What wonders there are to see, in pond and wood, in daylight, or darkness. #lightindarktimes #21NightsofYule

A pencil sketch of the skyline of Istanbul, seen from across the Bosphorus straight. A pencil case and Turkish teacup is on the table. Photo and sketch by Xander Sable.

Time shaves away like a sharpened pencil, and suddenly it is eleven years since crossing the Bosphorus; not a loss, but time to return, memories ripe for refreshing. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes

An absolutely enormous Christmas Tree in the grand stairwell of Leeds Castle, Kent, in 2021. It's decorated in red and gold in a theme of the '12 days of Christmas' carol with masses of lights. Photo by Xander Sable

A beautiful little origami star made from sheet music on a Christmas Tree with lights and baubles in the background. From the Leeds Castle 2021 display. Photo by Xander Sable.

For all the magnificence of wealth, a twist of priceless artistry shines brighter in the memory. ✨ #lightindarktimes #21NightsofYule

A view across the green scrubland, with the tall tower of an old chimney still standing in the distance. The sky is blue and speckled with a sheet of thin cloud. Photo by Xander Sable.

They hold this ground, where we can go no further. And all that rises up is the memory of our burning, a monolith, beyond reach through the verdant sea of uncontrollable life. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes

A sun sets through clouds at Midsummer, reflected in the canal in the foreground, fringed with long grasses. Photo by Xander Sable.

Nearly six months since Midsummer, the sun never further away, the turning so close. #lightindarktimes #21NightsofYule

Acrobatic assault. Rain cut from the air in a whiplash curve, wings sabre-tip sharp in brown and buff. A miss, branch grasped in outraged frustration, always hungry. That eye! Silent, heads down, smaller birds hunker among naked branches; death is in flight. #21NightsofYule #naturewriting

A lovely spider's web - likely a garden spider's - beaded with dew with sunlight behind it. It's made in the Y-shaped branches of Verbena bonariensis, and there are purple asters behind it. Photo by Xander Sable

Arachne spins, threads dew like gems onto each fine and glossy line, flowers and ivy her tapestry's hem, entwined in hirsute fringes. Idmon's purple blooms fresh behind her, as morning lights another day in all the many, many days, since she learned the modesty of spiders. #21NightsofYule

A lovely olive-green Christmas tree made entirely of ballet shoes, with baubles and bows and a golden fairy, in a shop window in London. A nutcracker doll is in the corner, and a headless mannequin wears a pink leotard and white tutu in the background. Photo by Xander Sable.

They made me go to ballet, for seven years from the age of three, like forcing a bear to dance. Here's gratitude: I never have to do it again, and can now enjoy these silky accoutrements of torture as pretty things for lighter-footed souls. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes

Seventh Night, 2023. Magical snowy greetings, on this gale-force morning! One day, I may get to conjure another Snowqueen... ❄️✨❄️✨❄️ #lightindarktimes #21NightsofYule

Nodding bluebells beaded with raindrops, shrouded in fog. It's so think you can't see the street behind them at all. Photo by Xander Sable.

I used to live somewhere the fog seemed sentient, stretching pallid fingers behind you in silent ambush. A mote of Winter in its touch, no matter the season. An otherworld of grim beauty, where Sirens lurked on toothed rocks hemmed in roiling water, and sang, and sang, unheard. #21NightsofYule

Sixth Night, 2023: And *now* I can repost the crocheted cuteness, it actually being the right day and all... 😀 #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes #craft #yarnbombing #textileart #Christmas

Spindle fruits (Euonymus europaeus) hang in bright pink clusters, opening their complex, quartered seedcases to reveal bright orange seeds, Woodland is in the background. Photo by Xander Sable.

An absolute mass of spindle fruits (Euonymus europaeus) over the thin little shrub - it looks like the hedge has been airbrushed. An oak is in the background with all its leaves coppery. Photo by Xander Sable

Spindle flaunts a thousand shameless hearts, en masse, ventricles split open onto neon orange. A mast year for these flamingos of the woods, flamboyance tropical in the chilly wind, bronze oaks and golden maple outdone by flagrant saucy pink. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes

Night Five, 2023: this was still one of the loveliest things I've ever found. 😊💚 #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes 🌱

Night Four, the First: I am befuddled as one who sleeps overlong and should have reposted this one yesterday. Someone woke me up too soon... #21NightsofYule #lighindarktimes

The 1931 Queen of Time statue by Gilbert Bayes, of Leopoldine Avico, in blue enamelled bronze outside Selfridge's in London. She has a large clock and a tiny Elizabethan ship above her and stands on a limestone ship. Mermaids to either side with enamel-scaled curling tails hold circular cut-out moons. The whole thing needs a good clean, but is beautiful despite the muck. Big ionic columns flank the statue, and a string of Christmas-light stars hang in front. Photo by Xander Sable

Clipped wings mired in London grime, the Queen of Time boards an unfit boat, algae-streaked, careening overdue, still rapacious in its rotting age; all the world bought, paid for, thrown out. Warpainted in guano, mermaids refuse to sell the moon, the stars too dear to reach. #21NightsofYule

There we go, I've caught up now. I'll repost last year's in the morning, and post a new Night in the evening. Still thinking what theme to do for this year - maybe Greek mythology? Last year's wandered into Narnia. #21NightsofYule #amwriting

A bright explosion of sunlit ivy flowers in acid green with yellow anthers, and shiny dark green leaves. Loads of lovely flies are feasting on the nectar, covered with pollen, which is so late in the year (02/12/24) for them. Photo by Xander Sable

A spider has spun a web in the ivy leaves, and sits waiting in the midst of it, while a fly is perched on the leaf in the background. Photo by Xander Sable

A Christmas fly brings luck, they say; lost indoors, slow-motion, somnolent, ousted from hibernation with decorations and dusty once-a-year things. Now stop-outs try their luck, drunk on ivy-nectar, sapphire and emerald baubles enamelled in sunlight. While Arachne spins, and waits. #21NightsofYule

Third Night, the First. No little friend brought in this year, yet. This Angle Shades came in on the Queen's Tears, Bilbergia nutans. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes #invertebrates 🐙 #houseplants

Second Night, the First. Another tiny fairytale, of rural decay. #21NightsofYule #amwriting #wirtingcommunity

Once, I heard someone say about starting our own traditions. A year on, and the times are no less sobering. #21NightsofYule #lightindarktimes #amwriting

Massed leaves still cling to Autumn oak trees, bronze and green, while a three quarter moon sits in a hazy twilit sky. Photo by Xander Sable

Only a crisped handful of leaves remain on the sunny oak trees, with fluffy clouds in the blue sky behind. Photo by Xander Sable

Brutal, Autumn's leave-taking, oaks stripped of their rusty green mantle in brief days of hoar and bluster, back to back. From waxing gibbous to dark moon, the leaves are gone, piled by, nestling down tender stems and roots and tiny creatures that sleep the Wintertide away. #21NightsofYule

A little sprig of flowering Sweet Jasmine, white blossoms incredibly late in November, in Kent. Photo and haphazard gardening by Xander Sable

A riot of golden yellow winter jasmine blossoms against dark green leaves, right in the midst of their time. Photo by Xander Sable

Summer clings to Winter's hem across the path, while her train sweeps past and away. Late, so late, Frost nips jasmine's pearly fingers, her last touch withered, Midas-like, leaving nothing but gold. #21nightsofYule