The Tired Gardener

Healing Through Growing

Healing Through Growing Blog



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.

  • 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.

  • Mango
  • Mango stone
  • Avocado

Baby Steps Towards Recovery

Should I be resting or moving?  Learning how to take baby steps and manage frustration is a huge challenge in the early stages of recovery or after a relapse.  Sowing a few seeds is a manageable activity that gives a sense of achievement and anticipation.

  • 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.

Time to Walk

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

  • 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.

  • Snow in February, Leicestershire.
  • Snowdrops.
  • Late afternoon snow, Leicestershire.

Cold!

Being cold and exhausted is a common part of fibro/CFS/ME.  Don’t accept and learn to cope,  learn why you’re cold and how to deal with it.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Fruit buds on an apple tree.
  • First year apple trees, planted as 'whips'.
  • Beauty of Bath apple tree on dwarfing root-stock.  Pruned into a goblet shape.

A Pruning Meditation

Pruning on a cold January day can be an exercise in mindfulness and a breath of fresh air after the warmth and indulgence of the Christmas holiday.

  • 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.'


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