An Introduction..........
It’s the best day to sit and write …..there is a gale blowing through and its hailing. The fire is lit but it has taken two attempts as the down draught was so forceful, it kept blowing the flame out. It is quite beautiful.
I drove past the shore on my way to the village this morning and a rainbow fell onto the rocks as the sea smashed against the cliff face and sent showers of glittering shards up into the air.
Despite the chill and high winds, the first dark blue iris is open in the garden at home. It is the deepest blue and looks even more so as the background remains quite stark.
I saw the first swallow of the year last weekend, April 8th. It seems early. Last year I didn’t spot the first one for another week. I get very emotional seeing these amazing birds. We lived in South Africa when I was younger and one morning Swallows lined all the baggy wires on the stoep outside the house. They had clearly just arrived, having flown over 6,000 miles . As a child I was in awe of these beautiful birds, and I am still in awe. When they gathered to prepare to leave our shores in the Autumn, my Mum always used to look at them and say “Have a safe journey little ones”…It still brings tears to my eyes.
I am truly very, very blessed living in this wild and beautiful part of Britain. “Home” is North Yorkshire which is equally stunning, but I needed a change of scenery after going through a really tough time about five years ago and landed here, on a rocky coast in North Cornwall. I have spent time living here previously, so it has been easy to pick up with old friends and nestle back in to the unique Cornish lifestyle. It is different, the people are different but pleasantly different. Spring comes earlier and the Winters are milder. I don’t really stop in the garden down here, whereas in Yorkshire I would put the garden to bed in late October and never really consider doing anything in it until late March.
My garden inspires me and I think a lot. I love writing and so have decided to start writing this Blog….what a ghastly name. It sounds like a character from a children’s book…Blog who lives in a swamp.
I’m not a writer, or a gardener….I ramble, and I potter. I have started growing flowers to sell and to share with people in my therapy classes….I am an Occupational Therapist. I do have a garden at the house , but I also have a small plot in a friend’s field to grow my “produce". I have very little gardening knowledge, but thankfully, neither the plants nor the seeds are aware of that. What little I know I have learned from my lovely Mum , who loved her garden and was the inspiration for me to grow flowers.
It’s a strange concept to me to write things down, to press a few buttons and to send it out there. I’m in my middle sixties and I am not tech savvy by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t understand how any of it works, so I rely on others to show me how to do things. Basically, I’m not really interested. I love the old-fashioned slower pace of life. That is partly why I want to put my thoughts down. I would love to be able to transport people to a moment here and a moment there…..the peace and quiet of my garden far away from the rough and tumble of modern day living. I want to be able to let you hear the rhythmic hum of the bees, to see the new seedlings that have just appeared after waiting weeks for them to germinate; to smile to yourself when you witness the sparrows tumbling in and out of the hedge and the buzzards sailing high up on the warm air currents calling to each other as they rise and fall effortlessly….. I want to describe the scents from the warm lavender bushes and the excitement of seeing the first frog in the pond….. Maybe someone out there might read these thoughts …..welcome to my garden and plot.