Beating the atmospheric gloom
Plus the delights and constraints of book learning
Dear reader and fellow nature lover, how are you? This past week has been pretty gloomy here in Hoylake - I’m talking about the weather. Every day I have woken to a bank of heavy cloud stretching across the sky: dull, muffling, still. Friday saw a minor variation with bands of Payne’s Grey adding some interest to the wash of diluted monochrome. Not for nothing was William Payne known for his atmospheric landscapes! And yet the sense of a weighted blanket remained. I learned that this weather is known as “anti-cyclonic gloom”, a fitting term, as “high pressure traps a layer of moisture near to the Earth’s surface and that brings a prolonged period of dull and cloudy weather … with pockets of mist and fog”1… and I also learned that it should be coming to an end - today. Early morning brought raindrops, pattering on the skylight, as hopeful as the single gust of wind I spotted driving leaves across the road on Friday - but as yet, the gloom persists. So I’m going inward instead, sitting at the kitchen table with bright orange petals and books about flowers and trees.
I don’t always remember to look up the various plants and trees I examine on my walks so I’m a week overdue in digging out my book of Trees and Shrubs. Consequently, the leaf I collected - fallen, blushing from an overdose of anthocyanin - is now curled up and dry, no longer fit for purpose. I did take a picture, the urge to preserve those wonderful autumn colours being strong and of course, I’m always building my personal library of botanical inspiration. Perhaps it’s Wych Elm (“often found by water”) - what do you think? See caption.
Using this book, one of the Readers Digest series first published in the 1980s, gets me thinking about the veracity of book learning. Of course the book is out of date, of course botanical knowledge and research has galloped ahead since then, but who could have predicted just how far we have come? In the 1980s Suzanne Simard was in her 20s, working in the logging industry - like her parents and grandparents before her. Her ground breaking research into the cooperation and communication of trees couldn’t even be imagined back then. I’ve been revisiting “The Overstory” by Richard Powers (2018) in which one of the main characters is directly inspired by Simard, and even the fictionalised version of the mockery and undermining she endured makes for difficult reading. And yet, the received wisdom has changed, the fact that trees communicate with each other through both chemical signals and the mycorrhizal network of mycelium - dense threads of fungal growth which connect plants and trees through the soil under our feet - is increasingly accepted, our understanding and knowledge of how intertwined all living things are is enhanced, bigger, better - and how wonderful it is to glimpse this bigger picture! (Writing this I can’t help thinking about Green Men, Ents, Spirits of Trees… evidence of knowledge lost as we increasingly shackled ourselves with the burden of scientific proof? Just thinking out loud…).
I don’t want to dwell on political events but I’ve seen a lot of despair and anger out there this past week - the mood of atmospheric gloom coinciding with the weather. I choose to remember how far we have come in what really amounts to just the blink of an eye. The destruction of natural environments for the sake of increasing profit is increasingly meaningless in this age of excess, and in the light of the new knowledge and understand we are privy to, it cuts so much deeper. But knowledge is power, and the more voices that amplify this new learning, the greater its reach, the more positive directions can be explored, the more solutions can be found.
And so I come to a suitable conclusion. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. We must never forget to look back and remember the sacrifices made by previous generations. And looking forward, we must not squander the future they bought for us, acting from a place of hope for a better world and paying so dearly. Good things happen, and hope persists.
Thanks for reading, and with love, until next time, Ling
Recommendations this week I’ve mentioned the following books and authors. These are not affiliate links, just my personal recommendations of books which have inspired me and made me think.
Finding The Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, The Overstory by Richard Powers, Trees and Shrubs of Britain from the Readers Digest Nature Lovers Library (available second hand, and although it may be out of date, this book along with the others in the series including Wildflowers of Britain is still a fantastic reference for nature lovers, a good read and beautifully accompanied by both illustrations and photographs).
SUPPORTING THE STUDIO AND MAKING PAPER FLOWERS
There are still spaces left on English Garden Rose class, a fabulous in-person day course at my studio in Hoylake. Learn to create a stunning, heavily petalled rose at this paper flower class on 20th November. Quote TPW11 when booking to get £10 off the full price of £60. Discount is applied when you pay the balance in class. T&Cs are on the booking page. This will be the fourth time I’ve delivered this class and the roses just get better and better! Book here.
I have one space left on the Spring Evening Class series - who will join us? The series starts on 6th February and runs for 8 sessions over 9 weeks with a break somewhere around the middle (date tbc). We aim for a new flower each week and this series will focus on spring flowers. Make flowers, and make friends! Book here.
I’m delighted to announce I now have a small list of retailers for The Paper Wildflower CraftKits: The Pot and Pineapple in Whitby, North Yorkshire; Betty Moore in Haworth; West Kirby Bookshop, Wirral and coming soon to Ruthin Craft Centre. The perfect Christmas present for the flower lover or crafter in your life! If you are a retailer or know a retailer that’s a perfect fit for my Paper Wildflower Craftkits, please drop me a line! Kits are also available on paperbydragonfly.com with a special offer if you buy three or more.
And finally, I will be at The Hepworth Festive Market (weekend 2) on Saturday 30/11 and Sunday 01/12, with CraftKits, Botanicals and Giant Flowers. Come meet me, I’d love to meet you! 🌿💚
Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon quoted in the Grauniad
Your paper flowers look so beautiful Ling! So looking forward to reading and seeing more of your art 🌷