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Hunting for Creativity with Lucy The Flower Hunter
444 Plays9 months ago
Sometimes the seeds of inspiration are often planted as a child, but sometimes it takes years for them to germinate and eventually bloom. Lucy shares her wonderful journey from wandering through her grandmother’s garden as a child to her life in Wales as a landscape architect, florist, photographer, and best-selling author.
She may have been raised in the city and started her career in banking, but her creative heart has led her to bloom and rebloom in the most beautiful ways. Her story is both interesting and fabulous! We hope you will enjoy getting to know Lucy and be inspired to grow your creative garden.
You can learn more about Lucy at https://www.lucyhunter.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucytheflowerhunter/
Books: https://www.lucyhunter.co.uk/my-books
Our podcast is proudly sponsored by Jet Creative and UrbanStems! Jet Creative is a women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Looking to build a website or start a podcast--visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey.
UrbanStems is your go-to source for fresh gorgeous bouquets flowers and gifts delivered coast-to-coast! USE: BLOOMBIG20 to save 20%!
Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @rebloom.podcast
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Transcript
Introduction to Creative Blooming
00:00:01
Speaker
Do you have a dream that is a small seed of an idea and it's ready to sprout? Or are you in the workplace, weeds, and you need to bloom in a new creative way? Perhaps you're ready to embrace and grow a more vibrant, joyful, and authentic life. If you answered yes to any of these, you are ready to re-bloom.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast where we have enlightening chats with nature lovers, makers, and artisans as they share inspiring stories about pivoting to a heart-centered passion.
Hosts Introduction and Podcast Concept
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello, I'm Lori Siebert, and I am very curious to hear from friends and artisans about the creativity that blooms when you follow your heart. And I'm Jamie Jamison, and I want to dig deep into the why behind each courageous leap of faith and walk through new heart-centered gardens.
00:00:54
Speaker
Each episode of Rebloom will be an in-depth conversation with guests who through self-discovery shifted to share their passions with the world. Get ready to find your creative joy as we plant the seeds for you to Rebloom.
Welcoming Lucy Hunter and Her Creative Journey
00:01:12
Speaker
So welcome, everyone, to our Rebloom podcast, where nature lovers, makers and artisans share their stories about pivoting and reblooming. I am Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. And today we have the incredible honor of welcoming Lucy Hunter to our podcast. Hello, Lucy. Hello. Hello. Hi, Lucy. Hi. So great to see you. And to you.
00:01:39
Speaker
Welcome all the way from Wales. How is life in Wales right now?
Life in Wales and the Beauty of Winter Light
00:01:45
Speaker
It's quite wet. It's quite dark. I'm not going to lie. I'm in the middle of winter, but actually the sun's coming out and the light's quite beautiful this afternoon, so all is good. Don't we love a little beautiful light, especially in the middle of winter? Well, thank you for joining us. So before we dive in and start asking you some questions about how you've
00:02:05
Speaker
bloomed and re-bloomed.
Lucy's Passion for Florals and Visual Storytelling
00:02:08
Speaker
I want to give everyone just a little bit of background about you. So Lucy and I have been friends on Instagram since I swear at the beginning of Instagram, wouldn't you say, Lucy? Yeah, I think so. I think so. Lucy Hunter, she goes by Lucy the Flower Hunter on Instagram, and you must check out her beautiful florals.
00:02:28
Speaker
If you are on Instagram, they are incredible. She describes herself as a visual storyteller and she is passionate about florals and garden art. You will see that in her beautiful work. We would describe her as a creator of magnificent floral magic, both in the garden and when she creates her beauty of nature and flowers in her photos. Her photography is stunning, stunning, stunning.
00:02:56
Speaker
Not to mention, she is the sweetest person. Oh my gosh. I was so fortunate to take a workshop with you and meet you in person. That's the beauty of real life social media too. Sometimes you get to meet people that you've met along the way. And so today we want to talk with her about how she has bloomed and rebloomed. Her work
00:03:19
Speaker
And her style is very British and has a very natural quality to it.
From Landscape Design to Photography and Authorship
00:03:26
Speaker
She went to university in Liverpool and she has over 20 years of experience in it as a landscape designer. She's won some incredible awards. She's been part of the Chelsea Flower Show. That is a goal, definitely a life goal. A self-taught photographer and now a best-selling author. Did you ever think that that was going to be a title?
00:03:47
Speaker
for you. Absolutely not. None of the above. None of the above. None of the above. Well, let's dive in. So let's start with, first of all, you know, everybody has, and we kind of break it down to plants and to growing. We have roots. Tell us a little bit about your roots.
Lucy's Upbringing and Connection to Nature
00:04:10
Speaker
Did you grow up in the country? Did you grow up loving gardening? Tell us a little bit about your roots.
