Chasing Fog Book Club: Chapter 6

haar

A colour version of the chapter opener.

Welcome to Chasing Fog Book Club!

I’m focusing on one chapter of my book each month. Chasing Fog follows the structure of a physical (and emotional) journey — each chapter of the book is set in a foggy place, looks at a type of fog, and is guided by a sense. If you missed the previous chapters, you’ll find them here. This is chapter six, which is set in Scotland, features a type of fog called haar, and is guided by the sense of smell. Here I am reading you a section of it. (I shot this video first thing in the morning, tumbling straight out of bed when a friend messaged me to say there was mist in the woods, hence my unbrushed hair and sleepy demeanour!)

June is an appropriate month to consider chapter six because my trip to Edinburgh, which forms the backbone of this chapter, took place at Midsummer. I was there searching for the haar, a sea fret that moves in the spring and summer months. For me, this is the chapter where the writing of the book began to be infused with a strange and gorgeous magic, beginning with A Spell in the Wild : A Year (and six centuries) of Magic by Edinburgh-based academic Alice Tarbuck, a book I read as research which really changed the way that I thought about fog and my understanding of the fog-self.

Magic felt close by throughout my trip to Scotland. I felt myself to be followed by a drifting incense-scent and I noticed the recurring appearance of omens and signs: angel cards, a blurred crystal, a communication from a magpie, an unsettling message scrawled in black marker pen at a nature reserve by the sea . This sea-scented chapter includes a folkloric figure in the mountains, witches, rowan trees, weather-summoning in a jam jar, and a physicist with a box of fog.

moments from my Edinburgh trip

---

This month’s Q&A questions were asked to me last year by brilliant Sarah Rigby (book coach, and publisher at Elliott & Thompson) when she interviewed me at the Dartington Trust event in my book tour:

Can you tell me about the etymology of fog – where the word comes from?

Appropriately for a word that describes cloudiness and opacity, the origins of fog are not clear! Its widely known meaning is ‘a thick mist’ and its origins may stem from a Scandinavian source, such as early Danish ‘fog’ (‘snowdrift’) or Old Norse ‘fjuk’ (‘drifting snow storm’). But fog also has a more unusual meaning, possibly local to the north of the UK—‘aftermath grass, long or rank grass’, or ‘moss’, which may originate from the Norwegian ‘fogg’ (‘long -strawed, weak, scattered grass in a moist meadow’). As I travelled to foggy locations in the writing of the book, I frequently found patches of bright moss, and areas of long, moist grass — a kind of botanical etymological echo.

What happened when fog didn’t turn up?

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that it didn’t always appear! It is very difficult to time visits with a forecast for fog, and even if fog is forecast, it often fails to materialise. What was interesting to me about the times when fog seemed absent was that I could often nevertheless sense its presence in the landscapes that I visited — finding moss, along with lichen and other epiphytes was an indicator to me that the local air was regularly damp. Fog was present in stories, folklore, and even some place names. It was part of the spirit of place.

---

I was honoured to be the final guest on wonderful

Caroline Donahue

’s Secret Library podcast. We spoke about Chasing Fog and we really went deep. Here’s Caroline:

We dive into the inspiration behind Laura's latest book Chasing Fog, discussing her lifelong relationship with fog, its role in her photography and writing, and how it became a central theme in her life and work.

We also look at the broader implications of fog in literature, its emotional and philosophical significance, and the challenges of writing and capturing such an elusive subject. Additionally, our conversation touches on including the personal and memoir elements within the book, Laura's journey to publication, and the reception of her work.

You can listen to the episode here:

Enchantment in Fog with Laura Pashby

Thank you for reading along. If you have read and enjoyed Chasing Fog, I’d be so grateful if you’d take a moment to leave a review — they really help.

Laura

Chasing Fog // buy a signed copy of Chasing Fog

{Paid subscribers, read on for bonus content including journalling prompts, three writing craft books that guided me in the writing of Chasing Fog, and photographs of some of the omens and signs…)