So glad to be back...

Fresh page, fresh lists and fresh plans. Why January IS a brilliant month, really.

Hello!

I am so thrilled to be back. And I really mean it.

2023 was, quite frankly, my ‘annus horribilis’. So many brilliant things happened, but there were also many challenges which overtook and over whelmed.

You’ll know that I love to follow the seasons, fundamentally subscribing to the cyclical and tidal nature of time, using gardening as a vehicle to find meaning, explanation and reason. However, this January, I am wholeheartedly embracing the Gregorian Calendar; January 1st 2024 was the start of a new chapter here, turning the page in every way, en route to my ‘annus mirabilis’.  I am, very very keen to plan and prepare for the year ahead.

One of my clients wrote to me today -

“Just to say, my early January is usually taken up with how to get fit, lose weight, all that kind of tedious soul destroying stuff, so this year having a focus to plan the planting has transformed my usual internal negative chat to imagining the garden, focusing on potential beauty and all truly external!  Utterly uplifting, exciting and motivating! So thank you!”

This is entirely my intention and since beginning my ‘Grow Your Own Cut Flower’ Course (Sept - July) and now the ‘Winter Planning Course’ (begins next week!), I really do love January for that opportunity. I have never understood why we choose the darkest, post celebratory slump period of the year to resolve to do very hard things. It seems an unnecessary penance for trying to enjoy the midwinter.

No, instead, look forward, decide on the goal and work out the steps to get there. It’s true manifesting, declaring exactly what you want, and putting yourself in the right place and mindset to move towards it. I am not sure I can think of anything more joyful in January! Then, once planned, the rest of the year is clear, and one can focus on the process and abundance created.

How do we start? Over the next few weeks, I am going to share how I plan my year, the tools and processes I use to make decisions on my focus and what I commit to. Not just in the garden, but in different areas too. I will refer back to ‘that year’ in order to demonstrate how I try to learn from these experiences.  Dearest subscriber, you have paid for the ‘show of the ankle privilege’. This process is not to be rushed but something I work through over the next few weeks until Valentines Day (I’ll tell you why that date on another newsletter.) Clarity, focus and decisions are the key here. Where what we leave out might be more important than what we keep in.

To kick off, I like to get everything out on the table. The proverbial, empty the cupboards and see what we are dealing with task.