00:04:16
Speaker
For my roots, I grew up actually in the south east of London, so real in the middle of suburbia. And we lived in a 30 modest semi-detached Edwardian house as you go in south London. And it was lovely. It was just a quite small family. So it was just my parents and my sister and my younger sister and myself.
00:04:38
Speaker
Um, and my, we had a garden, but my parents certainly were not gardeners. I mean, it was just literally, you know, they both worked really hard and full time. Um, and it was literally trying to keep the lawns looking respectable and, you know, happy. But my grandmother, so my paternal, my father's, um, mother,
00:05:00
Speaker
had been widowed in the war, so she'd been on her own for a long, long time. And we used to spend, my sister and I used to spend quite a lot of time with her, probably from a childcare point of view, but she was very, she had a garden and it was completely wild and woolly. You know, I think my father was bit, gosh, she's completely untamed and
00:05:20
Speaker
it's not great, is it? And I was just, I just loved it. You know, it was just like this wonderland and we would have weekends and we'd all go on down to the bottom of the garden in the undergrowth and try and hack back to make some paths or just, and it was just being outside and I just adored it. But I kind of ignored, those were times when I was spoke with her and then
00:05:43
Speaker
I knew that I always loved being outside.
Rekindling Love for Nature in the Countryside
00:05:47
Speaker
I rode horses for years and years, couldn't afford a horse, but you know, I spent all my time down the stables as a child, sort of working out, mucking out stables in lieu of a free ride at the end of the day. And so I always wanted to be outside. But yeah, so it was, I didn't move to the country until
00:06:12
Speaker
until I met my husband actually, until we got married, so a long time later.
00:06:18
Speaker
And your love of nature took you to university.
Creative Aspirations from Fine Art to Banking
00:06:23
Speaker
Did you study horticulture in university? No. Oh, no. No, no, not at all. And it was funny, actually, I was talking to my husband and my girl last weekend, what would you do if you had your time again? Would you do the same thing? And he was like, well, great, he's an engineer, so he's quite sort of straight down the line. And I was like, I don't know that I would. I think I would.
00:06:44
Speaker
possibly done. So I know I ignored horticulture. I didn't seem and it's such a shame, I think, and I think it's changing now. But when I was growing up in the sort of the late 80s, being a gardener was not certainly wasn't something that my parents wanted for me. It wasn't seen as a
00:07:02
Speaker
an amazing career. If it wasn't the seniors, they wanted that proper job. They wanted working in a bank or... I mean, I was never clever enough. I was never going to be a doctor or a lawyer or anything like that. I was always creative. But a gardener just was not on the tick list at all. So kind of ignored to that.
00:07:24
Speaker
Doesn't that happen a lot to people? It really, really does. And I think because I was so aware of it, I tried to steer myself away from that. But I think a society we're just driven to be productive, aren't we?
00:07:41
Speaker
capitalist society. So it's, you know, we've got to do things that make money and actually being creative, you can make a really good living. But I'm sure we'll come to that later. But you know, at the time, it was sort of you've got to be at the desk, you've got to be answering emails, you've got to be working nine to five, you can't
00:07:58
Speaker
But seeing that my parents were really supportive and they knew I was creative, so I went to Liverpool and did a fine art degree. So I wausted around for three years, looking angst as sort of that age group dude, 19 to 21 drinking probably far too much beer and not being very productive at all actually, but having a really great fun. You're probably being groovy. I had these amazing dungarees.
00:08:26
Speaker
I would just splatter with plain paint. Very cool as I sort of wafted around. So that was really good. I really
00:08:35
Speaker
I did enjoy it. Do you know what? Gosh, I wish I could go back and do it
Transition to Creative Fulfillment
00:08:39
Speaker
again now. You know, in my fifties, I just think I would get so much more out of it now. Oh, isn't that fair too? Like, oh, yeah. I remember being in Paris when I was 16 and I chose to go to Pizzapino's instead of the Louvre because I wanted to hang out with my friends.
00:08:58
Speaker
you know you're young and dumb but you are you are but you can't put what is it the same cliche you can't put old heads on your shoulders yeah yeah you know i do wonder whether actually people shouldn't go to university at all at 18 but actually go in their 50s because i think everybody would get so much more out of it i think that's the idea
00:09:21
Speaker
I think, I think we, I think we definitely should. And having been a college instructor for the past 18 years, I can tell you a little pause is good. And because it's, you know, it's interesting. I mean, I think you, you grow up certainly, and you have exposure to things, but I would also, I mean, do you think that that set a foundation for you as far as art is concerned in your visual eye, even though you were maybe drinking a little. It depends.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yes, I do. I think at the time, I think I sort of came out of university and actually went to work for a bank. So I followed that. And I was like, well, that was a bit of a waste of time. And I didn't paint for years. I actually didn't paint again properly until COVID.
00:10:08
Speaker
So a long time, gosh, I mean, I went when I was 18 and I'm 15 now. So, you know, a long, long time passed before I picked up paint brushes properly, immersed myself. And that's probably due with time and all sorts, as well as, you know, maybe not thinking I was good enough to do it and allowing myself to do it.
