you read Under the Stars: A Journey into Light by Matt Gaw? Also: A Passionate Sisterhood: The Sisters, Wives and Daughters of the Lake Poets. Kathleen Jones. The latter is fascinating as I tot-up just how many miles Dorothy (et al) used to walk. Whenever I drive past the Wordsworth’s Ambleside home to Keswick (where Coleridge and Southey lived) I think of Dorothy traipsing those miles in all the weathers, and surely arriving home again in the dark.
Thank you for your comment, Bee. I'm glad you enjoyed this post. I don't know the books you mention so I'll look them out. On reading Dorothy's diaries, I'm full of admiration - she was quite a woman.
It will be such a change for you when you make your move permanently to the south shores!
Exciting though.
Yes please do check out that book, maybe we can have a place-centred crosspost or whatever around it sometime.
👍
🌝 One of my favorite things in this world is Twilight. About being on the precipice of change and in-between worlds, both spiritual and earthly. I love the night, night is woman, and we need to take back the night.
Oh Laura, your words are so beautiful. Thank you for them.
Staying with my daughter and family in London over Christmas we took two night walks in parks, one to Beddington Park, magical
I'm glad to hear this, Deborah. What was the best thing about these walks for you?
What a lovely piece! I felt like I was walking alongside you. I also learned a new word: obnubilating!
Thank you Charlie. I'm glad to have given you a new word!
At night, one sees the essence of things.
Yes, indeed.
Oh you must walk at night again Yasmin.
I will, Lisa. I like the night. I like the sounds and the smells... they're all so different at night.
Thank you for this piece. I particularly liked your thoughts about moving on to a new day and if anyone had done this before you or were you the first to pass midnight there. Walking at night is a whole different thing to daytime and I enjoy the contrast. We live near the sea and are often at the shore at night. There are, of course, street lights but the difference with daytime hangs thickly. We are also campers even in winter, and my favourite times are leaving our cosy campervan and walking through a dark campsite to the toilets, everyone else tucked up in their vans. Returning I can see the welcoming glow from the windows of my home on wheels.
Yes, Carol, the night is such a contrast - the objects of the night are framed differently, the sounds carry further somehow, the smells are more distinct. When we have less vision, our other senses take over.
Thanks for your comment!
It gives me goosebumps to think about your campervan adventures. Where to next?
Brilliant, descriptive writing - I loved every word...every image that formed in my mind - it was a lovely moment of drifting with you and your daughter in the darkness.
Your story reminded me of how wonderful I felt after an overnight hike...actually climbing a mountain in Switzerland under the guidance of the full moon. We also had torch lights on our head, but somehow, the hike was slightly more thrilling when we turned them off and allowed our eyes to adjust to the light. What an adventure!
Thank you for your comment, Jack, and the story of your moonlit climbing adventure. What is it about the night that is so thrilling I wonder? It sounds like you had a lovely time on this overnight hike. Was it with a group of people?
There were three of us, Yasmin. Looking back and thinking about that night, what stands out the most was the complete focus on every step we took. That level of mindfulness demands a lot from every sense…and that made us all feel very alive.
How wonderful. I'm glad to have resurrected the memory, Jack.
There’s something magical about the night. I love this line: “…the doubly dark soot-black tree line that marked the park’s perimeter was silhouetted by an urban glow, faint orange, that gently pulsed to the murmuring hearts of human occupation.”
Thank you Rachael. I agree that the night can magical in a way that the day can never be.
I’m glad you like that line, too, because I worked awfully hard to get it right. Edit after edit!
A night walk does allow a certain contemplation and freeing of the mind, perhaps the darkness is effective in masking life's everyday problems. Of course, the silence often enhanced by the solitude helps too. Funnily enough, some years back, I took part in some Oxfam charity walks which took us through the night from 11.00 am to around lunchtime the following day, 100 kms without sleep and with only the wilds and fireflies for company. Plenty of time for thought and getting any troubles in to perspective !
Gosh, Ben, that walk for Oxfam sounds marvellous. What an adventure! I like the night. I used to live in a farm setting, with no people around for some distance. I often used to walk the fields at night, sometimes in my dressing gown!
That's marvellous Yasmin, darkness can indeed be welcoming and friendly !
That was vivid. And inspiring - I’ll get out for a night walk sometime.
My night walking outwith street lights has largely been unintentional, when a hill walk has taken longer than expected. I have vivid memories of one with my partner a few years ago when we had a long walk out down a glen in thick snow. No moon but the brilliance of the stars reflecting off the snow meant that we didn’t need to use our head torches.
Thanks for introducing me to a new word: obnubilating.
Star light is magical. I’m glad to have planted a seed for another, more intentional, night walk. But safety first, always.