Anyone who knows me well will know I love to garden.

I secretly wish I could garden all day, every day. Especially so after the drama of yesterday! (ALSO READ: Visiting mamba and dog fight make for a day that is far too exciting!)

I draw my daily inspiration from my garden and from nature.

At the moment the garden is alive with dancing butterflies and stunning splashes of colour.

So, after the drama from yesterday (snakes and dogs) here is a selection of photographs taken in my garden to help you find peace, tranquility  and inspiration during the current difficult situation.

I hope this will motivate you to spend more time with Mother Nature.

Go outside and get the sun on your face and the soil in your nails.

Enjoy, along with some of my favourite quotes.

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.” –Luther Burbank

“The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.”- Elizabeth Lawrence

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ” –  Khalil Gibran

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ” – Margaret Atwood

“Garden as though you will live forever. ” – Thomas Moore

“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. ” – D. Elton Trueblood

“We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.” – Voltaire

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade. ” – Rudyard Kipling

“My passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society. ” – Andrew Weil

“Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the facades of buildings – sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time. ”- Peter Zumthor

“The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. ”- Gertrude Jekyll

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. ”- Alfred Austin

“I’ve always felt that having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend. ” – C. Z. Guest

“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. ”- Gertrude Jekyll

“Well I do find the beauty in animals. I find beauty everywhere. I find beauty in my garden. ” – Doris Day

“My extravagance is my garden – it’s the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure.” – Ina Garten

The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway. ” – Michael Pollan

“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ” Hanna Rion

“Gardens are a form of autobiography. ” – Sydney Eddison, Horticulture magazine, August/September 1993

“Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” – Betsy Cañas Garmon

“Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air” – Georges Bernanos

“Let nature be in your yard. ” – Michael P. Garofalo

“Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ” –Lindley Karstens

“Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ” – Lindley Karstens

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ” – Michael Pollan

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