Back in the dark wet days of winter, Vince and I put together the seed order for our garden.  We had agreed that for the first year of our new garden we’d ‘grow what we eat’.  Which might seem like a ridiculously simple plan of action but if you’ve ever flicked through the pages of a seed catalogue you’ll know how enticing everything is.  Much to my annoyance Vince insisted on getting a packet of cucamelon seeds.

Summer is in full swing. The days are hot and sunny, the evenings are balmy and there’s a lovely buzz in the village as people arrive home from abroad or other parts of Italy to spend summer with their families.

We’ve been going to our garden early in the morning while it’s still cool, to plant veg and water.  Our garden is 1.5km from the village and is surrounded by lots of other gardens.  So there’s always someone coming or going who stops for a chat or to give ‘advice’.

It’s over a decade since I closed the front door of my house and walked out into the unknown, leaving my life and my husband & partner of 15 years behind me.

I had no clue what was in front of me or how I was going to manage on my own but I knew I had to leave. I look back at that version of me now and wonder where did she get the courage to walk out that door from?

This time of year is such a wonderful reminder that it’s in our nature to expand and yet we often have an inverse relationship to expansion.

I was a child when I learned that physical expansion was not a good thing and that you’d be judged for being ‘too big’. This manifested in years of ‘yo yo’ dieting, where I’d gain weight (expand), then loose weight (contract). A constant battle between those feelings of being in and out of control.