While millions across Britain participated in the consumer frenzy of Black Friday 2019, one writer embarked on a very different kind of nocturnal adventure in a Bedfordshire woodland.
A transformative night among the trees
The author's perspective on November underwent a dramatic shift during that solitary evening beneath a slender moon. What was once viewed as a "D month" - dank, dismal, dreary and depressing - became a period of discovery through embracing the darkness.
As eyes gradually adjusted to the limited light, the woodland revealed its hidden details. Pale leaves became visible underfoot, while occasional glimmers suggested watching eyes in the shadows. The most surprising revelation, however, came through sound rather than sight.
The vibrant night-time soundscape
The woodland stream flowed with undiminished vigour, its persistent gushing challenging the anthropocentric assumption that nature retreats into quietude after sunset. This discovery marked the beginning of a new appreciation for the active, vibrant natural world that exists after dark.
More recently, the writer returned to this practice in the alder carr of Purwell Ninesprings, Hertfordshire - a woodland they know more intimately than any other. Sitting there three hours after nightfall, they found themselves surrounded by evidence of nocturnal activity.
Life in the darkness
The bramble patches serve as foraging grounds for wood mice seeking blackberry seeds, while loose bark on black poplar trees provides both nesting and roosting sites for treecreepers. Even the seemingly dead logs beside the path host vibrant ecosystems, with water and nutrients flowing through scarlet elf cup fungus hyphae.
Above head height, marcescent oak foliage shelters numerous wasp larvae, each protected within its own delicate silk button gall. Substantial rustling in the brambles suggests the presence of muntjac deer, making the darkness feel inhabited and companionable rather than empty.
The beauty of silhouetted trees
The limited visibility revealed its own rewards. Leafless trees stood in stark outline against the skyglow from nearby Hitchin, displaying the simple beauty of Victorian silhouettes. Different species revealed their distinctive growth habits: alders presented tufty crowns on slender trunks, hawthorn's zigzag twigs twisted in chaotic patterns, and a single silver birch bowed its delicate branch tips with natural elegance.
Without the distraction of colour and texture, the fundamental forms of these common trees became more appreciable, allowing for a connection that daytime viewing rarely permits.
An annual ritual of darkness
Embracing late November's dark afternoons and evenings has become an annual tradition for the writer - a seasonal escape from what naturalist Dara McAnulty described as "the commodification of attention." For them, Black Friday serves as a reminder to pause, accept the advancing darkness, and explore new ways of engaging with local natural spaces.
This practice represents a conscious alternative to the consumerism that typically defines the period, offering instead a profound connection with the rhythms of the natural world as it prepares for winter.
