Strawberries, snapdragons and ducklings…my easy way to the emotional balance

"Is there an easy way to get to emotional balance using the power of nature?" I asked myself turning over the spade with the dirt over?

Enchanting and relaxing cottage life they say…It was kind of that when I landed on the couch last night and immediately got pinned to the surface by the weight of two pugs who could not believe I was stationary for a while.

The reason for that was the sore back, two nurofens and some satisfaction after spending a couple of hours weeding and feeding the strawberries.

The winter was not merciful to poor berry plants. They spent months in the cloggy wet environment - the united forces of the rain and clay soil.

I thought there was not much hope for them but the healing sunshine brought the little heads of flowers up and they multiplied day by day.

That is why I decided to help and added the sore dust, alpaca poop and hand weeding to the process of recovering.

They loved it but my back did not like it that much. But the pugs loved it too. Not too often they get the chance to cuddle on my knees.

The more sunny days - the more jolly dreams and one of them is to have as many flowers on the property as possible to erase the memories of the mud surrounding the house for months.

I guess I should be happy it was not the ice and snow…

Some winters are like that, aren't they?

This year I feel like there should be no formalities in my flower beds, no system, just the collection of small personalities - the ball of flowers where all possible cinderellas of the flower world are invited. Seduced by the pretty pictures on the punnet of the flower seedlings I bought little cerastium called ‘snow in summer”, my favourite snapdragon which is so generous for the colorful bunches of blooms and… the larkspur mix… the last one (I have never grown before) was described as an “ideal cottage garden” plant and of cause I was sold fast but… it turned out the height of this guys is up to 1 meter and they are the delphinium like plants that makes them absolutely not suitable to plant together with the previous two at my house flower bed.

I learnt my lesson on heights today.

The larkspur was planted with the hollyhock and honeysuckle in my “enchanted” garden full of medicinal herbs and poppies and cornflowers and what not… It is away from the house and I think it is a “special mood” garden. But look! I was forced to give this garden some attention today due to my mistake with the flowers.

They say “a mistake is an opportunity to grow”. To grow indeed :)

Garden is a place where all the noise of the world stops and the thoughts of my own come forward. What is most important is that I start noticing them while vigorously weeding or slowly picking the herbs or something else…(what an easy way to get to emotional balance too!)

This is how the messages of the mind are received and it turns out there are a few stored inside it.

For example the value and meaning of affirmations and prayers was revealed to me while clearing from winter weeds the patch in the veggie garden.

I did it in several sessions as I almost never have time to complete the big task at once having to juggle between many. When I finished I looked at it with great satisfaction but noticed that the weeds were already making their way out on the parts I cleared first. Straight away I thought - “it needs to be planted asap with the things I want to see there - to take the place and not to let the unwanted stuff grow.

Sometimes we do the thoughtwork and catch the unwanted thoughts, the patterns of thinking we believe we can change or eliminate.

Step one: we identify the unwanted mind weeds.

Step two: they need to be replaced consciously so the new thoughts take place and will not let the unwanted stuff be there… This is how the affirmations work. This is what the prayer does - they replace what is in the head for the time being. Thus the program changes.

I do hope the weeds will never appear but sometimes they come out in between the beautiful flowers . That is why checking on the new flower bed and pulling them out is necessary. The same as with the thoughts 🙂

You see. I do love spending time in the garden for fresh ideas.

Several times per day we are checking on our family of Indian runner ducks.

They made a nest more than a month ago and layed eggs and collectively looked after them, taking shifts sitting on them and having fun in the pond. It all was really cute until.. Tha nasty pukekos discovered the ducks and arrived in the big gang and beat the mums and stole almost all the eggs.. Only 6 left. We tried to build the fort around the nest and tried to scare the pukekos away but they kept coming back. I wish I had the superpowers to evict all the pukekos out of our place. There are so many places around where they could be but they choose the weak ones to get the food from… Sometimes nature seems to be too cruel.

We are all here anxiously waiting if the ducks’ effort on bringing the new life into this world will be successful.

These are the latest events here with the two books to work on and spring I have the days filled with writing, drawing, vigorous planting and today the art classes come back with the start of a school term. “The Christmas market” is our term theme and i am already looking forward for the first class.

Thank you for reading it if you managed to get to the end 🙂

Also if you are after the balance in your day - a cup of tea is the answer. I fell in love with this simple tea so much that even drew the cup with it. Take 1/3 teaspoon of cinnamon, add 2-3 whole cloves and top it all up with the hot water and enjoy the hug in a cup in 2-3 minutes.

Have a creative week!

Yulia