Day 5 of Christmas — The Feast of St Thomas Becket: Thresholds
A simple doorway in a Swaledale barn. Nothing ornate, nothing designed to draw attention. Just stone, timber, shadow and a sheep standing right on the edge of inside and out.
I’m always drawn to these moments that sit between worlds. The in between spaces where nothing dramatic is happening and yet everything feels quietly loaded with meaning. Here, it’s the balance between shelter and exposure, dark and light, safety and whatever comes next. The sheep hasn’t committed either way. It’s paused, considering, perfectly at ease with not deciding just yet.
The Feast of St Thomas Becket is a day traditionally associated with sanctuary and thresholds. Becket’s story is one of doorways — places of refuge but also of consequence. Crossing a threshold can mean protection but it can also ask something of you. Once you step through, you’re no longer quite the same as you were before.
That idea feels deeply rooted in the rural landscape too. Barn doors, field gates, dry stone stiles — these are everyday thresholds, worn smooth by generations. They mark subtle transitions: from weather to shelter, from labour to rest, from one part of the land to another. You pass through them without much thought until one day you stop and really notice.
This photograph feels like one of those quiet pauses. Not rushing through, not pushing forward, just standing still and acknowledging the space you’re in and the one waiting beyond. Winter seems to encourage this way of seeing. With less distraction, fewer colours, and a slower rhythm to the days, the land invites contemplation.
There’s something reassuring about that pause. A reminder that you don’t always have to move on immediately. That it’s okay to stand on the edge for a moment, to feel the weight of the doorway, to recognise both what you’re leaving and what you might be stepping into.
In Swaledale, thresholds are everywhere if you start looking for them. And sometimes, all it takes is a simple barn door and a sheep quietly holding the line between inside and out to make you stop and reflect.
