Creating beauty - by Annie Try

 

We were having an outing to Cambridge, with very little on the agenda apart from eating in Bella Italia to spend the voucher my husband had received from one of our daughters for his birthday. It’s unusual for Ken not to have arranged everything we are doing in a day out, but it wasn’t until we were nearly there that we decided to go into the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

It was years since either of us had been - last time I went it was a) out of season and b) full of fenced off areas and scaffolding. It was rather a mess, like a first draft of any manuscript I have written.

So on this visit, I wasn’t prepared for its beautiful transformation. We both loved the bee-friendly gardens and were delighted to see that some of the plants were in our own garden already. The glasshouses were a joy, with a hot, humid rain forest (thankfully minus snakes and creepy crawlies), many unusual plants and glimpses of other types of landscapes displaying typical plant life.

Once outside again, we wandered down curving paths and across the lawns to sit and admire the lake, with its Monet water-lilies and diving ducks.

It was a special, peaceful morning as we marvelled at God's bounty and discovered strange new plants, all creatively and beautifully displayed.

The change since my previous visit showed there had been effort, expertise and passion used to turn the garden into something special. As writers, we know these are vital ingredients for any creative works including poems, stories, essays, articles and sermons, as we shape them into their final form.

It’s not surprising that I've decided I will visit the garden again and, like re-reading a favourite book, I will find parts I remember and love, but fresh things that I’ve not noticed before.

But unlike a favourite book, I shall have to pay for each visit!

Annie Try writes Christian novels, her most recent publications being the Dr Mike Lewis stories, Trying to Fly, Out of Silence and Red Cabbage Blue published by Instant Apostle. For now she is writing for young adults, with one book nearing publication and another title in progress.