In my childhood, I was surrounded by the lush flora and fauna of Bhutan – the land-locked country in the Himalayas described by National Geographic as The Last Shangri-La.

Encounters with nature were of the up close and personal kind, from the sublime to the scary. One minute, one could be experiencing the flutter of beautiful exotic butterflies in a dazzling array of colours, and the next minute cross paths with snakes (some of them venomous, like the cobra), that inhabited pockets of the garden and sometimes found their way inside the house!

My father’s love for nature transformed the garden into a tropical paradise, filling it with flowers in every colour and fragrance, as well as ferns, creepers and bushes in every shape and size. And trees! So many fruit trees within the compound surrounding the house that parts of the garden resembled a small orchard. The bounty of nature grew at the doorstep and a large kitchen garden at the back of the house ensured a constant supply of fresh vegetables.

Farm animals like cows, pigs, chickens and ducks were part of my childhood experience. And being in the tropics meant being surrounded by an abundance of wild creatures – every manner of creature that bit, stung, stank, hissed, slithered, squawked or cooed. From the aforementioned snakes, to frogs, tree lizards, common house geckos, snails, slugs, noisy crows, parrots, doves, bats and every kind of flying insect. The close and personal relationship with nature during my childhood laid the foundation for a lifelong love of the natural world that remains strong till today.

In the summer, my small garden in Canada is a magnet for butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, robins, squirrels, and of course…rabbits!

Nature is at my doorstep where I live now, and continues to play a major role in inspiring my writing and art.

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