There is comfort in seeing stars in the sky. I thought this as I hung the washing out one night. Stars in the sky remind me that for all my woes and concerns, joys and failures, I am part of something grander than myself. I love how nature gives you this context, that you are part of something else. I think this is why I value my garden so much, it has a wonderful ability to take me outside of myself. At the moment I am spending time building the garden up for the show that will be spring and summer. I cherish the physical work as well as the mental work. The noticing, planning and implementing of changes to the garden to make the next season just right. I go to work and I look down at my hands. Fingers nails despite my best efforts still have dirt from my gardening work clinging to them. Little red welts streak across my hands, along with the odd scrap or two. Weeding round the rose bushes have left prickles in my hands and as much as they smart I am kinda happy to see them as they remind me of my outdoor time. Of the sun on my skin, of working in the open, of being in the garden. Of being part of something else bigger than me.
“Nature transcends our tendencies to label and classify, to reduce and limit. The natural world if unfathomably more rich, interwoven and complicated than we are taught, and so much more mysterious and beautiful”
‘The creative act: A way of being”, Rick Rubin
I have a draft. I have a draft of my art project and I am now slowly working through it, matching images to words. Removing a lot of words and then adding some back and see what is the story that I am trying to tell. I’ve tried to be open to the experience of creating a solid art piece, just let it flow and be and try so hard not to judge it or what I am doing. Of course I have moments where I am ‘what am I doing’, ‘why do I think I can make this’ and I usually have enough sense to let those thoughts move on and try not to hold on to them. I had an artist friend whose work I admire suggest a book “The creative Act: A way of being” to me which I have started reading. Some of what is written I have seen before and I find solace it read again. Other parts feel very timely. The journey of creating from a seed that is sown to the collecting of thoughts and ideas to the creating something is outlined in a way I have found comforting. It is the breath out when you have been holding it in for too long. While I may not know what the end product of the art project will be, I feel more confident to follow where ever it may take me and appreciate that the process of creating has just as much merit as the finished product. Sometimes books just come along when you need them.
It’s the afternoon after a few days of rain. The sun is shining and I am standing at the table, dirt covering my hands as I divide and re potting heuchera Heuchera have become a favourite of mine. I love the variety of leaf colours and shades that they come in. They can add so much to the garden. I love planting them on mass as a border edge to a bed. I have worked out a system of buying one from the gardening store every so often and then dividing it up into many little plants which means my collection of plants is growing. While I work in the garden I dig up some heuchera to divide. I do this standing at the out door table and I count 10 pots of goodness that I will plant out in the spring. Another reason I love this plant is it is an easy to keep bee friendly plant. Come flowering time I often find the stems foraged by a number of bees. It is a great source of nectar.
After working in the garden I head indoors for the obligatory cup of tea. I reflect in my mind on what I did today. Planted up the last of the daffidol bulbs. Start the ranunculus bulbs on their journey, hoping they will come to something, realistically knowing they may not. I emptied old pots of plants that had grown to big, splitting some. I picked up more of those damn cabbage tree fronds. I then think of what I still have to do. More weeding and tidying up. Moving a rose. Taking down the greenhouse, the list goes on and then I realise I actually have a lot to do. It may be winter, the time of hibernation but if I want the garden to be full of life in the spring and summer I need to do the foundation work now.