A Gardeners Crafting Diary July 2024

This month has been really busy but not with the usual July tasks. Etsy is still really quiet and the weather is still either rainy, windy, cold or grey meaning spending hours in the garden is a bit hit-and-miss. I love long, hot summer days and as this doesn't seem to be happening this year, I have been concentrating on my new, illustrated book. This month I have been drawing, and writing and I even took a visit to the book printers in preparation for printing. Therefore this month's gardening crafting diary is all about my new book: Short Stories for Little Plants

Introduction to 'Short Stories for Little Plants'

'Talking to plants has been academically proven to benefit both the reader and the plants, with many controlled experiments showing plants flourish when spoken to, how they benefit from music played and how there is a greater understanding of plants communicating with each other through their chemical interactions.

Talking to a plant is incredibly calming, allowing anything to be said without judgment or criticism. By using soft tones whilst reading and soothing classical music whilst you're away, the vibration of sound upon cells of the plant encourages

efficient food and water distribution,

resulting in healthier growth.

These stories, spoken in soothing tones, have been written to promote a relaxed well-being for the reader, who will experience a journey to a world that is so unfamiliar and yet visually understandable. See the world of plants from the remotest corners of the world and learn to value what is important for healthy, happy plants.'

My new book is in principle a luxurious adult picture book, with short, descriptive stories, created specifically to read to plants. The writing style is a unique blend of both rhyming and non-rhyming descriptive verse with little poems scattered throughout. Combined with beautiful illustrations, I wanted to create a book that is a rebellion against AI, (which seems to have taken over everything). and to allow the reader an opportunity to escape to far away, unspoilt

lands. Visit places such as The Land of No Time, The Land of the Echo Call, The Land East of East and The Land of Perfumed Spires:

'A walk around this pottage, with its secret hide-aways, curving narrow paths between a tended, rambling landscape. A surprise around every corner, a flower, fruit or tree, or maybe a salad patch with herbs and leaves for tea! Camomile and lavender, parsley and sage, where snapdragons freely roam, when they should be in a cage!'

The crazy bit explained

'Talking to plants is not as crazy as it sounds, in fact, it's a very rewarding thing to do, with a vast amount of worldwide academic papers written on the benefits, both to the plant and to the person talking. Using today's sharing platforms there is an abundance of information, even though this progressive idea is still considered 'fringe' by modern science. Recent studies have concluded that plants can communicate with each other, send out distress calls, panic and even know the difference between a good sound like rainfall or a bad sound like chomping insects. Plants do not have ears, but they can hear, they do not have voices but can share concerns with neighbours and have feelings, shown by their reaction if under attack or the search for life-giving warmth and light from the sun.

Adulting can be really difficult sometimes and so having somewhere to talk, where your conversation partner never disagrees with you, butts in or laughs at your plans, is vital for personal well-being. You have somewhere to rant and rave for hours or days, so long as you use soft tones, where that negativity will turn positive as your vibrations energise your plant. A plant will listen to decision-making arguments, life-changing ideas, foolish hobby choices, speech practices, work dilemmas and family disagreements and with time you'll be rewarded with healthy leaves on a happy plant.'

It was very exciting this week as we went to visit the book printers in Peterborough. I took my husband Paul and bestie Zoe (my editor), so there were three opinions rather than just

my own. We decided on a luscious fabric cover in olive green with copper-coloured wording, olive green bookmark ribbon and a heavy-weight, high-quality paper to ensure the illustrations retain their vibrancy. I have chosen to pay to have the books printed and I will dispatch them myself, keeping to my usual high standards of presentation, meaning I have full control of the distribution.

'I followed a path with a slight incline, a path trodden from the beginning of time. I leaned upon a worn stone wall and caught sight of breathtaking, big sky views. Seamlessly darned miles of rolling green hills, sewn together with more walls and an old stone bridge or two. Dancing breezes skipped and twirled, seen in the sweeping waves passing over unkept grass'

This project has taken all year, with each water-coloured drawing taking two days to complete and each story taking two to five days to write. Then each story was read by three separate people, both for editing purposes and for an opinion on the difficulty of the

read. I then had to use three computer programs to add the words to the illustrations and to create a book template with all the pages in the correct order. The whole thing will then be proofread again by Zoe before being submitted to the book printers for production, by the time this blog is posted, at the end of July. I have contacted the printers just in time, as in August they get very busy with the Christmas rush, meaning Short Stories for Little Plants will be in print in time for Christmas.

All the illustrations in this blog are from the book, with the main image at the start being the design for the inside bonding, holding the pages to the cover. Once complete it will be about 70 pages long, and I really hope it will celebrate the creativity of what humans are capable of. Good has come for my contempt for AI, which I despise with a passion. Anyone can command AI to 'write a story to read to plants' but I know, that story would lack the conviction only possible from personal, human experiences that AI cannot possibly feel nor understand. AI doesn't know what roses smell like, nor does it truly know the joy of walking barefoot on dewy grass on a hot summer dawn. These stories are written to celebrate the senses we humans take for granted, with each story being written about a location I have personally experienced. I hope by reading them, you too will be transported to fabulous places from around the world, allowing a brief moment away from the daily grind. I have tried to write in such a way, that you get that sense of joy experienced as a child when you read that first book that took your breath away and how as a child a whole new world opens up that you carry about with you, a world only limited by your imagination.

Book available from the end of August

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