Written during the First World War, this is a gentle, personal memoir of a country garden on the Surrey hills and the creatures who inhabit it. The author and her family tend their beloved plot, Villino Loki, finding solace in the rhythms of planting and seasons even as Europe burns. At the center of the household is Loki, a Pekinese with unmistakable opinions, along with his animal companions, each rendered with distinctive personality and quirks. The book moves between light-hearted observations of pet antics and quieter moments of reflection on beauty, loss, and what it means to cultivate joy in dark times. It is a small, tender thing: a love letter to a garden and its inhabitants, written by someone who understood that the ordinary acts of planting, watering, and watching things grow can be acts of resistance against sorrow.
