Via Negativa

When I started studying photography at college, I was really excited by the idea of "negative space". Instead of focussing on the subject, as I'd always done, you could look at the spaces between and around and to the side of things. In fact, surprisingly, it seems that you can be positive by looking at the negative - in theology, in poetry and even in self help. (no need to click on all those links unless you are seriously interested!).

It's a mark of how my mind wanders when I'm walking that I was meditating on all this and wondering about the significance of an empty bench in a forest. I've passed this one hundreds of times but have never seen anyone sitting on it, but the fact that it is there at all suggests, I suppose, that it is a place where people might want to sit, and that this forest is a space for people as well as animals and trees. 

Anyway, it was a quiet morning at Mabie; the calm before the storm -another kind of absence, with not a breath of wind. Sarah and Jess were out with the running club, so I had a couple of hours to wander and ponder. I was also thinking as I walked about a Mary Oliver poem which Joanna had sent me yesterday and I was remembering this one which was also inspired by a walk in the woods.

It's getting dark now and is raining, but still no sign of Storm Corrie. Let's hope it passes us by with little damage to the trees.