Abandoned and beautiful: A sketch of pre-war visits to an old rural house in Ukraine

It was in the late 2000s that my son bought an old abandoned house in rural Ukraine, some 150 km from Kyiv. Unfortunately, we could not afford to buy something closer to the city; and we were seeking something “wild”. Continue reading Abandoned and beautiful: A sketch of pre-war visits to an old rural house in Ukraine

WITNESS: The dissipation of wildness (a personal experience)

It was shortly after the winter solstice, eight years ago, when I did something that I had done nothing quite like before. Triggered by the cresting of a claustrophobia that had been growing for a decade-and-a-half, from the time I left my childhood home below the dark woods of a place named Dancing Green, it began with me shifting a sofa and an armchair tight against my living room wall and sliding an oak dining table across the carpet and into a corner. Continue reading WITNESS: The dissipation of wildness (a personal experience)