Alison

My childhood garden was in Devon. A long narrow garden with concrete pavement running down middle. On the left a shed, dark brown wood with a step I played on fiddling with stones and soil, scratching into the concrete – inside were large tools and all kinds of junk. The end of the garden lawn lots of strawberry and gooseberry bushes and a high wall with pointy slates on top. In my imagination there was a childhood friend named 'girlie' who lived in those bushes. Next door lived a childless couple and my dad reckoned the woman there sunbathed in a bikini – risqué back then... It was always sunny and my mum grew parsley, mint and tomatoes in a small patch near the shed. We sometimes had a paddling pool in the summer.