I woke up yesterday and saw the sunlight filtering through the window on these and lined them up and just thought “wow, Nature is such a great designer, all green, all so different”. I’d picked them the night before.
One of my favourite books, which I’m still reading, is Traveller’s Joy by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Juliette came from a wealthy family and frankly didn’t have to work at all, but when she was given a puppy as a gift, and it died, she vowed then and there to become a holistic vet.
“The garden is your teacher and your friend”
– Juliette de Baraicli Levy
Juliette’ veterinary herbal books were the first ever published as before then the ancient arts and secrets of the farrier and the gypsy, had only been passed on verbally. She ended up living a fascinating nomadic life, dwelling in ruins in the countryside before moving on, always with her faithful Afghan Hounds (which she discovered on a trip to Afghanistan) as company and security. She married a Spanish journalist, lived with the gypsies in Granada, Spain – who accepted her like family, as she did them, exchanging peasant herbal lore and the healing secrets of plants.
She wandered, wandered and wandered, highly unusual in her time (even today, you could argue) wandering alone. Her hounds saved her life on more than one occasion, sensing danger before she did.
Her life took her from wanderings with gypsies in Spain, Berbers and nomads in Morocc...