Watching the trees grow
In my small courtyard garden, at the front of my home, along with many other plants, I have four trees growing in pots. A magnolia my girlfriend and I bought when we moved in, a cercis my mother gifted us, a maple that my in-laws repatriated from a botanic garden and a she-oak my brother-in-law gifted us.
Every season it’s beautiful watching them grow. In summer, the maple just sprouts - it’s getting so large these days. It’s impressive seeing it stagnate for so much of the year then just explode with growth. The she-oak is consistent, chugging away slowly but surely. The Cersis comes in waves - gaining and losing leaves multiple times in the year, these riots of vibrant green. The magnolia’s main change is in its flowering - a few small buds that mature into those iconic flowers.
It’s really calming having these different forms of growth and different types of plants. In many ways, I think that I am somewhat of a gardener - I like pottering about and tending to things and seeing them grow. Unlike some gardeners I don’t do much pruning, I like seeing what happens as a plant makes its own way: does it grow straight up? or is there a more circuitous journey? I find it interesting seeing what happens.
This year has also seen a few other small things happen in the garden: my hibiscus plant has finally flowered, I’ve finally managed to get some bamboo going (man that was tougher than expected) and there’s a lush bed of flowers at the moment. The garden is a place that will reward the gardener, inevitably, it just requires a little touch of care and a little bit of planning. I find that so reassuring - there’s a really nice sort of arrangement where effort in means results. Plants or gardens fail when the gardener isn’t attentive, or when the gardener tries to force something that just won’t work in the area. Just watch and be curious and you’ll see what to do. Not everything in life is so direct, nor can it be, but gardening is.
I like to think of gardening a lot when I’m thinking about other parts of my life. People can be in such a rush, trying so hard to make something happen: to force a career progression, to grow up super quickly, to be so busy - there’s something about that that seems so suffocating and unnatural to me. When I jog, I take my time and try to enjoy being out. No smart watches, splits or timing for me, I have enough areas of my life I’m trying to improve, I don’t need another.
The maple grows in bounds when the conditions are right, but otherwise it is slow and restful. The she-oak continues along a little bit at a time, and it grows and grows. The cersis is cyclical - growing then resting in shorter cycles. The magnolia shows off for one season a year, and what a show it puts on.
In a way, I find it reassuring to think of these things when I’m looking at my business. I create different products and opportunities - some of which have quick and explosive turn arounds, others than are cyclical, or slow burns. No book, or workshop, or anything follows the same journey, nor can I force them to.
For example, this week I’ve had a few old books get unexpected orders: someone new discovered them and wanted a copy. I’ve also had a few workshops I assumed had sold as much as they would find some new takers. These things have been out for awhile, and I wasn’t promoting them at all. But they’ve found a new home.
At the same time, I’ve released new workshop dates, we’re promoting our first big event of the year and I’m pushing forward on book design and co-creation quite heavily. It’s so nice when something I’ve not been focusing on brings in some cash, especially during a week like this with multiple marketing campaigns happening, etc.
In our next newsletter I want to share some reflections on the first quarter of the year. I’ll be mainly sharing the results/reflections about these questions:
How are book sales going? Am I meeting my targets?
How has expanding the education offerings gone? What lessons have there been?
What additional things have happened that might be able to be built on? Are there opportunities I didn’t anticipate?
How has the rebranding been going? What’s actually been happening?
How did the launch go?
Overall, am I earning enough money to keep going? Or will there need to be some changes?
Finally, some things to be aware of:
a) We have new workshops up and, if you book by April 1st, use the code EARLYBIRD to save 20% off the price, including one that’s online for you folks outside of Melbourne.
b) If you’re free Saturday afternoon/evening please come along to the launch of Milk Teeth - this will be launching at Honey Bones gallery from 4.30-6.30. Children are very welcome and there’ll be a brief talk by the artist from 5.30-6. Books will be for sale and the whole TPP team will be there.
Until next week, maybe spend some time just enjoying the garden, life can be so busy, it’s reassuring to take a pause once in awhile.