The Photo Gallery | Green

I used to think blue was my favourite colour, like the ocean and a perfect summer’s sky, but more and more it is green that really rocks me. I love all the contrasting shades of green in nature, and the vibrancy of trees after a heavy rain. I love the inviting canopy of a lush, grassy, field and how it makes me want to run and run till I can’t run any further. To lay on my back in the shade of a tree, staring up through the canopy of a tree heavy with leaves, gentling moving in a warm summer’s breeze.

The closest I’ve come to any of these, in the past week, is watching the heavy rain falling in my garden on the beautiful Punga tree ferns.

After the rains, the calm returned. The greens all the more vivid from the rain. Maybe it was my childhood, growing up in the green countryside of England, that first ignited my love of greens. I spent most of my childhood running on expansive green fields, climbing trees, seeking four-leafed clovers (which I wrote about in ‘Hope, Faith, Love & Luck‘) and adventuring on my bike in the countryside.

In my adulthood I’ve been happiest far away from civilisation, tramping in the bush of New Zealand (on incredible walks, such as the amazing ‘Milford Track’ – which I wrote about here) – where the lush, jungle of greens, twisting vines, ferns and moss, seem impenetrable in their depth – as well as comforting and restorative in their full embrace. The past ten years of parenthood have sometimes been frustrating, as I’ve been so dedicated to my children that I’ve never given myself time to retreat, on my own, to the bush. I’m starting to restore the balance now, little by little.

I’ve only ever spent one night away from my children – and that’s when I had two children, not three, back in 2008 with a friend – an amazing weekend in the Marlborough Sounds. In ten years, one night! That’s just crazy – no wonder my sanity is crumbling!!

Thankfully, a little dose of nature, be it in my garden – or a landscape as I drive around hilly Wellington – helps to keep the balance.

But, very soon I’m going to need to venture out again on my own, for longer than a moment, more than a night, – just as my growing children are slowly (very slowly!) starting to do! xx

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