in the garden | Zoë Boccabella

Tag Archives: in the garden

Jan 3, 2023 · 11:39 am

Speranza e auguri… hope and wishes

Life often looks wonderful on social media and I wonder that at times it doesn’t always show both sides. If I’m honest, December 2022 has been one of hardest months of my life with several unexpected losses and much challenge.

Then to top it off, after almost three years of careful avoidance, I received Covid for Christmas and the New Year (I was fully vaccinated) and have been very sick with every symptom. I’m stunned at just how terrible Covid can be and wouldn’t wish it on (or risk giving it to) anyone.

I’m still trying to get through it and have lost being able to taste and smell, (devastating to someone who loves cooking!) but I’m hoping these will return in time – fingers crossed. And I also still hold hope for this fresh, new year.

If anything, going through this past month makes me appreciate so much more and I’m grateful to have had those I’ve lost, for the pain means there was much love, and so it takes time to adjust and adapt.

In the meantime, I’m always amazed at how simply stepping out into the garden can help lift your spirits. Seeing what’s flowering right now, hearing the muffled beat of a bird flying across, feeling the warm, gentle summer breeze and thinking of the year ahead.

Knowing that yes, there will be more trials and griefs to come – that’s life – but there will also be many beautiful happenings too, even tiny ones. Buon anno, baci e auguri, Zoe xx

PS. Some pictures from my garden… (this morning’s lovely discovery – a self-sown pumpkin). I live on an ordinary-sized suburban block and am often happily surprised by just how much life is going on within it!

PPS. When I get back to being able to taste and smell, I have a feeling I’ll be cooking up a storm. 👀🙂

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Tagged as australian summer, backyard nature, garden, hope and wishes, in the backyard, in the garden, loss and hope, nature in everyday life, Speranza e auguri, suburban backyards

Sep 16, 2022 · 11:22 am

Unexpected flowerings…

With much going on with the book coming out, I haven’t been able to get into the garden for a while and suddenly noticed out the window that the hippeastrum (centre) has flowered (exciting to me as it’s looked half-dead for a long while and I didn’t expect a recovery, especially with my past bad experiences trying to grow flowers!)

Looking around the garden, I see spring has indeed begun in my absence with lovely amber nasturtiums and little, late pea flowers in the vegie patch, the white flowers on Nonno Anni’s coffee tree and more white flowers (top) covering Grandpa Bob’s hawthorn (and attracting lots of lovely bees). There’s a striking red canna too, one of ‘Nanna’s cannas’ grown from Nanna Francesca’s that grew for years in her front garden and precious to me (since those who’d later live in the house would mow over them until they eventually disappeared completely).

And I also spotted a pinky-purple flower that I think might be a weed but it’s growing so valiantly in a cement crack next to a stone wall that there’s just no way I can pull it out. Lovely how so much life can be happening in an ordinary, suburban yard – birds, dragonflies, plants from loved ones, weeds, unexpected survivals and flowerings. Zoë 🌷🌿 xx