I know it’s now September and writing a post about gardening might be at odds with the coming autumn. But after a pretty dismal summer I’m not ready to surrender to autumn leaves and hygge…
I’ve only fully embraced my inner gardener over the last three - like many people covid changed things. A prominent but very ugly area was transformed by my husband and a friend from the village. They did the heavy duty stuff; digging, levelling, building raised beds,installing decking and creating a wildlife pond and I got to do the fun bit, the planting - and in the process, fell in love with flowers. 
I now find myself looking forward to the arrival of the seed catalogue, watching Gardeners World and even bought myself a potting bench. My approach is pretty haphazard and I’m very much a novice, but there is something incredibly calming about it - and if you’re feeling a bit anxious one day I can recommend tackling a particularly vicious area of brambles - it soon takes your mind off things.
When it comes to art, I’ve always been heavily influenced by the seasons, so it’s no surprise that I’ve found myself painting lots of flowers this year. Having mostly concentrated on animals over the last ten plus years this is a bit of a change for me, but I’m enjoying the process of studying real flowers and using the shapes and colours to create artwork - then adding embroidery and beads. The upside is, even when this year’s flowers and colour have gone from the garden, I’ll still have some in the house, but on the wall.
You can find my artwork inspired by the garden in the ‘Fabulous Florals’ collection in my online shop. You can also follow my nature inspired instagram account @underthepigeontree.