Midsummer - endings and beginnings, and the unfinished bit in the middle

I do love midsummer - just the word is so wonderful - but it also makes me feel a little sad. It's like the year is turning and, to be blunt, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and winter is on its way.

Of course, this isn't quite true. The next two months often contain the most sublime and beautiful weather of all; the slow encroach of darkness is just that - slow; and the nights don't start drawing in at all yet, as sunset times keep getting later for a little longer after the equinox. So we still have most of summer to come and, hopefully, a gentle slide into the colours of autumn.



But, all the same, it feels like a change, and to mark the end of something and the start of something else, I'm going to make a concerted effort to finish things myself, to allow myself to start new things.

I surveyed my silver supplies the other day, or rather the silver that is in any form other than the original packets I bought it in. I looked through all the things I've started making, experimenting with, but that I haven't quite finished. It was a significant amount, not in terms of weight of silver, but more in terms of ideas and imaginings and industry that hasn't yet been fulfilled.

So my plan is to finish some old things, things that deserve to be finished, and that way I can start something new.

And also, it will keep my mind off the fact that winter is coming...

(Rather than share a photo of my unfinished jewellery, I chose instead to show an image my other half took the other day, just as the sun moved behind the houses.)