Have you knelt down to look at the first opened tulip in the garden?
Do you ever watch the song thrush singing on your chimney or observed a spider weaving a web at your window? You should take a look - it’s a happy view!
One of the main reasons, I work as a gardener is my deep love of nature. I adore watching ants crawling on roses, finding a naughty woodlouse in a bag of soil or glimpsing a black bird, hopping around the border.


I was fortunate to grow up in the countryside, and lived in a variety of houses with gardens. My deep love of nature began as a young girl, playing in the garden for hours, watching the centipedes glossy segmented bodies weaving between the patio stones. I can recall admiring the droplets of dew which wobbled on spider webs and feasting my eyes on the zesty green spring leaves of the copper beech hedge.
At school, we’d play the buttercup game - you hold a buttercup under your friends chin and if their skin shone yellow, it meant they liked butter. Buttercups have an “epidermal layer of the petal that reflects yellow light with an intensity that is comparable to glass” (University of Cambridge), so inevitably, everyone in class liked butter.
My school blazer pockets were full of conkers, pine cones or sycamore seeds and still now, I have an ever growing collection of pine cones, conkers and seed heads. I’ve even been known to take home a fallen branch which has taken my fancy.
Nature is all around and when you stay still, it’s hard to miss it. During my work day, I take a pause for a few moments in a garden and enjoy undisturbed nature.
I’ve seen some special sights from doing so, like the crab spider hunting a honey bee, concealing itself inside the petals of a rose, then snapping its legs around the bee and dragging it inside of the soft pillowy rose centre. I’ve seen the delicate orange outline of a blackbirds eye as it rustled around in the leaves and spotted frogs basking in the sun by a garden pond.
I am in awe everyday of this perfectly made planet.Nature is intelligent - this planet has been thriving and functioning long before we ever arrived.
Let’s take a tree, for example - the leaves of any tree will grow all shades of green and photosynthesise. It will produce coloured flowers, providing nectar for pollinators and eventually, go to seed, formed seeds in all different shapes and sizes with different adaptions to create saplings.
The tree will be a habitat for insects, birds and all manner of creatures. When autumn arrives, the tree will drop its leaves, rotting down to a mulch to provide nutrients for itself and surrounding plants. The tree will rest during winter, growing stronger and wider each year, developing woody lignified rings indicating how long it has lived. It will repeat this cycle every year and live well beyond my life span. A thoughtfully designed seasonal plan!
So today, I ask you to take a break from the digital world and observe nature. Bring back your childish wonder and let me know what you see….
Cherry Blossom 🌸
It’s impossible to feel unhappy in the presence of cherry blossom
Cherry blossom season should begin in April but with warmer temperatures and a fluctuation in the weather, they now arrive a little sooner.
I love cherry trees, the genus being Prunus - they flower in a variety of colours from white to bright pink. The trees can be found in a variety of unassuming locations, decorating and lighting up a street with all of its splendor for a few weeks, until it litters its delicate petals onto the floor. I find them to be awe inspiring and one of natures most special gifts.
I found a particularly spectacular tree on a local walk. The whole tree is coated in small white flowers. It was a warm day so the tree had a few happy pollinators happily zooming from flower to flower.
I stood below the tree and watched the bee’s humming around and closely admired the flowers, even smelling the delicate cherry blossom scent.
I stood across the road to take a few more photographs and was saddened to observe pedestrians passing with no acknowledgment. They chatted on their phone, or worse, looked down at their mobile while this huge flowering tree stood over them.
It seems that we are losing touch with nature. This cherry tree deserves awe, an essential emotion to ground us and to engage us with nature, therefore culminating in respect for the natural world… When did we stop learning to look?


I’ve been keeping tabs on when the cherry trees flower. The seasons are changing for good and our usual markers which indicate a new season will begin or end are changing.
In 2021 - the cherries were in full flower on my birthday, April 23rd
In 2022 - from 11th April
In 2023 - from 24th March
1n 2024 - from 7th March
In 2025 - from 15th March
So you can see, each year, they seem to be becoming earlier and earlier, with an exception of this year. Like I said earlier, seasonal markers are changing and will continue to change due to green house gases, deforestation and consumerism causing an increase of temperature (heavy talk but essential).
If you are interested in blossom, the Woodland Trust have put together a charming calendar of when flowers are in bloom.




On a final note….Clematis armandii
Discussing awe inspiring plants, let’s discuss Clematis armandii.
Many of my clients have a distaste for this climber. I do admit it doesn’t have interest during the year, however when it does produce flower, wow, does it flower? During the growing season, I am forever having to prune delicate reaching tendrils from neighbours gardens using my long pruner.
Personally, I really like this clematis - I admire its long waxy leaves and ferocious growing ability.


Each plant has an alternative adaption to ensure survival in the natural world. This clematis has long and narrow leaves, giving them an aerodynamic quality adapted for climbing. They have a prominent central midrib (central vein), reinforcing the leaf’s structure and a glossy surface which reflects the sunlight and reduces water loss.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed :-)
Thank you Sarah!! Always wonderful to see your photos and read your words. I agree we do all need to pay attention to sporting more. Looking forward to getting back into leaning towards nature in Japan..🍃 (p.s. your card is in the mail! ❤️)
I think it's really important to keep being in wonder at nature, be it the first primroses peeking at us from the banks of a road, or a family of wrens living in a tree at the end of my guarden in central London as a kid, or the amazing colours the sky goes through at dusk and dawn. Spring is such a fantastic time to pay attention if you haven't been but winter has its own beauty, things like the structure of hawfrost, the silence of the snow (which is the same as standing outside when there is a murder of crows, at least, when they're silent, their feathers damp the sound in the same way, but, well, more oppressively because they're all watching you!). Absolutely love your post it sums up why we should never lose our wonder in the world!