Ten Directions

Botanik, Summerland, CA

Thank goodness we returned to a UK with sunny skies and warmish temperatures. I had just spent three weeks drying out and warming up in California, and the last thing I wanted to return to was rain. Our gardener had been around whilst we were away, taking care of a few tasks such as topping up the planting beds with soil to supplement the mulch that had decomposed (and shrunk) overwinter. He said he had also done some planting and I couldn’t wait to see these new signs of life.

We arrived home mid-afternoon after our long overnight flight. I headed straight for our sunny garden. After months of the low-angle winter sun not quite reaching our garden, the sun is now an all-day welcome resident, warming and glowing through the foliage, and reflecting off the light gravel. A wonderful array of new plants are scattered artfully across the area of the garden that has been regenerating over the winter months. Lots of new foxgloves, milk parsley, hollyhocks, and wild geraniums are ready to bloom in addition to previously planted lavenders, salvias, and rosemary. They are all lovely shades of green with the promise of blossoms in saturated colours to come.

The daffodils have come and mostly gone, although there are a few stalwart, late-bloomers that came up while we were away, still standing proud, glowing in the sunshine. I can hardly contain myself as I walk slowly around trying to take it all in. Not only am I amazed by what is there, I am already imagining what food can fill the raised beds: lettuces and greens to harvest each day for our salads, along with peas, beans, tomatoes, and more delicious vegetables.

My jet-lagged brain was not capable of taking in much that first afternoon: just that there is sun, and light in the garden, and—finally!—plant material, and not just gravel and bark chips. I had to wait for the next morning to take another full slow meander through the newly planted area, cup of coffee in hand.

The easterly breeze is very cool so we bundle up before heading outside. Still, the sun is warm and if you can find a sheltered spot, it almost feels like spring/summer, not winter/spring. In the early morning, the water in the bird bath ripples gently, beckoning any wood pigeons that may come by later. I can still hear blackbirds singing away in the quiet of the morning stillness before the jackdaws and gulls begin to fly around their territory squawking loudly.

Small signs of spring in the garden

On our trip away we were delighted to spend time in new places in my enormous home state of California including a short dip into Nevada. We covered a vast number of miles via trails and roadside destinations in Death Valley National Park and discovered another wonderful surprise, the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, just east of Death Valley. In both places we had informative guidance provided by their ranger staff, and we were ever-so-grateful for the foresight of those who worked so hard to preserve these spectacular places.

Many views of Death Valley, from sand to rock, with so many colours in the rocks. And yes, we did climb to the top of that sand dune where those little ant people can be seen.

Besides getting to see the endangered pupfish in Ash Meadows NWR, we learned the Nuwuvi and Newe tribes—the original inhabitants of Ash Meadows—experience the world through ten directions, which include: Up, Down, Past, Present, Future, and Yourself, in addition to North, South, East and West. What should be added to that brief explanation is the connection to their lands embedded in their way of life. “We treat everything on the land as our relative, because it is alive, has a voice, and deserves the utmost respect. This is… how we treat each other using the songs and stories of the land.”¹

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

These ‘additional’ directions make a lot of sense to me. Travel always involves an element of up and down, in airplanes of course, as well as up the mountains and down into valleys. Some days driving in Death Valley we climbed up to 3,000 ft, down to sea level, back up to 5,000 ft, down to below sea level, and then back up to 3,000 feet again, not including the smaller elevation changes we climbed on foot. I certainly experience both my past and present directions, as well as ponder my future when visiting with longtime friends, and with my adult children.

Part of that up direction for me is the presence of ever-blue skies. I had not realised until several years after I moved to the UK how blue-sky oriented I am. I NEED that colour in my visual field at a frequency that is not possible living in the UK. But I know that now, and spending long bouts of time in places where there is reliable blue sky goes a long way to calming my mental stress. And now I have had three weeks of mostly blue sky and I am calm and content again.

Plus, I am so grateful to the friends and family we spent time with in California. My dear life-long friends are such a solace to be around. These are friends with whom I can just be fully myself with all our background stories embedded in our hearts. As a result, I can relax in a deep way in their presence.

Moving forward I hope to practice noticing these directions in my life: Up, Down, Past, Present, Future, and Myself, in addition to the European tradition of North, South, East and West. I appreciate being aware of the three-dimensional space around one’s self, as well as the addition of time as one navigates through our world. It will help this restless geographer find her way along the journey.

Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills Recreation and National Scenic Area, California

Thank you for reading this slightly jet-lagged essay! What do you think of the additional Directions? Do they make sense to you? Will you think of them as you navigate through your life?

Hoping to be more coherent next week!

xoxo Sabrina

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1. Quotation from the Nuwuvi and Newe Working Group, found on this page: https://www.fws.gov/story/2024-05/what-we-can-learn-ash-meadows