Hello You 79: A Wroxeter Soundscape

What do you call this strange interregnum between Christmas and New Year? It’s clearly a Thing, because we seek to name it, even if we can’t decide how to spend the time. The artist Amelia Clark has termed it #Merryneum, which I think is brilliant (as is her work; find her art, in memory of her mother and incorporating musical scores, here and her ‘naughty-but-niche’ cards and gifts here).

I’ve gone with ‘Betwixtmas’, which sounds like a festival that was quietly dropped from the ecclesiastical calendar because of an excess of carousing.

Talking of carousing and festivities, this year I’ve been very aware of the need for light and fire amid the darkness of winter, be it the meteorological winter through which we’re all plodding, or the personal winters through which some - perhaps more than we realise - of us are struggling. If that’s the situation in which you find yourself, can I recommend a book? It’s called Wintering, by Katherine May. I’m currently reading it for the second time, and let’s just say I’m finding it helpful. Why and how that’s the case I’ll go into in another episode of Hello You. There’s a lot to tell you. I’m glad I have you to share it with.

Anyway … This Betwixtmas may represent a few days’ peace, an opportunity not to do all of the things you’ve been doing so much of over the last couple of weeks: travelling, socialising and eating but also thinking, listening, planning and making it through the turmoil of Christmas, whether that’s joyful turmoil in your house, or otherwise. So today’s episode of Hello You has been created with a peaceful Betwixtmas in mind.