Despite its colour having faded to a pale relic of its name, the lavender in the garden remains an illuminated host. For much of the summer its spires of scented stems attract the bright and the beautiful: the glazed and glossy greens of chafers drowsily clambering about the flowers; red admiral and swallowtail butterflies clinging with filament … Continue reading This Lavender World
Tag: Nature
September Sun
The blackberries by the lake have been readied and turned dark by the sun. I work steadily through the afternoon, dropping them into a pail by my feet, working my way through the end of summer stillness as I meander along the bramble banks. But no matter how good the haul, or how rewarding the gathering of wild, abundant fruit, there … Continue reading September Sun
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 Pt. 2
Having lived with the Prespa Lakes for almost a decade now, I feel a fierce love and allegiance towards them. It seems a natural exchange for what they've provided me over time, the give and take of long tenure. Yet there is one other wetland in northern Greece that attracts my attentions now and then; I … Continue reading By Way of a Lake Pt. 2
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 