00:10:28
Speaker
But it was always there. Yeah, definitely. And I think that led to me because I went to work for this bank and absolutely hated it. I mean, it really was not creative in slightest and I was inside and I was doing everything I'd always, I didn't want to do. I was sat there looking at a computer screen in a high rise blog.
00:10:46
Speaker
dealing with money. It was just debt to the soul. But I was being productive, so I was very successful. And your parents were happy for a hot moment. Yeah. Exactly. What made you pivot? What made you say, enough of this. Enough. I need to be creative.
00:11:04
Speaker
How long did you do? How long did you speak for that? I did it for seven years. So I got the job, I must have been early twenties. I came basically straight out of university and thought, gosh, what do I do now? I decided that I wasn't going to ever make money from art because I wasn't good enough as a painter.
00:11:27
Speaker
Um, and I needed to earn some, I did need to earn some money. I was, I was up in the north of the country and my parents were still down in London. And I could have gone home and we have a fantastic relationship, but I decided I wanted to stay in the north. I actually think I had a bit of a dodgy boyfriend at the time. And I had no
Rekindling Passion for Gardening
00:11:47
Speaker
money. I was so poor. I remember my mum sending me, um, supermarket food vouchers to sort of feed me, you know, but.
00:11:57
Speaker
I was determined and then I met my husband eventually and then I heard a few my little boy who's not very little now and but I needed to do something you know going to the bank was just
00:12:18
Speaker
was just making it, I just knew it was so wrong. It was just making it so, so miserable. I had to find something that could make me a better mum, make me a happier mum, make me want to get out in bed in the morning. So were you doing creative things on the side of that? Well, I was trying to.
00:12:38
Speaker
I had this. I always wanted to take photographs, but at the time there were no digital cameras. I mean, you know, we're going back about 30, 90. So you remember when you used to take your films to the secret? Did you do that in the state? Sure, absolutely. And you'd have to wait a week and then it would come back and there'd be stickers over it saying, try harder is out of focus. But there was none of that. You were sort of
00:13:05
Speaker
I loved it and I dreamt of being able to do, I used to love the interior magazines and the garden magazines and I dreamt of being able to create images. I had no idea how to do it, no idea at all. So I would sort of, you know, try and take photographs of chairs and the gardens are the most horrendous photographs ever. But you know, so there was always something in me that wanted to create
00:13:33
Speaker
a story or create something like my brain was always always thinking. But we but we moved to a little tiny cottage and have a tiny tiny garden. And then suddenly I just decided we went to a garden shows one of the very first
00:13:49
Speaker
So it's the same show as the Chelsea Flower Show, but they opened a one in the north called Tatton Park. So it's an RHS show. And I remember dragging Richard, my husband, along to this. This was actually just before we had Matthew. And oh, I could also sell this like a child in a sweetie shop. Suddenly I was, you know, sort of all of these flowers, you know, looking incredible because it was July. So they were just so many of them.
00:14:14
Speaker
So, you know, I just wanted to buy all these flowers and implant them. And so I did. I bought a lot and killed most of them because I had no training or anything at all. But it just it set me alight. You know, there was a flame inside me then I felt curious and I wanted to learn more. So I wonder if that goes back to when you were talking about your grandmother's garden, how you felt there.
00:14:42
Speaker
I often feel like things that light us up when we're children, if we can stay connected to that somehow through our lives, that's our true passion. And I bet you just that was awakened again in you. I think that's so true. And I think my grandmother, she was a gardener, but she was also a creative and she was always making
00:15:08
Speaker
doing little, she was always creating, we used to whack, this is terrible, I'm sure it's completely awful, but we used to melt tiny bits of old candles in pans on the stove and then we would take them out and we were only, we must have been sort of six or seven, you know, my sister and I, so we would make wax fruits and then we would make a little shop front.
00:15:32
Speaker
That was Sylvie, my sister and I, we would sit there, we would send our troops and she'd come along with us. It was pure make believe, but oh my goodness. And going back to being able to take yourself completely into a different story. You know, take yourself completely out of that day and you're just totally immersed in doing. And I think that stayed with me all of my life. I've always been searching to try and reproduce
00:16:00
Speaker
that feeling again, I think. Yeah. And it's interesting. I think when you're in nature, I think when you're in a garden, I think when I know when I'm behind the camera and I'm with my flowers and I would bet you feel the same way, you're just lost. You're lost as if you're creating those wax fruit. It's just to me,
00:16:19
Speaker
It's just very serene and there's no judgment. You can do whatever you want to do. You can have fun with it. And I think deep down that creativity is within all of us. And when it gets shut down, that's when we
00:16:38
Speaker
We feel sad and the happiest I am is when I can just be, just let it, let that creativity bubble up and just be. Yeah, absolutely. I love watching our grandsons because they just play and they don't get in their own way and
00:16:57
Speaker
Right. Their little brain, the way they work. And so, you know, I always feel like, gosh, if everyone could just stay connected to themselves as they were as children.
