Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature written and read by Amelia Marriette
By Amelia Marriette
Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature written and read by Amelia MarrietteSep 27, 2022
Chapter 19 - Bruegel - 9th March
Katie comes with me today because there has been snow overnight, and the landscape is unsurpassably beautiful – we are excited at the prospect of a snowy walk. There are few people around, and the scene is just like one from a painting, bringing to my mind one of my favourite paintings of all time, Pieter Bruegel’s “Hunters in the Snow.” It is as if we are walking in that very painting. The scene laid out below us looking towards the delightfully named Mondschein Siedling (Moonshine Dwelling) is so similar. It’s a truly magical walk. We return home to eat hot pumpkin soup and sit by a cosy fire.
Chapter 18 - Yellow - 1st March
I have some walking companions today, which is a welcome change. We eat sandwiches and eat Gugelhupf cake. We spot the first flowers of the spring season, coltsfoot, primulas and daisies. I remember my first foray into photography when a teenager, taking photographs of primroses. I think of Ophelia in "Hamlet" and "the primrose path of dalliance." I see long-tailed tits, a goldcrest and listen to a thrush singing.
Chapter 17 - Pearl 24th February
I see and manage to snap a photograph of a beautiful pearl of snow melt water as it drops from a hanging branch of "my" apple tree. I contemplate the clouds remembering exhibitions that I have seen - especially Antony Gormley's "Blind Light" - an unforgettable experience of being inside a glass box to mimic the sensation of being in a cloud. I see a bank of tiny pine seedlings and cobwebs lit up in the sunlight. I spy the first snowdrops of the season.
Chapter 16 - Opaque - 18th February
This walk is one completely shrouded in snow, mist and fog; I cannot see more than a few feet in front of me. It's like walking through a black and white film. Cows and fence posts are black shapes and lines in the landscape. I watch snow fall from power lines to form a Morse code dot-dot dash. I drink snow - taste alchemy - I see a beautiful stone barn which I have never noticed before - picture-postcard pretty in the white landscape. One of my favourite walks so far.
Chapter 15 - Weir - 9th February
I anticipate the sight and sound of Great Tits; I am not disappointed and see many of them are as welcome as any friend would be. When passing by a weir, one of my earliest memory of birdwatching - my father taking me to see a Kingfisher at the Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve in Alfrick in Worcestershire. We did indeed see that famous unsurpassable beautiful, and colourful bird of rivers and streams. When it becomes colder and there is a threat of rain, I hurry to return home, but as it is a dull day I see some ancient murals depicting the Archangel Saint Michael on the side of a dilapidated but beautiful old house.
Chapter 14 - Dad - 4th February
My sister and her niece are visiting me in Austria. They accompany me on the walk. We talk about our father's RAF service in nearby Klagenfurt, which is less than an hour's drive from where I live now. We miss him - it is less than a year since he died - but talking about him in this environment is cathartic. A small plane buzzes over us, and we take this as a nod to his five years of enforced service.
Chapter 13 - Heart - 28th January
I deliberately walk my walk in the opposite direction so that I can see the goldfinches that I know will be by the Church at this time of day. The Goldfinch has appeared in more than five hundred works of Christian art; it was one of the first birds to be tamed and kept as a pet. Later in the day, walking as the sun is beginning its descent, I see a rusty misshapen heart twisted into the barbed wire fence - it has a savage beauty.
Chapter 12 - DNA
I begin to see my walk as part of something much bigger - walking has been part of mankind's history since time began. I remember walks from my childhood in Malvern in Worcestershire - perhaps walking is hard-wired into my DNA?
Chapter 11 - Ice - 20th January
I encounter a Monet-like lake of ice, I have to edge my way around the field to get to thick snow which is less dangerous to walk on. I hear a banditry of Great Tits and some Sparrows. I see beautiful ice sculptures and return home to find that Katie has made something wonderful with one of my found objects.
Chapter 10 - Wire - 13th January
Ice and snow still clings to the landscape but more patchily. Ice wrapped around horse hair on barbed wire creates beautiful sculptures and the pine trees above the snow line are thick with snow and ice, but those below remain dark green. Melting snow from trees falls like a thin mist of powdered diamonds.
Chapter 9 - Snow - 5th January
5th January The landscape is a magical vision of pure white- animal tracks criss-cross the fields indicating that there is more wildlife than we knew existed. Coppery leaves and rusty bracken breaks through the deep snow, lichen on the trees glow, and cowbells chime. A stunningly beautiful walk.
Chapter 8 - Understanding
In this chapter I spend a day looking at the town that I now call my home town - Bad St. Leonhard - I look at the Pestkreuz - the cross erected during the plague of 1348 - and admire the buildings and the two enormous and beautiful churches. I need to do this to learn about my new environment.
Chapter 7 - Realisation
After the Christmas period, I am afraid to fall into a black hole - that soggy period between Christmas and New Year is always tricky. I go for another walk and chose the same walk again. This time I look more closely at the ice in the stream and take note of the birds singing and the mountains in the distance. I wonder if I could walk the same walk every week for a year. Maybe.
Chapter 6 - Anxiety
The Summer is over, and Christmas is approaching; a fug of gloom overtakes me, I don't know what to do, but my body does! "Walk" it says, so I take myself off and soon start to feel better. The beauty all around, the birds singing, and the sun shining on a winter's day works its magic.
Chapter 5 - Archive
Clearing out the cellar we find the family archive, the documents telling us about Katie's family, how they lost everything in the First World War, and how they left Vienna to begin a new life in the small town of Bad Sankt Leonhard. How they built a new business - a health spa based around the local Sulphur water spa, and how the house we now call home was built.
Chapter 4 - Assimilation
The big move to Austria is done, and now the process of settling in, clearing two acres of weeds and planting seeds and growing vegetables begins. The Summer over, the move indoors starts the process of unpacking, cleaning and redecorating.
Chapter 3 - Limbo
After a period of indecision, the big move to Austria takes place!
Chapter 2 - Austria
My work as a Keeper of Art, exciting and rewarding as it was, was also very stressful, and there was a sinister work environment which only served to make work more of a trial to be endured than the dream job it was meant to be. But, a short summer holiday in Austria is a delight, and an impromptu long walk in the hills and mountains has a significant impact and will alter my future.
Chapter 1 - Rekindling
Asked to look after a colleague's dog Amelia drives deep into Haldon Forest and meets Katie, an encounter that was to change both of their lives forever.
#nature #walking #naturecure #hiking #austria #mentalhealth #alchemy #beauty #art #literature #birds
Introduction - Walking into Alchemy Written and Read by Amelia Marriette
The scene is set - a new job, but with it comes too much stress, too much anguish, but a new relationship, love and an opportunity to begin a new life in another country beckons.
Amelia Marriette in Conversation with JJ Stenhouse from UK Health Radio talking about Walking into Alchemy
My book could have been written for JJ Stenhouse's radio show which is called Alchemy 1.01 and is broadcast weekly every Friday on UK Health Radio. When my PR agent Elly Donovan put me in touch with JJ, I couldn't believe it, that a radio show exists that so chimes with my book seems to be serendipitous at the very least! JJ and I had a really lovely chat, and this is a shortened version of her show, which she has allowed me to crop a little. I really hope that you enjoy listening to our conversation. It was great to be interviewed by someone so engaged and thoughtful. This recent radio appearance has made me want to at last record my book as an audiobook; I have been asked for this many times! I am putting up the first 10 chapters for free, and then for a 99c you can get the other 51 chapters!
anchor.fm/amelia-marriette