January | Pilgrim's Perch

The days of January can seem short in length but interminable in their dragging out day by day to the very end of the month. After the excitement of Christmas we feel, perhaps, like a small child – tired and emotional – and with the turning of the year it’s as though bleak reality sets in.

A tree stands silhouetted against a winter sky — *The dark days of January*

The brevity of winter daylight marks January as a dreary month; those neutral shades of grey, pale brown and yet more grey seem to cast an unremitting dullness over the landscape.

Dark twigs form wonderful patterns against the backdrop of a silvery sky — *Dark twigs cast intricate patterns against a January sky*

And yet this is a good time to enjoy trees in all their stripped-back glory. Denuded of their leaves you are able to see their true shape; to follow the branches from trunk to twig-tip; to trace the intricate patterns the interweaving twigs reveal. Touch and feel the bark of the tree; sometimes rugged and rough; sometimes smooth as a cheek. Wonder at the colour of bark as it gleams in the occasional ray of sun; never uniform but always a palette of shades of yellow, brown, grey, silver.

The English poet, Thomas Hardy, created an evocative picture in his poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’ when he wrote:

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky 
	Like strings of broken lyres,
	And all mankind that haunted nigh
	Had sought their household fires.

We picture the scramble of twiggery and stems caught up in wintry gusts; perhaps we shiver and head for home, for the warmth and comfort of the homely fire.

Or, it may be a delightfully sharp and clear frosty day. Branches strike elegant poses against the sky; poplar trees reach for the clouds with proud elegant sweeps.

A poplar tree displays its branches reaching upwards to the skies. — *Reach for the clouds…*

And if it has been raining we can marvels at raindrops clinging to the underside of delicate twigs, awaiting the inevitable ground-ward pull of gravity.

Drops of rain tremble on tree twigs, waiting to fall to the ground — *Tiny drops of rain tremble on twigs like small jewels*

Even better if there has been a fall of snow and trees capture handfuls of snow in their woody fingertips. Then is the time to tread softly; to hear the muffled stillness that comes in a snowy wood, broken only by the occasional rustle as a branch sheds its snowy burden.

Fluffy snow held captive in the hold of pine needles — *A net of pine needles captures a fall of snow*

‘The Darkling Thrush’ finishes with a note of hope, a sudden moment of joy in the middle of the gloomy landscape. An aged thrush breaks the silence with his outpouring of glorious song:

At once a voice arose among
	The bleak twigs overhead
	In a full-hearted evensong
	Of joy illimited...

Hiding amongst the branches a bird bursts suddenly into song — *A hidden bird bursts into song amidst the branches*

January may be long but it is not without moments of joy and revelation. Winter does not last indefinitely.

A ray of sun gleams out unexpectedly and brightens the darkness of a January day — *A welcome gleam of sun brightens a January day*

Tag: January

Revealing Joy in January