00:17:09
Speaker
because there's just no judgment. It's just all about having fun and exploring. Yeah, there's no limits. There's nobody to say, no, that's wrong. You know, you're just following whatever feels right to you. And, you know, I think that that's so critical because I think when we feel like there's going to be judgment or someone's going to say no, then we stop. But it sounds as if on your path, and I know that I've spoken to Lori about this and on mine too,
00:17:37
Speaker
We just went ahead. You just went ahead and you're just like, hey, I'm just going to create. And so by doing that, Lucy, by just pushing forward, then what unfolded? What bloomed for you? What opened up for you just by growing
Journey to Photography and Instagram Influence
00:17:51
Speaker
your garden? How did you start? Did you start with a garden and then did you start with the photos or what which came first, the flowers or the photos?
00:17:58
Speaker
No, no, no, the photos have come very recently. I would say the photos have only really come since I discovered Instagram. So five years ago. So yeah, no, the gardens came first. And
00:18:10
Speaker
Because I think at the time, because there was no social media and because there was no, it wasn't easy with the digital cameras to just play and play and play and play, you're always limited. And I was still very much in the mindset that I had to be professionally trained to do something like that. To become a photographer, I would have to then go back to college and learn how to be a photographer, which
00:18:32
Speaker
I would now totally argue against, but that's, you know, that stops people. Yeah. I think that mindset, like I can't paint unless I've been formally trained. And sometimes the best things come from when you aren't trained and you're just going with your heart. Yeah. Absolutely. Because you cannot teach.
00:18:53
Speaker
a visual eye. You cannot teach. If you see something or you're able to create something, that's in your heart. That's not something that someone can show you. I mean, you can understand certain aspects of design, but
00:19:10
Speaker
really, your creations come from your heart and your soul. And that's what I believe comes out in your work because you can see that creativity coming out of your photos and the flowers, everything that you select is from your heart. And I'm not upset at it. Yes, Lucy. So oftentimes, I think like you have to experience a certain pain point to really make a change.
Leaving Banking for Full-Time Garden Design
00:19:39
Speaker
And it sounded like you were pretty miserable when you were in the banking world. Do you feel like that pain kind of made you want to make changes and pivot? I would have been, gosh, if I continued in the bank doing what I was doing, I think I would have just
00:20:04
Speaker
I don't know really at all you know I just I felt there was so much more out there that I just wasn't exploring and I and I have to thank my husband really at that point and I guess I think so many of us get stuck doing actually what we weren't designed to do
00:20:25
Speaker
because of, you know, because we do need to pay the mortgage and we do need to, you know, all of those practical things that, you know, and to possibly give it up and suddenly become just paint is pretty scary, isn't it? And it stops a lot of people and I completely understand that. So I was lucky in that I had the support of Richard to say,
00:20:45
Speaker
I just wanted to be outside. And I thought, well, maybe I can design gardens. Maybe I can sort of fit my creativity and I can match it with the outside. And he said, do it. I've got your back of the bet effectively. We can manage this. Obviously, you do need to work. You do need to work.
00:21:05
Speaker
Um, and it's going to, but cause I did, you know, it wasn't that I could just give up everything, but he, you know, he was happy for me to give it a go. So, um, so I did. And a friend of mine had Matthew one day a week and she just looked after him, which was really brilliant. And I went back to college. I did go back to college because there were certain things that I did need to understand and I did need to, you know, um, so the formal things of actually, you know, not how to kill the flowers, probably.
00:21:35
Speaker
I had no training at all with that. It was more to do with actually how to run a business and how to do site surveys.
00:21:47
Speaker
The flowers I learned through trial and error. I really learned the business over by being a bit belligerent and wanting to do it. I remember this so clearly. I remember standing one day in the garden and it's absolutely bitter. I think I was planting up for a client. Well, I've been doing quite so much now, but I would do all the planting myself of these gardens.
00:22:15
Speaker
Um, and it was, I was so cold and like, you know, my back hurt and I would all like to think was I could be in the bank. I'm absolutely freezing cold. What on earth am I doing? So much better than me getting back. You know, so that kind of, you know, that kind of kept me going really, but it was, and then the garden design just, I thought I'd just get one tiny little job a month and that'll be as much, because I was working part time at the bank by then, because I was, you know, looking after Matthew at home.
00:22:45
Speaker
And my husband worked offshore, so I was on my own a lot. He would go away for six to eight weeks at a time. And I think that was another reason why I almost craved, I craved, you know, social interaction from other adults as well, rather than being completely on my own. And I just thought, well, I'll just do one tiny little job a month and that'll be the same. And it just kind of balloons. It just kept going and just got bigger and bigger.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, suddenly it turned into quite a good business already without me trying very hard. It just happens. Well, but it happened through some really incredible hard work. I mean, I think that's the other thing. I think people look sometimes at folks who have achieved success and they think, oh, this happened overnight. I mean, you're telling us a story that happened over many years.
