The Tired Gardener

Healing Through Growing

Healing Through Growing Blog



  • 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.

A Miniature Expedition

When the outside world is too big to face and you don't have the energy to re-connect with nature outside, a cheap microscope opens whole new avenues of connection and beauty to lift the soul.

  • Winter blue: photo courtesy of Conor McGrath
  • Winter blue too
  • My Secret Garden in January

The Lockdown Blues

For some, lockdown means isolation and loneliness, for others the relentlessness of living in close quarters with other people.  Thank God for my garden and the freedom it gives me to choose between isolation and companionship.

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.

  • An October tow path walk
  • Hedgerow bounty: sloes, haws, rosehips, blackberries
  • Sloes

A Sloe Walk Down Memory Lane

A canal-side walk on a sunny October day brings me close to my Nan and childhood fantasies around her illicit brewing habits.

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.

  • St Pankraz, courtesy of Holger Uwe Schmitt through Wikimedia Commons
  • Bubble wrap protection in mid-May

Cold May Gardeners

Gardening folklore is an endless source of fascination. Do you know who the Cold Gardeners are and why they matter in May?

  • Herrenhäuser Allee
  • Image courtesy of Wikicommons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hannover,_Germany_-_Herrenhausen_G%C3%A4rten_-_panoramio_-_MARELBU.jpg

A Healing Garden

My personal experience of the powerful pain-relieving powers of a beautiful space made sense once I understood the mechanics of chronic pain.

  • A young male blackbird, sitting on my garden fork, looking for worms.
  • A grey loerie, affectionately known in South Africa as a 'go away bird'.
  • A hoopoe.

Feathered Friends

It's easy to become caught up in destructive moods and thoughts, brought on by past experiences, and to miss the calm and beauty around us now.  Birds have a wonderful way of catching my attention and bringing me out of these dark places into the beauty of the present moment.

  • Bumble Bee in an anemone.
  • Honey bee on aubretia.
  • White-tailed bumble bee on a sunflower.

Busy as a Bee

Learning how to stop doing and to sit quietly,  just being and noticing the world around you, is a vital part of recovery.


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.'


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I have categorised my blogs by the 8 segments of the wheel of life, as identified by The Chrysalis Effect. These need to be addressed and balanced for effective healing and sustained good health. Click on the Categories tab to search through these, or the Tags tab for more detailed searches.
All of the photos that accompany my blogs are my own. I find that taking a camera out with me helps me to notice so much more of the beauty and detail of the world around me. When I've taken a photo I try to stop and watch whatever I've been snapping, so I appreciate it in real life and not just through the lens.

© 2020 Alison McGrath Contact Me