I am so grateful for this view from my studio. To some, this may look terribly overgrown. But if you had seen it when we first moved here, you’d realise that this is actually quite tame. The fact that you are free to wonder around the garden is an improvement in itself on what it used to be. You would have had to have fought your way through thick bushes, overgrown trees and weeds to reach the back fence. Clearing it was a difficult task – we started by hand, but soon realised that we were going to require a mini-excavator brush cutter to cut down the excessive growth and make the rest of the garden accessible. It took a lot of time and effort, but it was well worth it.

Nevertheless, I admit that at this time of year, it might not look like much – overgrown, dormant, chaotic. There are weeds and gopher mounds and plants that have gone wild. Yet amidst this disorder are fruit trees about to blossom, butterfly bushes that will burst into flower in a few months, dahlia bulbs hidden in the soil that will send up bright spots of red and yellow, strawberries waiting for summer to bear fruit, and artichokes thick with leaves promising edible flowers. This view sustains me – it mirrors my own creative life – overgrown, chipped away at by details, projects gone dormant. But spring is coming and there are roots, seeds, and bulbs – ideas – just waiting for a little care and the right timing to flower. There is a season for everything.