00:23:38
Speaker
But it was all along you following your passion and following your heart, which I think you may not know the end result. You may not know what's going to bloom at the end, but you just know deep down that that's you're going in the right direction.
00:23:55
Speaker
Let's take a quick minute and thank our amazing sponsors. Our podcast is proudly brought to you today by Jet Creative and Urban Stems. Jet Creative is a women owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment since 2013.
00:24:12
Speaker
Are you ready to Rebloom and build a website or start a podcast? Visit jetcreative.com backslash podcast to kickstart your journey. They will help you bloom in ways you never imagined. And bonus, our listeners get an exclusive discount when you mention Rebloom.
00:24:31
Speaker
And a huge thanks to Urban Stems, your go to and our go to source for fresh, gorgeous bouquets and gifts delivered coast to coast. Use Bloom Big 20 and save 20 percent on your next order. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Rebloom podcast. Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to you for joining us today.
00:25:00
Speaker
When did you pivot to photography?
Challenges and Rediscovery Through Instagram
00:25:02
Speaker
How did that happen? Instagram. So to cut a long story short, effectively, the garden design grew and grew and grew. And then in about 2012, 2013, I landed a huge job with a client who had bought 27 acres of potato fields. Very rich, wealthy client in Manchester, not a footballer.
00:25:28
Speaker
And that would be soccer for us Americans. It wasn't Manchester United. It wasn't David. It wasn't David. Okay. It would have been good if it had. It would have been nice. You might not have been a photographer.
00:25:53
Speaker
So anyway, this job, and very wealthy, so the budget was, and he said, make me a garden. So I've got a landstating team, not my team we worked with, we're not financially connected, but we worked together and we worked together, you know, so all these landscapes.
00:26:10
Speaker
So we did and it took four years and I learnt so much. But at the end of it, it was like all you could possibly wish for.
00:26:25
Speaker
because there's no budget, you know, whatever I thought was sort of winds of fancy, potentially I could sort of implement. But by the end of it, like any big businesses suddenly it had become about the business rather than being creative. So, you know, I wasn't looking at flowers anymore. I wasn't getting any joy from actually designing because it was 24 seven. And it was when you're talking about large sums of money, then it all becomes very serious and a bit scary and anxiety inducing.
00:26:54
Speaker
and everything else so eventually the job finished and it was brilliant and it won awards and it was amazing but I felt absolutely burnt out and like and almost not really in love with gardens at all anymore and I think that was just because I was burnt out you know I just couldn't see it and I didn't really know where that was gonna lead because in four years I'd ignored everybody else I'd sort of put all my eggs in one basket and I thought oh gosh what now and
00:27:23
Speaker
about the same time I started to notice Instagram. I was like, what is this? And then my sister, who's a couple of years younger, she'd been with her partner for a long time. They'd gotten a little boy, but they decided to get married. And she said, Lucy, you can do my wedding flowers. It was just going to be a really small, you know, a little wedding. And
00:27:51
Speaker
I was like, oh my goodness. Oh yeah, that's what I want to do. I said, do I want to be a florist? Maybe I do want to be a florist. And again, my grandmother had done floristry. Interesting. It went right back to her. It went right back to her and she'd never done it as she'd never had a shot or anything like that at all. She'd almost played at it really, but she'd still done it.
00:28:16
Speaker
And I was like, why am I so slow? Why have I never put these two? Why have I never thought about floristry? No idea. Still don't know. So
00:28:27
Speaker
I then decided I needed to be trained, still got that thing. So he still hasn't gone. So I went off to London. We all have that imposter syndrome. We have that imposter syndrome. Even if you've been trained, I think, you know, it's a thing, but you keep going. Yes. Yeah. Well, so I thought, right. So I went off to London with my little satchel and some of the big London flower schools. And I went to, I went
00:28:56
Speaker
some big lungs and flower scores and I couldn't understand it because I was so excited because I love flowers you know I've always been outside the garden garb but they'd be using these stiff scentless blooms that barely resembled roses you know or tropical things that just had no relation whatsoever to you know and I was just thinking
00:29:18
Speaker
And a lot of the people there had no idea what they were working with at all.
Balancing Traditional and Natural Floristry
00:29:22
Speaker
And I just thought, oh, that's all a bit sad. I don't really want to work with those. Why can't I bring the outside? Why can't I bring that in? And then, again, Instagram was still there. And in America, you were so much further ahead than we are in the UK, as always.
