Leaning In.

A letter about making your dreams happen, in miniature.

Hello dear friend,

How are you? Hope all is well wherever you are right now?

This past month has been a bit surreal now I look back on it. Simultaneously it has felt like both a whole summer, and just a weekend. The weather giving cinematic strangeness to the whole thing with sun that chased the clouds away for weeks on end and yet somehow couldn’t muster the heat to match the look. Cold winds bringing night times that have carried a wintry essence. A haze of season chaos that has the plants completely baffled.

Some big moves in the garden - the monstrously large potentilla and hebe have been “moved on”. I wasn’t particularly fond of either. I will miss the to and fro battle of wills with the hebe. I tame it into submission, it puts a lot of growth on in a season. Rinse. Repeat. I’ll miss the way the rain gathered on the spiders webs on the potentilla - that truly felt quite magical and come autumn I will lament the fact that it is no longer part of the landscape. I could see both from standing at the kitchen sink. It was getting to be that you could see little else. In a brutal moment of realisation that we can do whatever we want with that little patch, the decision was made and they are gone .

I’ve long held dreams of swathes of perennials as far as the eye can see. Tall, feathery grasses that sway dreamily like a 1960s singer, painterly petals cascading down walls and investing themselves in every available crack and crevice. Echinacea that look to be wearing tutus and dancing across the landscape like faerie folk in the height of summer, becoming an autumn / winter feast for the birds. Sun casting floral silhouettes an artist could only dream of creating. Colours that look like a dream spilled from slumber and took root in the ground.

Living in a Yorkshire terrace in an old mill town, there is very little space for making these dreams a reality on any grand scale. I realised though, that line that is often spoken - “fake it till you make it” doesn’t only apply to a work life.

I can lean into my dream life in small, but significant ways.

Out with the two big plants that we inherited with the garden when we moved in some 16 years ago, in with the field of dreams in miniature.

Every time I look out of the window now I see a snippet of that future dream life. The bed that was dwarfed by two monstrous beasts is now home to a diverse collection that delight me every time I look at it. I haven’t stopped there, either. The small steps up from the kitchen door are now home to pots full of plants and seeds that will be bursting with life in a few months time. Our small yard-en has been re-organised to fit a small greenhouse (6’ x 4’), an extra raised bed that will be home to carrot, salad leaves and radishes, and a micro courtyard (barely 2 m²) that will just perfectly fit a small table for two, surrounded by pots overtopping abundantly with produce.

Whilst the dream home with the courtyard kitchen garden, 20 foot greenhouse and Oudolf fields of flowers are a long way off, leaning into that dream life is bringing me infinite amounts of joy.

I know that you have dreams too. That orchard you always dreamed of having afternoon snoozes in - under an apple tree after too much cider at a lunch picnic, could easily be a few trees around a hammock, no? Please do you think about the whole leaning in thing.

Stop denying yourself your dream life based on what you don’t have, make it with what you do.

Whilst I’ve been going garden mad over here I haven’t done much else (saw Kylie with a friend - I think that’s the non-garden related highlight!). The weather turned and it finally rained, I was starting to wonder if it ever would! How has it been where you are?

Signing off for now. Dreams to sow, seeds to tend.

The boy will have finished his GCSEs next time I write. I’m not even sure how I so quickly became a parent to a teen of that age - just last week people were stopping me in the street to say what a gorgeous boy he was (and so beautifully behaved). How can that already be 15 years ago!?

Sending love to you.

V.V x

P.S. If you’re interested in bringing the magic of “leaning in” into your own life but not sure where to start, I’ve got you.

When I say “Super easy ideas, makes + dos (that feel like treasure) to spark joy in your world, elevate your everyday and nurture a simple, soulful, curious nature.” on my About page info for my paid subscription, this is it. Easy to make magic that will add a dose of deliciousness to your day and perhaps even change your life.

I’ll be including some “leaning in” inspiration in this month’s “Monthly Magic” (it’s new, that might not always be the name, I’m taking it for a test drive). Sign up below.

Life can drain the colour out of things. Energy shifts, magic fades. It’s not a big deal, but also, it is. Together let’s untame your wild, recompose the tune of your everyday and put the magic back in your life story.

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