There is something so brilliant about the sunshine in spring. It gets into everything. The trees, still barren, open outwards, newly warmed; their branches less knotted entanglements than nets that let so many things generously through.
As I walk around the Ouseburn in the mid-afternoon, at a time when, only recently, everything would already be shrouded by night, I can see for hundreds of metres, at times for miles. Other locations, not so distant, are no longer obscured by scrubs and thickets but newly perceptible through the mesh. I feel like I am only now seeing things with a new clarity.
My one-year anniversary in this city is fast approaching. March 2023 is the only month I have yet to fully experience, having initially arrived at the beginning of April. It is my favourite month so far, despite all the uncertainty it has so far contained.
I am listening to the new boygenius album a lot. I like the track “Leonard Cohen”, in particular:
Leonard Cohen once said there’s a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
And I am not an old man having an existential crisis
In a Buddhist monastery
Writing horny poetry
But I agree