A feast for the senses

Some of my earliest memories are of gardens, plants and wildlife, and I still return to that sense of childlike wonder when they are reawakened each year in the garden. Those memories affected and awakened every sense- glorious sights of freshly burst buds and catkins in spring showed me the potential to come after a long winter; the heady scents of roses and lavender in the summer sun, honeyed Allysum fragrance and the fresh piney aroma of our garden’s conifer hedge, or damp soil after rain; the feel of smooth pussy willow gathered on springtime walks, the tickle of a worm wriggling through my fingers, and the change over the year of soft, newly sprung holly leaves which later became prickly and positively tortured your fingers when dried under a winter hedge. Late afternoons in the autumn garden resonated with the sound of whispering breezes, dried leaves crunching and swishing under booted legs, with the chattering alarm of blackbirds in the gathering dusk; and lastly the sweet taste of fresh peas and baby carrots stolen from my father’s vegetable patch.

We spend so long indoors in sterile, airless rooms and offices. Let’s get out more and reinvigorate our minds, recover our childhood wonder of discovery and awaken those senses and build memories anew in the garden.