00:04It's been a really tough time for everybody lockdown and it's been very challenging for us
00:10as a family because Derek has been so sick and remains so. Just before lockdown when all there
00:16was beers for all the supplies of food running out Darcy suddenly said right I'm going to grow
00:22your own vegetables so we'll always have vegetables. Then when Derek did get sick it became a really
00:27big thing for us because you know he was in hospital we couldn't visit him and she just
00:33suddenly said right well I'm going to just dig it myself. She's dug up bits of the garden and started
00:38planting vegetables and it's been lovely kind of working on it with her together and and chatting
00:45to her about dad and chatting to her about her feelings about it. Sometimes when you're doing
00:51something else is when sort of big issues bubble up and you can talk about it more easily.
00:57I found myself coming out here and looking at nature and trying to appreciate things and trying
01:03to look at things growing and and there is a real sort of life force about plants and you're doing
01:09it not for the next 10 minutes or even the next few days you're doing it for time to come
01:14so I found
01:15that very very helpful and calming. So Derek's favourite flower are daisies and I really made a
01:22massive effort last year to plant loads and loads of daisy type flowers and different styles including
01:29some big oxide daisies over my shoulder and they didn't flower last year because they were the sort
01:34of flower that doesn't really flower for the first year and they've come out brilliantly this year so
01:39I keep saying to him when I FaceTime him your daisies are flowering now you've got to get better you've
01:44got to get better. Since Derek's been ill and I've been very worried when I wake up I tend to
01:50wake up
01:50quite early anyway because of working breakfast tv for so long and that's my favourite time to be in the
01:56garden it's just a real little oasis of calm. When you're feeling fearful as I think we all have been
02:03during this pandemic for all sorts of different reasons taking time to sort of focus on the
02:09present and be grateful for things is really really important so yeah and meditation is a great way
02:17of trying to allow thoughts to kind of bubble up and allow your body to sort of process them.
02:26The garden was definitely the reason why we bought the house neither Derek and I had had a garden
02:33before obviously when we were kids our parents did we both lived in flats or like with little gardens so
02:41yeah the whole lawn was covered in brambles it's still not a perfect lawn by any sense of imagination
02:46it's full of weeds but we've just tried to clear space and also make it a place to play really
02:53so I know
02:54that the garden designers would say you shouldn't have huge bits of lawn you should have focuses in the
02:59centre and things like that but actually we just want space to kick a football around and you know
03:06do a bit of gymnastics not me I hasten to add the kids I've always loved nature and plants my
03:12dad was
03:13is a massive gardener I think at one point he had two allotments he used to grow loads of vegetables
03:19gardening I think is quite a slow thing which you appreciate more when you're older whereas when you're a
03:24kid you just want everything now and the very latest by tomorrow and I've loved it more and more so
03:30I
03:30think probably for about the last 10 years is when I've been really passionate about it
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