I have a friend who wants to downsize her house, as she needs to reduce her mortgage debt, but is quite understandably is sad about losing her large garden. I’ve spent years casting a covetous eye over anyone with a large expanse of grass and plenty of room to swing several cats. Yet, I’ve put … Continue reading What is a garden for?
This week is Lammastide, or more officially August 1 was Lammas or Lughnasadh. The Pagan wheel of the year from which these calendar markers come from, is I've found, one that's worth looking into if you want to break away from commercially enforced seasonal markers. There are some overlaps: Yule is the winter solstice and … Continue reading Tuning into the seasons
Each May the lilac outside our front window bursts into heavily scented blossom. It's such a short-lived flowering and a reminder to me of the passing of the seasons. Running along in the background of our overly busy and disconnected lives the world around us ticks along to its own beat, flowering in the same … Continue reading Bringing the outside in
Hidden Nature: A voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler I’ve been a fan of Alys Fowlers’ approach to gardening for some time: her embrace of non-conventional methods makes a refreshing change to the rather strait-laced approach of some gardening writers. So, I was rather intrigued to learn that she was about to release a book, … Continue reading Hidden nature: A review
I'm half way through Paul Kingsnorth's new book, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist. It's one of those books whose words and images go to bed with you at night and it's rather melancholic and haunting. One of its messages, that we've distanced ourselves too much from nature, reminded me of the back end of last … Continue reading Avoidance of technology for its own sake
The House with the Blue Door 