This week I returned to the studio after a three-month sabbatical. A longer period than I have ever taken away from my work since I began my training back in the early eighties. I consider myself fortunate to have found a vocation early on, and my career has never actually felt like work, but I have worked hard and the change in cadence has been good. Twelve whole weeks without the structure of work and project demands. Time set aside to look and replenish energies that for years have been mostly going out, with not enough time to recharge. In those weeks I made space to see new worlds and, with the change of perspective, gave myself the opportunity to re-evaluate.

Ruminating about my personal time and how I want to use it, I feel I may be coming full circle. As a teenager, I would deliberately miss the school bus so that I could spend the day immersed in the garden. While on sabbatical, I still couldn’t help but feel that my desire to simply be out there, head down and hands dirty, was illicit. It felt like stolen time, but with room to ponder the limits of available time, it was time that I know I have earned and indeed has value. Time worked for in the building and nurturing of this place and in the process of learning from it as we move forwards. To garden is a process that builds one year on the next and this is what I return to again and again and feel sure of.