Born in 1956 in a small Cotswold village where lies the only neolithic henge in Gloucestershire, my father kept pigs and grew barley to the side of an iron-age hillfort and neolithic long barrow. When I was nearly six years old we moved three miles away along the Roman Icknield Street to a windswept hillside on our own farm. There I grew up before going to secondary school in Warwick where I boarded weekly with a family.
We followed my mother's dream to New Zealand with the League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers in 1968 meeting our Californian and Canadian cousins during the outward and homeward journeys. Touched by the travel bug I returned to undertake voluntary work in Welland County General Hospital and Long Beach Memorial Hospital during my gap year in 1974/5 and have been popping back to North America whenever I can.
I studied social policy at Birmingham University where I met and married my other half, Christopher, then worked for three years before spending nine years at home raising our three children and doing voluntary work for the NHS and local mental health charities. I sang in a choir and had my own choral group for several years before moving back into paid employment for fourteen years monitoring the NHS from the consumer's viewpoint.
Redundancy took me into the legal profession and for eight years I offeried training to professionals and lay people all over England in coping with bereavement and loss including members of the armed forces about to deploy in Afghanistan. The economic climate saw me redundant again in November 2011, enabling me to concentrate on supporting my parents, children and grandchildren.
Since 1995, my passion has been herbal medicine. I run herb workshops, give talks and grow over 100 medicinal herbs in two gardens in Solihull and the Cotswolds. For the past five years I have offered herbwifery apprenticeships and in 2012 began mentoring people across the world in their herbal development.We also offer an annual festival full of herbs, music, kite displays and other crafts.
I'm a compulsive writer and belong to Solihull Writers Workshop and Pub Club. I write articles, stories, novels and poetry. I also teach piano to children and adults.
Join me in my many adventures on my journey through a herbwife's life..