Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale with Toto 1939 Toto, my little Yorkie, predicts the storm before it starts. She is a talented weather girl. A precise meteorologist. She whines, circles, presses her warm body against my leg to warn me - a warning to ‘brace yourself’. As is the nature of storms, they always win. … Continue reading No place like home

Haiku writing is a perfect exercise for engaging with the environment, the season and just taking time to slow down and notice life happening around you. I took a few quiet moments and reflected on my recent time outside in nature over the past couple of weeks and wrote a few Haikus. Please do share … Continue reading Seasonal Haiku writing

The Mother  Like any mother, she is not ready to return her dead calf to the sea.  She carries him on her head and pushes him through both sleek calm waters and strong wild waves. Her usual stoic head, now dipped with grief. For weeks she has moved through the water supporting his lifeless body. … Continue reading The Mother

Mother Earth whispered to me. ‘You are to be a mother. A mother to nature’ This surprised me. I then had a vision. I saw my womb grow and fill with the globe of the earth. It was pleasingly round, no longer a barren empty void. I felt blessed. ‘I ask of you to nurture … Continue reading An Annunciation

The weekend we spent together we banned our phones from joining us and the world outside dissolved into non-existence. When we told the phones to ‘get lost’, we found each other in the simple act of being together. Glances became gazes. Distracted nods and ‘Hold on two secs, I just need to look something up’ became … Continue reading Screens

A Goodbye   It was just a wee accident; mum will get it. I sob.  Mum will get it. It was just a wee accident my darling. Don’t you worry. I will get you clean in no time.  I repeat it as a reassurance. Wet wipes clean the urine, and gentle towelling dries it up. I clean … Continue reading A Goodbye

Secrets Internet dating sites are places bursting full of secrets. I have found that everyone has secrets. Some are huge game changing secrets, and some are quieter, smaller secrets that make you wonder why they are even secrets at all. We hide secrets from one another in the online dating world in the hope that someone will firstly meet us, secondly be enchanted by our looks, and thirdly adore our personality that they will then be so infatuated … Continue reading Secrets

Flame We sat chatting in the smoking room of Birch ward. It was years ago, when smoking rooms were the beating (or failing) hearts of the psych wards. Everything happened there, friendships were kindled, light and deep conversations sparked up, grumbles smouldered and rants about staff ignited naive plots for protests. Over the course of … Continue reading Flame

Autumn is here, it is being heralded in by the sudden appearance of the fruiting bodies of the complex hidden networks of fungi that work secretly underground the rest of the year. They have suddenly appeared in all their glory.  My two favourite types of fungi are the mythical magical toadstools and the rarer earth … Continue reading Toadstools

Summer in Giverny Last summer, in June, I travelled to Giverny, France, to work in Claude Monet’s garden.  Monet’s garden has been in my heart and mind for many years. During my history of art degree, I vividly remember sitting in lecture theatres and being absolutely enchanted by his paintings, especially those of his garden.   … Continue reading Monet’s Garden

This week I got my snips out, went out to the garden and snipped some flower heads off my Sambucus nigra to make elderflower cordial. It’s the perfect refreshing accompaniment to a hot summers day and very easy to make. All you need are elderflower blossoms, lemon, water, sugar and sterilised bottles. Adding the cordial … Continue reading Elderflower cordial and swimming in the river

Today as my shears chopped into 2 years worth of spiky bramble growth, not only were my fingers stinging from its thorns but so too was my face as it was getting pelted with hail stones. I had red cheeks, a cold nose, sore eyes but also a surprising level of invigoration. Working in January/Febuary … Continue reading Seasonal living

I love using oils on my skin overnight. They are so moisturising and don’t seem to sit on top of the skin like creams do. This year I had an abundance of rosehips in the garden so made some rosehip oil (not to be confused with rosehip seed oil) to nourish my skin through these … Continue reading Rosehip oil

I love this time of year in the garden. Summer is coming to an end with a triumphant flourish. Branches are heavy with their gluts of fruit, harvesting becomes a daily task and preserving produce for winter begins. This week, in the evenings after work I have dug up my potatoes, cut the last of … Continue reading Dye bath – trapping late summer’s sunshine

This week I added two more mint plants to my herb collection in the garden. The first one I found growing in a teeny tiny crack between two paving stones. It is Mentha requienii (Corsican mint) and the second I was given and it is Agastache foeniculum (Korean mint). These are both extremely aromatic mints than … Continue reading Minted

Isn't it so lovely to see all the perennials pushing eagerly through the earth at the moment? The seeds I sowed weeks ago are now seedlings and seem to be gaining strength, height and vigour as each day passes. I re-landscaped my garden so I now have an apple tree which I surround with a … Continue reading Wildflower mixes and a Victorian inspired fernery

During this difficult period, it is so important to look after and protect ourselves both physically and mentally. I believe the power of plants can help us do this. Even if you don’t have a garden there are many useful plants that can be grown on sunny windowsills to do this. Recently I been using … Continue reading Windowsill botanicals for wellbeing

You can find me in the garden You can find me in the garden, Where sweet roses grow and bloom. You can find me in the garden, Breathing heavens’ sweet perfume. You can find me in the garden, Where birdsong will never cease. You can find me in the garden, For it’s here I rest … Continue reading Come find me in the garden

Over the past 2 years or so, (basically since I developed epilepsy) reading has become a absolute nightmare for me. After each seizure my brain has felt less cognitively on point. Struggles with concentration, forgetting what I’ve read, losing track of the story line, mixing characters up etc, have made reading more of a chore … Continue reading My month in books (January)

Birds chirp sweetly in the trees, Branches sway atop the breeze. Blackbirds dip and dart and run, and shine and glint in winter sun. A streak of red, a twitching nose, a bushy squirrel as statues pose. Shoots appear from frozen ground, roots creep down without a sound. The spade is crunching in the soil, … Continue reading This is happiness