I’ve spent this last week getting some footage and trying to capture the moments of early August in the rural Suffolk countryside, so that I could share them with you all. Blessings of the harvest season!
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Though my world is very small right now as I’m recovering, it is still beautiful. Sunset walk tonight down the lane from my house, across the stream to the meadow. My husband helped out with the long-range shots of me 🙂
I’ve just started up a new YouTube video series, called Tales of Suffolk. Here I explore the regions strange and fey tales, beginning with the Wild Man (Merman) of Orford Castle, just along the coast from where I live.
We’re so lucky to live where we do: walk out the door, turn left and we’re out in the beautiful countryside. Here are some photos from our walk today, with summer rolling in. If you would like any of these as prints, simply email me at vanderhoevenjoanna@gmail.com for prices.
Trying out my new gimbal, purchased with the help of my Patrons on my Patreon page. The moving shots are smoother, and I’ll be practicing with this during the holidays for sure! Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year, on this blog, on my YouTube channel, on my Patreon page and with your lovely messages and emails. Huge love to you all! xoxo
This time of year, the frosty mornings give us such a beautiful display of light and shadow, of magic and mystery. And the fact that the sun doesn’t rise until 8am right now means you can have a relatively decent lie-in on a Saturday morning, and still get out pre-dawn for some great shots 🙂
The freshness in the air, the silence and most of all, the solitude is just wonderful. It’s as if you are the only person in the world, and are completely at one with all nature.
The hard ground underfoot, which is usually so soft (it’s all sand on the heath) makes a nice change. It’s different, and though we don’t get much snow here so close to the sea, you can feel it still underfoot, and hear it whispering in the early morning’s light: the Song of Winter.
It’s there in the beams of sunlight that play through the branches and dance in the clouds. It’s there in your soul, waiting to be heard.
And so we stop, and take a moment to listen to our own hearts.
And we know that a world of wonder awaits us, if we just open our eyes to see the beauty that lies all around us.
And we carry that memory with us, though the road be long, though the nights are dark, though the shadows creep in.
Here is where we find ourselves, in the stillness of the year. When the fields lie fallow, and the birdsong is muted, we take a moment to hear our own souls.
And we know that we are truly blessed.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please do consider becoming a Patron on my Patreon Page. I’m hoping to get better camera equipment for photography and video next year, and hopefully a drone that will enable me to get beautiful overheads of the North Sea Coast and the heathland where I live. I’m already dreaming of the photos and videos that I can put together with this! x
The deer rut is in full swing here on the heath, near the edge of the forest. What beautiful, and randy creatures!
The deer rut is in full swing here where I live, and out on the heath the stags are calling, fighting and just generally being splendid. Here are some shots that I got this week – sadly, I couldn’t take any photos of the clashes, as it was too dark with evening coming swiftly on!
My friend Lisa, who is a wonderful photographer, captured some lovely moments this weekend during our morning-long ritual for Alban Eilir, the Spring Equinox. Thank you, Lisa – the photos are wonderful!
Here is the link to my interview from yesterday with Matt Marvel on the Lesley Dolphin show for BBC Radio Suffolk. I’m on from about 2:00 in 🙂 Available on BBC IPlayer for the next few weeks.
