seasonal gardening
inspiration
wellbeing & mental health
be sustainable
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A garden that you love is a resource - a place to go when you need space for yourself - if I’m feeling angry or sad, anxious or over-tired, a few minutes tending something outside makes a huge difference. I always feel better. And, when I keep bringing my ideas, however small, to life my garden improves and I feel even happier and more inspired to carry on.
That’s what I’d like for you too. As women it’s imperative that we make space in our lives for ourselves and that we don’t just give, give, give dancing to other people’s tunes. We have to fill our own cups. And your garden can be part of that.
Create a space you love - it doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, and get out there and tend it. Potter, weed, deadhead, dig, plant, seed, water, breathe, sit, rest - basically enjoy and make the most of that space.
It’s about much more than how it looks - it’s about how you feel.
So - happy pottering…
Sarahx
seasonal gardening
inspiration
wellbeing & mental health
be sustainable
My heart has been heavy and my chest filled with rage this week as Sarah Everard's 'Police Officer' murderer was convicted only a week after the body of Sabina Nessa was discovered in a London park.
I was growing up in Leeds aged 11, when Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called 'Yorkshire Ripper' murdered his first victim, and was attending school a mile from where he operated. And I just accepted it as normal that I mustn't walk alone at night, or in a dark place. I still do and I've taught my daughter the same.
Today is so called ‘Blue Monday’ (a PR exercise for a travel company it seems, dating back to 2005 but useful all the same) and I’m wondering how you’re feeling.
I’m not feeling too blue actually but I did have a bit of a melt down at the weekend and which me realise that I’d been tolerating too much without expressing it. There’s a lot to tolerate at the moment and the rats in our roof are just one more thing!
I often write about the pleasure I get from the pots I display by our front and back doors. They’re a collection of evergreens, small shrubs and seasonal lovelies and I love creating, caring for and admiring them. However this post is about the containers, my collection and where I find them.
Stoicism is not a virtue - so said a wise woman recently and I felt something inside me chime.
So many of us live, often unconsciously, by an outdated, patriarchal, and plain unhelpful (if not dangerous), edict that there is merit in our keeping quiet, not ‘making a fuss’ and being stoical; that we should be ‘sweetness and light’ and get on with life without creating a disturbance; that women are supposed to be ‘ladylike’ and that it’s unattractive to be angry.
Well stuff that!
I slept through the night last night for the first time for ages. My sleep has been improving gradually but this is the first full, didn't leave my bed, night. And it was wonderful. The feeling of achievement, pleasure and sense of rest this morning is incredible.
This is noteworthy because, over the past five years or so my sleep has been very disturbed with long periods of wakefulness and difficulty going to sleep in the first place so much so that I've been waking up tired and grumpy, sometimes wondering what it's all for.