In this small town of 7,000 people there is one main street through town. It is beautifully maintained by town folk: street art and murals decorate houses, an art festival takes over the town in summer, hay bales and pumpkins are on display for harvest, and Christmas lighting and market cozy up the town in December.

And yet the streets are quite empty. The wine shop owner says most people either live here and work elsewhere, or work here and live elsewhere. Most of his wine sales are for gift purposes, not weekend dinners at home. The people here must be of a church-going sort as the bells toll every morning at 8 am and about twice an hour every Sunday until well past noon. And for us others it serves as a good wake-up call especially on work days.

The days are shorter and my shadow is longer. Soon rainy Danish darkness will take over. And then the morning bell will need to carry through the wind and the rain, or else we will be late for work.
(Brande, Denmark; September 2018)