00:29:40
Speaker
And there was some incredible florists on there that were, you know, as Harrowin would, and Ariana Schisalles, like, you know, you were doing, and I would watch them and think, that's it, that's, you know, that's what I want to do. I want to bring the outside in. I want to do what? Make a tiny version of the gardens I've been at doing outside. I want to bring that inside. So I just kind of shot myself, we had a,
00:30:08
Speaker
the other part of the house we had a drawing room terribly poor call it the drawing room but mum and dad don't come at Christmas you know we don't use it once a year you know yeah it was never used it was ridiculous so we took the carpets up put a wooden floor down brought in a big table and it turns it into my studio and oh
00:30:27
Speaker
fabulous. I just loved it. I would just shut myself away in there. I was still doing garden design at that point, you know, they had started again slowly, but just little small jobs. But I gave myself time and then I would photograph them and I had quite a standard canon
00:30:47
Speaker
they called it their amateur range, which I always think is really rude. But they call, you know, I just had a little cabin camera at the time. I just took a few coats of grass and no, I had no followers on Instagram. I was like, no, I'll just put them on. It doesn't matter. Nobody's going to see it anyway. And I just pleased myself. And I think that's the happiest I have ever been. Just as you were saying, Joni, I was completely embarrassed in just
00:31:12
Speaker
I think a lovely ton. Absolutely loved it. Were you growing your flowers and photographing them? Were you doing? Yeah, I was growing the flowers. I mean, I wouldn't actually say I'm a very good gardener, particularly. I'm all about the visual. So yes, I do grow, but I grow so much. I spend so much time with other people in their gardens that mine tends to get a bit neglected, really.
00:31:35
Speaker
But I've got a friend who I found again, I'd known her when we had lived in our tiny cottage, because we'd moved there from our tiny cottage in the meantime to North Wales. We were in Chester, but she was between Manchester and Liverpool. And we'd moved from there to where we live now on the side of the mountain in North Wales. And I'd lost touch with a friend that I'd made years and years before back in Chester. But I found her again, or she found me actually on Instagram. And said, I'm growing flowers.
00:32:06
Speaker
I'm planning on doing, you know, making a thing of it. Why don't you come and visit me? So I did. And that was Carol Siddall, Carol's garden, who's been huge in everything I do. And she grows the most, she's only growing on an acre, so it's not huge, but she grows beautiful flowers. So I go and buy hers.
00:32:23
Speaker
We, we, we, we floral photographers all need a good floral farmer. And I have one, I went and knocked on my friend Tara's and I knocked on her door and I said, hi, you grow flowers. I take pictures of flowers. Let's be friends. So it's been a seven year, eight year friendship. But it's so, you know, I think going back to what you said about Instagram, you know, there was such a purity about it that I think it's creating
00:32:49
Speaker
Without the fear that anybody's going to judge you and I think initially when we were when we started you and I started at the same time doing it I I had no idea either and I'm like, oh I just want to take pictures of flowers and antiques and but it's also bringing your beautiful style in and I loved you sharing your story of bringing the outside in because I think when you look at
00:33:12
Speaker
the palette that you pull together when you look at the whimsy that you arrange.
Evolving Artistic Vision Through Experiences
00:33:18
Speaker
It's both the natural outside that you've brought inside, but there's an artistic eye there that goes back to your days. I think those early days too, and it sort of all comes together. And so maybe
00:33:31
Speaker
maybe at uni you learned a little bit more than you remember. And do you know what was really funny actually not that long ago I was looking through some old photographs for the chemist and I came across my graduation my final exhibition photographs and all my work I've ever done has always been big I've always sort of drawn big mural even at uni
00:33:53
Speaker
but they were all landscapes and in my exhibition there's a hanging basket and I've planted this hanging basket because I had taken inspiration and it was awful. I mean it was a brown plastic hanging basket you know. But obviously there was something there even when I was 18 that
00:34:12
Speaker
Because, you know, it was like, you know, and I have almost taken that and ignored it and ignored it and tried to ignore it because it wasn't good enough for such a long time. But somehow it's it's crept back it. Somehow it's, you know, you know, you're absolutely right. There's I think there's a part of it, but I think it's just and that's the part when we speak with people. I know you're now traveling a lot because you're doing workshops.
00:34:38
Speaker
And I would bet you travel and see a lot of and talk with a lot of gentlemen and women. What advice would you give to them about following their passion and and reblooming and doing what they want
Advice on Following Dreams with Practical Considerations
00:34:53
Speaker
to do? What would you say to them on their journey?
00:34:56
Speaker
but I'd always encourage them to follow their dreams always. I mean, it's quite difficult sometimes when you have people saying, you know, I want to do this and I've got a dream, but I've got to pay these bills. So you have got those practicalities. You can't just tell people to leave the whole job and just it'll be fine and work out because it doesn't. And you do have to work. I think every time you pivot, because I feel that I'm pivoting now again,
00:35:25
Speaker
And I'm working seven days a week, 12 hours a day a minute. What are you pivoting to do now? Can you share with us?
