Sångshyttan Micro Season Calendar
Inspired by Japanese tradition and Alexa Firmenich on her blog Lifeworlds, we now create a micro season calendar. We follow life on the farm as it unfolds over the course of a year. It describes different events and important relationships that we have with the more than human world on the farm. Instead of dividing each day into one of four seasons, the Japanese calendar is divided into 72 different sections. Each of these sections lies within one of 24 divisions, all of which have been given descriptively beautiful names. The 72 sections (or kō) only last for about five days each, but still perfectly describe what happens as life blossoms and ebbs.
30 December – 3 January / Ice Astonishing forms i
On New Year's Eve, I take my camera and carefully walk out onto the ice that has formed overnight. It has turned cold again and the rain-soaked ice that almost released its grip has frozen again. I am completely absorbed for a long time. Slowly I move along the shoreline and incredible shapes of all kinds appear in the ice. It is like a spectacle. I have heard on the weather service that it will snow during the evening so I took many pictures. What a joy to be in contact with the ice, the changes, the beauty.
25 – 29 December / Talking to the mother tree
The year is coming to an end. I sit down and feel the power of the big larch tree that stands in the centre of the village. It is old and in touch with the living network underground. I pray for strength, I talk about all the deforestation that is happening around the village, I let both my fear and joy breathe in with the large tree crown and the roughly shaped bark, thick and scarred. I suddenly taste my salty tears.
20 – 24 December / Weather imbalance
Again, warm temperatures come with rain and the snow melts, the ice on the lake gets a water cover where everything is reflected in each other. Below the surface I see the piece of ice I sawed out to swim last week, now it lies like a secret shape and converses with the clouds that pass by at a fast pace. The weather is no longer stable, it is constantly changing, it is noticeably unbalanced.
15 – 19 December / Last full moon of the year
In the days leading up to Christmas, the moon grows more and more full. It hangs over all the projects on the farm like a watchful eye and I feel its pull like a greeting. Through its constant transformation, it shows how the year and time move forward like a force, a wave that we must all follow.
10 – 14 December / Winter bathing
The entire surface of the lake has now frozen over and for the first time this winter I have to drill and saw my way through to get to the water. My weekend bathing form an important relationship with my water element.
5 – 9 December / Lake turning to ice
The lake is a living being that reacts to everything that happens around it. When the cold weather comes, the water temperature gradually changes and if the day is still, as it is now, the ice freezes, more and more, but it's as if it still can't make up its mind. Is the surface going to turn to ice or is it not? In several places you can see open water between frozen ice.