Emma’s Monthly Blog – a Youth Participant from Circle of Life Rediscovery
2013. New Year. New Beginning. It only felt like last week that Christmas was around the corner. It’s amazing how fast time flies, January is nearly over!
I love January, there’s something about the freshness of the first month of the new year that brings a smile to my face. The air is cold. The wind is chilly. The frost is thick. Your cheeks are blushing red from the wintery air but when you come home and get out of cold, wrap yourself up in the warm presence of a thick blanket and steaming hot chocolate, that moment truly warms my heart.
I remember when I was a little girl, my dreams of Winter would be of waking up in the morning to a thick blanket of whiteness. Yes, you know the stuff. Cold. Wet. Finger numbing…Snow! Oh, how I wanted to see snow. I remember tales from my parents about the snow back in 1963 and how it had completely covered everything for weeks on end! I needed my fill of the white stuff. Rarely would it snow when I was little, only having the odd occasion of a snow day. How times have changed!
It’s a truly heart warming moment waking up to find a thick coverage of snow. It seems to happen every year now. I’ve found with snow- you either love it or you hate it! You get the moans of commuters backed up with the sounds of children screaming with excitement.
I adore snow.
It makes everything seem almost magical, the way it blankets the branches of trees and plants. Back when I was a child, when it rarely snowed, everyone would clamber up to Seaford Head Cliffs and sledge down it (it’s more safe than it sounds).
These past few years have been different, instead of sledging in it, I’ve become very interested in photographing it. I feel you can get so much out of a snowy photograph, it’s almost so simple to look at yet it holds a magical feel towards it. When I look at snowy photographs, it instantly brings a smile to my face.
That’s the beauty about photography. It’s a snapshot of that particular moment in time, a moment which you may never have again but will always get the chance to relive- just from a photograph!
Sadly, as things always go I wasn’t well over the period of snow. But that didn’t stop me from wandering down to the local park. It was an amazing sight walking through the park, seeing all the children’s faces light up as their parents pulled them through the snow on their brightly coloured sledges. How they screamed with excitement as they raced down the steep snow covered hills. Not only is it a delight to watch but also brings happiness to my heart when thinking about the times my dad would pull me around in the snow on our little blue plastic sledge (plastic over wooden sledges any time- more speed!). I photographed pretty much everything in that park- from the swings to the climbing frame! I wanted to get a birds eye view shot looking down on the park so I clambered (carefully) up the slope to the promenade of the seafront. Once I got to the top, I was amazed by the view. Such a stunning view for a mediocre looking park! As I said before, everything can be beautiful with a sprinkling of snow!
A couple of days later it snowed again and I caught this beauty in my garden. This is definitely my favourite photograph that I took, I’m pretty proud of it.
I think it captures the delicateness that snow gives to plants and bushes. It’s like looking at a winter wonderland, better still- I had stepped into the world of Narnia! If only Mr Tumnus had greeted me, well- my day would have been made! But this was good enough for me and I finally got my snowy dream for this year.
Emma