The Tired Gardener

Healing Through Growing

Healing Through Growing Blog



  • Ancient oak roots or troll feet?
  • The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest. An old lady with walking sticks reaches for the sky.
  • Stark winter beauty supporting bird life.

Learning to Love my Wounds

It’s easy to be self-critical and see the marks of the passage of time on our body as faults,  but there is a lesson in self-love to be learned from the beauty of mature trees.

  • Tea-tree and rosemary before the snow.
  • Tea-tree fronds. Resurrected!
  • Rosebay on a rainy day.

Get Outside!

'You can be miserable anywhere, so GET OUTSIDE!' I took some good advice from a friend on a miserable day and my garden took care of the rest.  

  • Blackbird eating ivy berries.
  • Female blackbird, nesting.
  • Sparrow.

Playing With Time

I have been given a time machine for my birthday. It only looks like a camera.

  • Crocuses, hellebores and snowdrops: bee survival supplies in the late winter.

Spring in My Steps

Recovery is a frustrating business with lots of twists and turns. Today a bumblebee helped me to navigate a corner.

A Single Rose can be my Garden

When dark wet days and miserable headlines engulf you in worries about the future, nature has a knack of catching your attention and providing some perspective.

  • The Path into the Woods
  • Wild Woods
  • Walking through a Clearing

Into the Woods

The recovery ‘journey’ may be a cliché, but there are few better ways of understanding the ups and downs, the twists and turns, involved in finding one’s way back to full health. The journey is a hard one, but sometimes the most difficult part is not looking too far ahead, learning to focus on the path under your feet and to find companions to share the highs and lows along the way.

  • Summer clouds
  • Red Kite, courtesy of Thomas Kraft  (ThKraft) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)
  • Fennel and runner bean flowers

Cocooned

Every journey to recovery has its setbacks, unbearable times of slipping backwards when it's hard to keep faith and hope alive.

Time to Walk

A weekly walk in the woods brings a welcome respite, perspective and calm in a crazy world.

  • Dancing plum blossom against an infinite blue.
  • Joy found in a poppy.
  • The glories of creation in the complexity of a flower.

Finding Calm in the Storm

Against apocalyptic headlines, my garden is a refuge and source of perspective and solace.

  • Apple blossom

Resilience

In uncertain times a garden can be a source of food security as well as emotional well-being.

  • Espaliered apple, Barnsdale Gardens, Rutland.
  • Lily, Felley Priory Garden, Derbyshire.
  • Irises, Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire.

An Imaginary Garden

In the depths of winter, when the ground is sodden and the wind howls, or when illness keeps you in dark places, there is always the garden of the imagination to explore.

  • Gladiolus flower.
  • Gladiolus bud.

Blooming in Winter

What is life without the hope that you can flourish despite the hardness of life?


My illness has meant that I have had to give up my work and so I am now looking to find a new career through my writing. If you have enjoyed this page and would like to encourage me to produce more, click the coffee cup below to make a small donation; no strings, no fuss, just a little, 'Thanks, keep it up.'


Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee


You can also help by sharing this page on your social media.


Share


RapidWeaver Icon

Made in RapidWeaver