I’m Judy Newbery and I grew up as a creative and imaginative child, as I believe all children are. My sisters and I would play games of make-believe in our large garden in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

We climbed trees so that we could look out on the world below, rode horses made of bamboo sticks around the garden, using shrubs and pieces of wood as ‘jumps,’ and played ‘hide and seek’ amongst the tall bamboo.

I wrote stories about other children having adventures in far away lands and wrote poems that expressed my own joys and fears. Creativity was a part of life. Never questioned. It was part of the air I breathed.

As I grew older, I was encouraged to have a ‘proper’ job so a career in nursing followed. After many years as a general nurse, midwife and district nurse, and a brief stint as a garden photographer, I followed my heart into a career in complementary therapies, namely Facial Reflexology.

I loved my new path in life but after many years, realised that something was missing. A part of me felt unfulfilled and I remembered that I had once loved to write and I missed taking photos in nature.