The vision of a green and magical place that came to me in a guided pathworking with Glennie Kindred was gifted to me when we moved house and I found my sacred garden to steward. Beside the old wooden shed, half-way down the garden a tall rambling thicket arches, beyond it a ragged old apple tree leans against a profusely berried holly and an Ash sapling, all entwined through with a cool canopy of honeysuckle and grape vine. We have a bench there where I can sit amongst the greenery, hearing our neighbours clatter and chatter as if far, far away. But mainly I hear birdsong, doves and blackbirds and a wren who calls out loud a melodic and complicated song at the approach of our fascinated moggies. A frog-way runs along the side of the shed where amphibians travel to and fro our neighbours shady pond. Beyond the Bower a small wildflower lawn of clover, self-heal, buttercups and yarrow, hedged in on all sides with overgrown shrubs of cotoneaster, buddleia, rose and thick bindweed. As we pulled back the curtains of bindweed we found straggly fruit bushes, canes of raspberry and blackcurrant, redcurrant, gooseberry and damson bushes and at the very back by the gate, a pear tree struggling and weighted down with fruit-heavy brambles, their arching canes thick as my thumb.
Jean Dark
July 2011
First published in The Earth Pathways Diary 8th July 2013
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Jean Dark 