I'm missing my Nature Journal...

I'm really missing "my" Nature ... I'm missing my old garden and "my" birds and all the little mammals and insects I used to interact with. I miss my wildlife pond, I miss my potting shed and I miss digging and getting my hands dirty in the soil. I miss my early-morning walks in "my" bluegum bush and I miss identifying the various weeds I used to see coming up among the rolling fields of Eragrostis (Weeping love grass). I miss Mollie ("my" resident Mole Snake in my garden) and I miss the flocks of Guinea fowl and unexpectedly coming upon Hedgehogs and tortoises passing through our property.

I miss my various "useless" collections like feathers, terracotta pots, my succulent and cactus collection, twigs and leaves, seeds, fallen birds' nests, various droppings from little buck passing by (yes, I used to collect their droppings!), stones, pebbles and rocks, small rodent and reptile skeletons I used to find on my walks and I dearly miss my Chooks - Snoodles, Kiep, Chi-Chi, Kentucky, Micky, Missy and Mr. Brown. The only chickens I have seen in 18 months are those when we had coffee at Burnedale Farm and Restaurant here in Ballito when we went there for breakfast.

And I hear you you asking, so why don't you collect and dig in the soil and discover new things on your early-morning walks? The answer is simple - I have not had a garden for the past 18 months (luckily that is soon to change) and I've spent my time exploring vistas like the ones above and below.

I'm slowly starting to identify with the trees and plants of the coast, like the beautiful Fever Trees (Vallechia xanthaphloe, above, one of the beloved thorn Trees I never managed to get growing in my previous garden because it was too cold, this is decidedly a coastal and hot climate tree.

I have also managed to establish a new little succulent collection and some of them will find a home in the ground in our new place we are moving to. And in the pipeline is a whole new collection of terracotta pots!

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Replenish your Soul

Watercolour flowers in terracotta pots on a vintage pine table, which I bought many years ago at a second-hand shop - processed in MS PowerPoint. Back-ground texture by Kim Klassen

Imaginary sunshine spills through the window in my potting shed, lighting up some potted plants on my Vintage Pine table. A potting shed is one of the greatest pleasures of life, a place where you can lose yourself, have contact with Mother nature, pushing your hands deep into the soft soil, creating life in a pot. A place where you can talk to the flowers without getting funny looks. The potting shed is the heart of the garden. It's here where the day begins and ends, where plants get their start, where creativity springs forth and seed packets whisper "Spring is just around the corner!" 

Ideally potting sheds are small outbuildings dedicated solely to gardening activities. Yet, you don't really need a separate structure to pot and propagate. All you need is a sheltered bit of functional space where you can comfortably work and wile away the hours. And replenish your soul. 

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