Holy Essence Distilled
If you're someone wild who loves frozen waterfalls as much as me, then you've learned a simple truth – the best time to visit is the first mild day after a brutal cold snap. Oh sure, you could rush out when the weather is bitter, but why suffer? In just a few hours, the temperature rose from -25C to just above freezing. Enough of a rise to hint at melting, but with all that frozen fresh water and salt sea spray still intact. I was the only one down here today, not a single footprint in fresh snow but mine, and I left with the losing light. I'm amazed how such a thing can be true, overwhelming beauty drawing no one on a Sunday afternoon. No bravery is required for such a short walk, no tolerance and little effort required as the winter turns mild. But I'm always pleased to keep the silence and solitude to myself.
Down at the restless Cape and Sand, which is technically Keating's Sand Beach – misheard so many times through the years that it's been unofficially renamed. Standing under the rush of Healey's Brook, desperately trying to freeze between tides that rise to eat it away. Frozen shades of all that drains from the forest above, brownish tannins from decaying plant matter, and mysterious minerals that I don't know to name. The ice never quite makes contact with the earth, but it's an endless effort and I'm proud of anything trying. The colour carries a kind of holy essence, distilled of everything nature offers from here to the North Mountain top. I'm mostly embracing the beauty of particularly desolate places. Over my head, both from a tidal and emotional sense. Out of control is exactly where I want to find myself in.
February 5, 2023
Outram, Nova Scotia
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and see everything
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Holy Essence Distilled
If you're someone wild who loves frozen waterfalls as much as me, then you've learned a simple truth – the best time to visit is the first mild day after a brutal cold snap. Oh sure, you could rush out when the weather is bitter, but why suffer? In just a few hours, the temperature rose from -25C to just above freezing. Enough of a rise to hint at melting, but with all that frozen fresh water and salt sea spray still intact. I was the only one down here today, not a single footprint in fresh snow but mine, and I left with the losing light. I'm amazed how such a thing can be true, overwhelming beauty drawing no one on a Sunday afternoon. No bravery is required for such a short walk, no tolerance and little effort required as the winter turns mild. But I'm always pleased to keep the silence and solitude to myself.
Down at the restless Cape and Sand, which is technically Keating's Sand Beach – misheard so many times through the years that it's been unofficially renamed. Standing under the rush of Healey's Brook, desperately trying to freeze between tides that rise to eat it away. Frozen shades of all that drains from the forest above, brownish tannins from decaying plant matter, and mysterious minerals that I don't know to name. The ice never quite makes contact with the earth, but it's an endless effort and I'm proud of anything trying. The colour carries a kind of holy essence, distilled of everything nature offers from here to the North Mountain top. I'm mostly embracing the beauty of particularly desolate places. Over my head, both from a tidal and emotional sense. Out of control is exactly where I want to find myself in.
February 5, 2023
Outram, Nova Scotia
facebook | instagram | tumblr | youtube | etsy
You can support my work
get things in the mail
and see everything
first on Patreon