Almost two weeks ago I discovered silent vlogs on youtube. Just one of those videos that youtube serves up…and I was captivated. They are so quiet, so gentle and usually capturing the everyday moments of beauty that we all experience and savor. Since then, I’ve been learning about starting a youtube channel and watching lots of silent vlogs to see how they are done.

For years now, I’ve taken short films of laundry billowing on the line or rain outside the window and shared them at Wisteria & Sunshine. And for years I’ve tried to capture movement with my camera…the boughs of a tree waving in the wind…the leaves falling in autumn…the steam rising from a cup of tea. It’s tricky, tho’, to get the lighting right and be there on the spot before the movement has settled into stillness again. But I’m getting better at it with this new creative enthusiasm.

I’m so looking forward to sharing some peace and beauty in this fresh way…and in enlarging the circle of those making such videos. Tho’ I’ve appreciated almost every silent vlog I’ve discovered, I soon noticed that they were all young women…and there is often a lot of food preparation…and fondling of flowers. : ) And some of them are staged and arranged just so, which is often satisfying to my eyes, but a little lacking in how it touches my soul.

So I’ve begun a channel myself, with little films of glimpses of my days…the season unfolding around me…any loveliness I want to share. You won’t see much of me, at first, because I am learning how to film myself (from the back, mostly!) and in the midst of losing-weight-but-not-quite-there-yet (I’ve rarely been comfortable with photos of myself in my plumper seasons) and because it is definitely more complicated to bring myself into the picture. But…except for makeup videos and aging “advice” you don’t see many rosehips in youtube land. I’d like to change that in a very small way.

And I also want to keep it as real as I can, while also making films you will want to watch and listen to. So I won’t be staging settings, but I will tidy up in the usual way of things. I’m finding that the camera shows all too clearly the deep cleaning I haven’t been able to do for many months…but my daily, chronic pain has been backing off a bit lately, so perhaps the windows will shine again soon. In the meantime, I’ve put up the one, very short video I made in the first few days of my new crush. And I hope to have another film up sometime next week.

So, time to get back to my learning and practicing! If you visit my channel, watch my film and think you would like to watch more in the future, please subscribe so you will know when I post again…and so that I know you have visited and enjoyed. Comments and likes would also be encouraging. I’ve all sorts of ideas for films and am writing them down in my Daybook so I don’t forget. If you have any ideas for something you’d like to see me put together, do let me know. Or if you have any favorite such vlogs of your own.

I hope your October is unfolding in peaceful ways,

xo

Lesley