These Seasons Of Mine🌷

This is Alex, Lex to me. I took this picture in a grassy nook hidden from the outside world by an abundance of sweet-smelling ferns beside The Hill Garden and Pergola in Hampstead. We had raided Waitrose for Prosecco and the finest picnic they had to offer, with cured meats, mini cheeses and freshly made ham baguettes. It was an absolutely gorgeous late August day and magic was in the air, as I often feel when we spend time together.

How many of us, I wonder, have someone we know we could bring anything to? Someone who would hold it, knowing they would listen, knowing they would give you comfort? Such friendships teach us that if this heaviness can be held, that another person won’t turn away, then we can hold it ourselves, too. I truly believe that the world would be a very different place if we all had at least one person we could go to.

We wandered through the semi-covered walkways of the Hill Garden & Pergola nestled between Hampstead Heath and Golders Hill Park in North-West London, watching parents help their children take fun photographs surrounded by this impressive backdrop.

Constructed in the early part of the 20th century during the Edwardian era and restored as public gardens in 1963, it is well worth visiting here with a friend ~ entry is free and there are benches for you to sit and take in the scenery from this elevated position above the gardens themselves.

Next, we made our way to the The Holly Bush Inn and I ordered a £15 glass of wine by mistake. The last time I visited was in the ice-cold grip of depression and I had to go to work for a night shift, leaving my friends with a bottle of rosé, which I would have much preferred to be sharing with them. On this occasion, Alex and I sat at the bar, happy to be in each other’s company and laughing about my expensive taste in wine. Later, we moseyed out to the front and stood in the sun looking up at this pretty pub, which dates back to the 18th century, hidden on a winding road in Hampstead called Holly Mount. It felt good to return here to make a new memory, and I was grateful that the shifting sands had given me the grace to feel a lot better than the last time I was here.

There are a couple of small things that are, in fact, not small at all when it comes to these kinds of friendships. Firstly, and I say this with love, what we do not need in the midst of crisis is for someone to reflect back to us and confirm our own brokenness. We need someone to say, “Oh look, you fell down and you scratched your knee, but see ~ you can get back up again, and you can lean on me, and your scratch will heal.” Keep an eye out also for signs of serendipity, of things being right with the Universe when you are together. I think we are more aware of these and more akin to them when we are with someone we trust deeply and who brings us great joy. For me, they are signs that remind me of my childhood, of the seasons changing even as we enjoy the late flush of Summer. A bright green holly bush, ready for Autumn and the following Winter to turn its berries red…

And a silver tabby cat, the kind I had always wished for as a young girl, rubbing itself against my legs as we walked up ahead. The ease of the day felt festive, as though we were held by something much greater than ourselves. And perhaps that is the most important sign of all when it comes to friendship ~ a friendship that can change or save your life. For, perhaps, that greater something we feel holding us is love.

In Love&Light, FS XOX