Writing a Book During COVID and Overcoming Dyslexia
00:35:37
Speaker
Something special. Okay. All right. Well, that's exciting. Well, but let's also talk about the book because, you know, people also think that it's very easy to write a book and you are now a bestselling author of two beautiful, beautiful books, which we will share in our show notes because if you don't have them, you should have them.
00:35:59
Speaker
But as you pivoted from doing landscape to doing photography, and then all of a sudden these books have happened, tell us about those pivots.
00:36:09
Speaker
Well, they happened, first of the first one happened in Covid. Covid was hideous, obviously, for so many people, but I was incredibly lucky in that my husband was at home. My son wasn't actually, he had moved out three days before we were shut down. That was tricky, but we got through that.
00:36:33
Speaker
suddenly, you know, the Prime Minister was paying me to be at home and I had all this time and freedom and I've also really lucky I have a lovely friend you might know called Rachel Ashwell. Yes. And I've met her through Instagram in the early days and
00:36:56
Speaker
when we were finally open. So when I had time during COVID, you know, because we've been locked down for a long time in North Wales, they didn't want us to go anywhere at all. So, you know, it really was, gosh, I can't even remember how many weeks now, it was about 12 weeks or something to start with, and there were various times afterwards. You know, but I had all of this time to
00:37:16
Speaker
sit and think and sometimes that's what you need isn't it time to sit and think um and i'd always thought maybe i should i could write a book but actually i didn't that's that so at school i had i had dyslexia
00:37:32
Speaker
and struggled, and was pretty much told by the primary school teacher. I was very stupid in front of the whole class. I was very good at spelling. And that stayed with me. And I think actually that's driven me all my life being a zero. Just proved that I'm not. But so I never thought I could write a book. You know, when you said right at the beginning, did you ever think, you know, you were doing these? It was like, no, write a book, absolutely not. But
00:38:00
Speaker
I don't know if somehow that did happen. And somehow I found my voice on Instagram by writing tiny little blogs about the family, you know, and life with a teenager and two mental dogs. And I was in a grumpy house. And then I was taking these photographs and Rachel Ashwell came to stay. She messaged me and said, oh, we're just opening up. Could I come and
00:38:26
Speaker
stayed for a couple of days. Well, yeah, of course, come up. So she came and stayed. And I was talking to her and she'd written quite a few books. And I said, I've got this mad idea. Do you think it's completely crazy? And she said, no, it's absolutely spot on. I'll introduce you to my publisher. Oh, wow. And the publisher is the publisher is Rylan Peter Small. So they're based here in London, but they've also got offices in New York. So they kind of spam
00:38:53
Speaker
and the rest is history and that happened really really quickly and that pretty much happened because so there was a lot of work that I'd already done you know my instagram work all the photographs I'd already done and you know went into the book so that that happened really within six months it was written because I had the time to do it
00:39:14
Speaker
I think COVID did that for a lot of people.
Personal Growth and the Power of Connections
00:39:20
Speaker
I think it's painful. Yeah, a lot of my friends, they saw it as a little bit of a gift to really step back and really consider what you really, really want to do with your life and how you want to spend your time.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And not feel guilty about that either. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing too, I'm sorry, I was going to say too, is that you put it out there. Like you sometimes I think we have a fear of just saying what you're thinking about and, you know, to speak to someone like Rachel Ashwell and say, Oh, I'm thinking about writing a book. I mean, she's, but you put it out there and sometimes just putting it out there, you get that.
00:40:03
Speaker
from people who know, we're like, no, wait a minute. No, this is a good idea. Keep moving, keep going. And then you get the encouragement you need. So yay for you to just share your dream. And because I think when we hide our dreams or we hide our passions, we hide our heart and you need to put it out there. Just try. I think you do need to put it out there. I think you do need to say, you know, or
00:40:28
Speaker
I visualize things a lot. I visualize everything. I'm a very visual person. That's just your home. Your home is beautiful. I do spend my life ranging and rearranging things, you know, and I guess the boys don't want, I guess it's the wax fruit, isn't it? But now they're hot. But yeah, I think
00:40:58
Speaker
I visualize my visualize how I think I see things working in the future. So, you know, I could see the book, I could see how I wanted it to feel. And I think, you know, I say that to people as well, you know, they'll say, Oh, I really want to do this. And I'm like, well, you have to visualize what it is you want, I think and think about that. And then I think you just
00:41:21
Speaker
you start to make decisions subconsciously, even sometimes, that they're going to facilitate the vision that you want. That makes any kind of sense at all. So, yeah. So, you know, I don't know, I guess because I visualized this book before, actually, I'd spoke to Rachel about it, but because I could see it when she then gave me that introduction,
00:41:45
Speaker
I was ready to go. You know, I was ready. I hadn't thought, oh no, I'm not good enough. I mean, you know, I just sort of, you know, I'd been busy in the background sort of thinking, yeah, this could be a thing. This could be a thing, one wall.
