There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
JANE AUSTEN
I love poetry and caring, and the thoughtfulness of kind words. I love waking up each day knowing that the subtle magic of life stretches before me... and then stepping into the fresh, clear dawn, filled with gratitude for the simplicity of small moments and the loveliness of it all.
Through my work as a nature writer and visual storyteller, I share stories to help deepen our awareness and understanding of the beautiful living world and our ever-changing place in it, so that we can reimagine a way of being that is gentler and more considerate of nature and of one another. The natural world truly needs our care and nurturing, and in turn, it offers us places to escape to, where we can lose ourselves in the beauty of woodlands and wildflower meadows, city parks and gardens, just to walk, to relax, to daydream.
Having taken a course in creative design while living in London in the early 1990s, I now create my own visual materials, and this writing / design / photography combination forms the basis of my work.
Working for wildlife & wild places
After years of writing and searching and travelling into remote landscapes to deepen my understanding of place and connection - to self and to the wider living world – I began sharing much of what I learnt through publications and thought-provoking initiatives.
My work experience is shared via the link on the left.
As a child, I grew up among the beautiful fynbos mountains of the Cape and have always lived on the urban edge, where nature has been my lifelong inspiration. In recent years, I have been drawn back to England and now live in the Cotswolds.
Having grown up in a home where my parents have a great love for classical music, I too fill my life with music and the soft touch of poems and written words. Listening to Irina Lankova playing Schubert’s Impromptu or Daniel Barenboim’s soulful interpretation of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and working with Irish composer John Field’s Nocturnes playing quietly in the background is, for me, one of life’s true pleasures.
My life-path has taken me on journeys to Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the Kalahari desert and long trips into the Cederberg mountains to study ancient rock art sites. These experiences deepened my understanding of intuitive connections to the land, and this awareness is carried with me whenever I venture into wild landscapes.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Peace is a practice
not a hope
Over time, and having worked within many nature awareness programmes, I have learned that it is through our emotional bonding with the land that we develop an ethos of care and compassion for the natural world, at a time when so much of all that is wild and free is being lost, perhaps forever.
