Hattie's Pincushions!

There used to be a garden in Hebden Bridge that had the national collection of Astrantias. I visited once for their annual open garden day and as I walked amongst huge displays of rich reds and the softest pinks I remember thinking that if I ever had a garden (they are hard to come by in this town) the first thing I would plant would be astrantias.

Fast forward twenty years or so (yes it took me that long to acquire the garden) my friend Sheila brought me a house warming present; two pots of astrantias! So they were the first things I planted. I must have told her how much I loved them when I visited her beautiful hilltop garden.

Two and a half years on the pink ones are doing really well and on Saturday I sat with them. They brought me so much joy. There is so much we want to change about our garden but even though I'm a good visualiser I find it hard to imagine what I'd like it to look like as it is far from being a blank canvas! But sitting here in the dappled light with the birds singing, watching the breeze blowing through the stems and the bees and butterflies enjoying the blossoms it gave me a sense of what I'd like the garden to be. 

And I felt a tiny bit empowered by the fact that I put these flowers in the soil and they had grown and now the bees were enjoying them and I was finding great inspiration by the simple act of sitting and looking at this spectacle.

Oh that's why people enjoy gardening so much...

I could create these tiny pockets of joy that would grow outwards and eventually the garden, our garden will have taken a new shape.  And it will be contributing to the planet, to nature, to creating a more beautiful world.

The name Astrantia stems from the word 'astra', meaning star. They do look like a constellation when they are all together.

But my Mum always called them Hattie's pincushions. It's easy to see why. My Mum actually had, maybe still has a pincushion that shape. I have fond memories of the gingham dresses she used to make for me when I was little and enjoying 'tidying' the pin cushion while she was sewing.

So that's the name that sticks for me.

It was good to look up really close through the macro lens to see their structure.

There is much more going on than meets the naked eye.

They asked me to go and get my sketchbook so I obeyed and I spent a pleasant half hour, with an 'I don't want to be anywhere else in the whole wide world other than here' feeling. I wondered what an Hattie's Pincushion lamp might look like...

It took me twenty years to find a garden and that took twenty years of growing a business that allowed me the opportunity. I've been planting metaphorical seeds and tending to them for all of that time and I'm very grateful that they have flourished (thank you do anyone who has ever bought anything from me in all of these years). I'm saying this that to remind myself that good things take time. They don't pop up overnight.

I will lean into all these simple pockets of joy along the way and just like they have always done, they will show me the way.