00:42:00
Speaker
And it's a beautiful thing. And I think, you know, we as we started out this this podcast, we were talking about how you bloomed initially. And that was at the bank. Boring. I actually worked at a bank to begin with, too. And I got you. Oh, I did. I was in marketing and it was again, it was suits and it was the whole nine yards. So I understand that. And but I think just opening yourself up to re blooming along the way, opening yourself up to the possibility of creativity
00:42:30
Speaker
is the biggest gift you can give yourself. And that is what you've done from the very beginning. You've opened your heart. You've said, okay, this is one path, but I'm going to open my heart to really what was fueled and what was your foundation from the very beginning, which was your grandmother's garden, which is beautiful, which is just beautiful. That stayed with you your whole life. And it seems like everything you've done has been
00:42:57
Speaker
in a way tied to that beautiful, honest, true experience of who you are. It seems to that you're, I guess for me, this is the case. And I think for you too, Lucy, that you're fine tuning
00:43:14
Speaker
So you started down the creative path in garden design, but then realize, okay, nope, that's not exactly it. And you're constantly on this journey of fine tuning where you're meant to be and where you're happiest.
00:43:34
Speaker
I think that's absolutely right, actually. And I'm still, and I'm still looking at that. Yeah. As I said, you know, so I'm still, I'm sort of thinking, right, okay, I'm going to be 51 next month. So hopefully God willing, another 20 years of new hard work in me.
00:43:50
Speaker
to actually keep hard tuning. But we'll see. We'll see. All this mobile travel might make that a bit shorter. But it's these chapters, and that's the thing. We have those early chapters where, again, as you said, we wish we could have gone back and been a little smarter about our decisions that we've made, but then I think they help us.
00:44:09
Speaker
When we get to these, they are. And by the time we get to this second or third act, we really can make much wiser decisions. And I think that they all go into everything that we do.
Embracing Creativity and Its Importance
00:44:22
Speaker
And certainly that's what Lori and I are passionate about, about sharing these stories of people who have not only bloomed, but rebloomed along the way.
00:44:31
Speaker
And because I think people think, oh, it just happened. It didn't just happen. It happened through trial and error. It happened through a few wrong turns. It happened through a lot of pivots. It happened through a lot of hard work. There's been a lot of hard work that went into
00:44:49
Speaker
your landscape business, your photography business, you didn't just wake up as a photographer, you had to practice as to die. Because I am self-taught too, but there's some joy in learning that. And then the beauty too, I think, are the connections that you make along the way just by putting yourself out there. I've made incredible friends. Huge, huge.
00:45:13
Speaker
It's a bit of a beast, isn't it? But I would never knock it because it's changed my life. And the people that I've met, well, they've changed my life completely along the way.
00:45:28
Speaker
friends across the globe I wouldn't have drunk that at all and I think it's the other thing I think is really important for people is to remain not only remain curious but and if there's an opportunity comes along take it.
00:45:45
Speaker
just take it and see. So if somebody says, would you like to come to Australia? And I'm thinking, I'm going to go because I don't know if I'll get to going again or if I'm going to meet there and the things I'm going to see and how that might then influence what I then come home.
00:46:06
Speaker
And that might make me pivot again. But it's fun,
Closing with Gratitude and Encouragement
00:46:11
Speaker
isn't it? What a very lucky way, how lucky I am to be able to do that. How lucky you are to do that and how lucky we are to have had this session with you. You have shared with us your incredible journey and we thank you so much. And I love leaving everyone with that last piece of advice and it's basically
00:46:34
Speaker
Say yes. Say yes to the opportunities that come your way for you never know how you're going to bloom or re-bloom in the future. And life is too short not to follow your passions. And Lucy, you have done that every step of the way and you have inspired us through this podcast. And we thank you so much for joining us today.
00:46:56
Speaker
I didn't know you before today Lucy so this has been really fun learning more about you and I can't wait to I checked out your Instagram which is gorgeous and I'm gonna do a deep dive into all your other work and we're excited to hear about what your next chapter is gonna be.
00:47:14
Speaker
We are. We'll have to tease that later. Maybe she'll come back on and tell us about that later. I know. Another episode, 2.0. Well, thank you everyone for joining us for this episode of Rebloom. And please take a look at our show notes where you can find links to Lucy's Instagram, her books, and find out a little more information about Lucy and also Lori and myself. And we thank you so much. And peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.
00:47:45
Speaker
Life is too short not to follow your passions, so go out there and let your heart plant you where you are meant to be and grow your joy. We will be right here sharing more incredible stories of reinvention with you. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode of Rebloom. Until next time, I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. Peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.
00:48:14
Speaker
We love to connect with our Rebloom fans. Find us on Instagram at Rebloom underscore podcast or a private Facebook group of Rebloomers. You will find both links in our show notes as well as information about our sponsors. Huge thanks to Urban Stems and Jet Creative for making this episode possible.