I woke to the scent of wildfire. The curtains stirred faintly while I rose from the bed, but by the time I reached the window the night breeze had taken back its hint of smoke. The dim outlines of the moonlit mountains were smudged against the sky and the village lights lay scattered across the dark. There … Continue reading A Season of Fire
Category: Prespa
The Meanings in Maps
Ever since a child I've been pulled magnetically towards maps. In school geography class I would peer up in fascination at the roll-down map of the planet fastened above the blackboard. There was the bold conglomeration of different coloured countries afloat on the blue oceans, the peculiarly shaped continents, the inset lakes. From its flat … Continue reading The Meanings in Maps
Chasing Colours
In 1972 the writer, Annie Dillard, began assembling hundreds of index cards, where she'd jotted down thoughts and quotations from a range of readings, meticulous observations of the seasons, notes on the natural processes that she'd witnessed near her home in the mountains of Virginia, and crafted them into a whole. The resulting book, Pilgrim at Tinker … Continue reading Chasing Colours
Pelicans Between Wind and Water
Back home in Prespa pelicans are huddling on their nests. From dawn till dusk they criss-cross between the lakes, flying from their fishing waters on the large lake to their breeding grounds on the smaller. Prespa is home to both of Europe's pelican species, the white and the Dalmatian, and is one of the few places where the two … Continue reading Pelicans Between Wind and Water
By Way of a Lake
Between winter and true spring are days of strange emergence. The landscape is in limbo, neither one season nor the next. Mammals explore the light, as well as the night. Only a few meagre wildflowers surface into the world, but when they do they do so with extravagance. And each year, around this time, I walk a … Continue reading By Way of a Lake
Julian Hoffman 