Moments of Calm: Early Mornings and Gardens

The ongoing heatwave in the UK this week has required movement to be slow and considered.  Rushing and 33 degrees centigrade don’t go well together.  London can feel stifling as the heat gathers in buildings and built up spaces, so gentle pacing and a calm demeanour is required to get through!

I have been getting up early, and the moment I am up, I open the kitchen doors and step into the garden with a cup of tea.  There is something very special about those early hours before the heat of the day sets in.  Wandering around, removing spent flower heads here and there, giving the thirsty pots a splash of water, and picking sweetpea’s whilst their scent is fresh with morning air is one of my favourite times of the day.

I adore being outdoors and work permitting will spend as much time as possible outside during the summer months.  My runs this week have been slow and peppered with periods of walking as the temperature rises. I run along the towpath of our canal believing that even being beside water is more cooling than not.

All meals are taken outside at this time of year, and the sitting room where the TV sits has been completely abandoned in exchange for outside seating, books, or TV on the i-pad, if really needed!

I am reading ‘In The Garden – Essays on Nature and Growing’.  It is one of a collection of books of essays published by Daunt Books.  I read ‘At The Pond – Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies Pond” from the same series last summer.  I have been reading a couple of essays with a glass of wine or cup of tea in the garden at the end of my working day, and have found this immensely soothing.  The essays are beautifully written and capture different aspects of the garden

I’ve also enjoyed an early morning visit to Kew Gardens which is always calming.  We became members for the first time this year, and one of the biggest advantages that during the summer months it opens from 8-10am just for members.  One day this week I was waiting for the gates to open at 8am and was first in!  Enjoying the gardens with so few people in feels like the biggest privilege.  It is at this time that the gardeners are hard at work and if you are lucky you might spot a fox or two.

“It’s so hot and everything is so confused”

The Great Gatsby