While many scramble for deals on Black Friday, one writer finds a far richer bargain in the enveloping darkness of a Hertfordshire wood. This is a story of conversion, from viewing November as a dismal month to embracing its deep, companionable nights.
A Nocturnal Awakening
The transformation began on Black Friday in 2019, sitting alone under a sliver of moon in a Bedfordshire wood. As eyes adjusted, the night's nuances emerged. What was most surprising, however, was the sound. The woodland stream flowed as vigorously as by day, its irrepressible gushing challenging the anthropocentric idea that nature is diminished after dusk.
Tonight, the scene is Purwell Ninesprings in Hertfordshire, an alder carr more familiar than any other. Three hours after nightfall, the wood is a place of blackness, but it is far from empty. The writer knows the landscape intimately: the bramble patch where wood mice forage, the flap of bark where treecreepers nest and likely roost.
A World Alive in the Dark
Life persists unseen all around. In dead logs, nutrients flow through the hyphae of scarlet elf cup fungus. Above, marcescent oak leaves host wasp larvae, each in its own delicate silk button gall. A substantial rustling in the brambles suggests the presence of a muntjac deer. Far from being a void, the darkness feels inhabited and companionable.
The visual spectacle, though limited, is equally captivating. Leafless trees are silhouetted against the skyglow from nearby Hitchin, possessing the simple beauty of Victorian cut-outs. The unique forms of different species become apparent: alders with tufty crowns, hawthorns with chaotic zigzag twigs, and a silver birch bowing with careless elegance. Freed from the distraction of colour and texture, one can truly appreciate the growth habits of these common trees.
An Annual Ritual of Reconnection
This embrace of late November's dark afternoons has become an annual ritual. It serves as a seasonal escape from what naturalist Dara McAnulty termed the 'commodification of attention'. For the writer, Black Friday is now a reminder to stop, make peace with the advancing season, and open the mind to new ways of engaging with a local patch. It's a bargain that costs nothing but offers profound riches.
