Reflecting on how I might incorporate writing about my and other gardens that I have experienced, into writing about various aspects of life in the content of The Holly Tree Tales blog, I scribed the following piece in 2017.

At first, this was written onto a landing page, entitled “Life As A Garden“, and I am republishing it here as a blogpost:

Life as a Garden

I see many parallels between our human lives and what can be observed in Nature.

So many sages, poets and writers speak about the connections between what we reap and what we sow, for example. The Bible goes into this concept in extraordinary and stunning detail, and life itself has shown me that we cannot sow dead seed expecting a bountiful harvest, nor a sustainable one.

I hope to explore the ways that I observe life through posts on my blog, and indeed many of my writings since early childhood have naturally tended to include references to Nature in them.

When I was growing up in South Africa, I was able to see and feel and touch and smell and play outdoors, in glorious natural surroundings. I left South Africa at the age of twenty three – hoping to return to live there, as soon as I possibly could – and, whilst the gardens that I knew and loved there were not necessarily gardens of ‘my own’, I think of all of my life in South Africa then as having been in a garden of sorts … many sorts.

I had a garden in Australia – indeed, I owned two gardens in Australia, with my husband, during the fourteen years that I lived there prior to 2006. I had expected to be based in Australia for the indefinite future, for the rest of my life even, and had resigned myself to not being likely to ever live in South Africa again. I never stopped hoping that somehow I would be able to find my way to having a base there too, a place to return to often, in order to connect with parts of my soul that still reside there and to be amongst the many family and friends in South Africa whom I love. That dream extended to Britain, a place where loved ones reside too. I still hope that business interests will grow and evolve to the extent that I can achieve this dream, and once again have a stake on African soil, perhaps in Australia too, to help care for Nature there, and to feel the rooted groundedness that comes with being on familiar soil.

My life in Britain has been an interesting one … I have strong roots here, through my family history on both sides, and in many senses, as in Australia, I feel the spiritual connection to place that makes one feel at home … but that sense of home is felt more in the south of the country, than in the north where we currently live. As has most of my life been, with mountains and ravines to negotiate through exceptional challenges and trials … the experience of being back in Britain, after living in Australia, has been in large part foundationless, apart from my abiding faith in a Creator God, Father, ever present guide.

I have ‘owned’ (does one ever?) one garden in Britain, which is where we currently reside, in the Berwickshire countryside. This garden, so symbolic of so much of life experienced over at least the past decade, has taught me much, and about all sorts. It has been a source of inspiration, frustration, fear, overwhelm, strength, insight, and clarity on many fronts. I have included pictures and blog posts about this garden, and have referred to it often in my writings (private journal and now also my blog), since coming to live here in 2009. These writings will continue as I build my writing on this site, The Holly Tree Tales.

I plan to share with Readers pictures and memories and experiences of ‘my’ gardens in all the places that I have lived … these will include references to places and property where I have lived, but that have not necessarily been ‘my own’. All feature, however, on one or other of the three continents that I have to date lived, loved, and made soul-filled homes.

Life is a garden, and like Nature in so many ways …
Nature teaches how to do Life, if we can but listen and hear her voice.