Women & Nature by Emma Drady
Women & Nature, by Emma Drady, shows us how to lean into nature and learn to reconnect to the natural world through the practices of twenty-five inspiring women. We step into the world of Anya Lily Montague, from Meadowsweet Retreat.
Words: Emma Drady I Photography: Cecilia Renard
Meadowsweet Retreat offers a rewilding live-in experience for guests to realign with nature. Photo: Cecilia Renard
Growing most of their own food is a form of freedom for Anya and her family. Her goal is to get out of the system of relying on an external supply chain. Photo: Cecilia Renard
“Probably the most important thing that human beings can do now is try to understand that we are just the same as an olive tree or a calendula flower. We are made of the same stuff.”
‘I find so much peace and healing in nature. You can really work through things when you’re in the quiet presence of Earth,’ says Anya Lily Montague. Photo: Cecilia Renard
What was meant to be a trip of only a few weeks to visit some land her brother purchased in Tuscany, Italy, turned into a complete reshape of Anya Lily Montague’s life. She was blown away when she arrived and quickly realised she wasn’t going to leave, and she hasn’t since. ‘There was so much potential for healing and learning,’ she says, ‘I asked my brother if I could start a retreat here and he said “of course, my place is your place”.’ This is how Meadowsweet Retreat, a rewilding live-in experience for guests was born.
Prior to coming to Tuscany, Anya had been feeling an internal rumbling that there was a major life change coming. ‘I was doing a lot of thinking about what my soul purpose is and what my true self is calling for. I thought I love my life here, it’s so easy. I have loads of great friends, an amazing job and I’m doing great things for the community, but I feel something is missing.’
Life now couldn’t be more of a contrast to how she was living for the preceding eight years. Anya had been working in the hospitality industry, travelling around the world to help restaurants become more sustainable. Being based in Bali, Indonesia, an island that is known as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, to now living off the land and making most things from scratch has been a surprisingly welcomed change for Anya.
Being an hour from the closest village means that Anya and her mother, who also lives at the retreat, only go to the store once a month. ‘We grow most of the food for the retreats. We’ve planted about an acre of veggie garden and next year we have another acre to plant so we can be fully self-sufficient and not have to go to the farmers' market,’ she says of their long-term dream. Growing most of their own food is a form of freedom for Anya and her family. Her goal is to get out of the system of relying on an external supply chain.
‘We are learning about growing and foraging so we can always have free food – saving seeds so we don’t have to buy them; keeping bees for honey if we want something sweet.’ Anya feels that if they keep continuing in this way of self-sufficient living, everything will snowball.
Anya comes from an alternative upbringing with her father being a yoga teacher and her mother a herbalist. She remembers living in a terrace house that had a long garden and one day her mother banned her from going into the farthest part of the garden for a month. On her sixth birthday, with her mother’s hands over her eyes, she was surprised with the gift of her own garden. ‘She had made an archway of climbing roses and honeysuckle and dug out a pond and lined it with crystals. There were newts and frogs and a little vegetable patch. She said to me, “Anya this is your magic garden. You can grow food or flowers here; you can have friends here or you can say that you don’t want anyone here. This is your space”.’ Since Anya fell pregnant with a daughter, she made plans for passing this ritual down.
Her hope for sharing her garden and natural spaces with her daughter is one she also has for the wider community. The approximately 4000 acres of land Meadowsweet Retreat lives on was once, prior to the 1950s, a whole village of crop sharers – people who would swap produce and live sustainably. Anya has begun to reinvigorate this ethos by inviting volunteers to engage in skillsharing such as mushroom foraging and beekeeping, and even inviting potters who use the natural clay from the river.
All guests are also encouraged to participate in rewilding practices during their stay. ‘The guests have to come back to nature; they have to come and do a session on permaculture or forage for wild medicine. We get them into the earth and their hands in the soil. They all eat from the land while they are here and drink from the spring. That’s the goal of Meadowsweet Retreat: to touch as many people’s lives with nature as we can.’
Anya is deeply passionate about the retreat because she wants more people to feel the freedom of self-sufficiency and the healing potential of nature. ‘I find so much peace and healing in nature. If I’ve had a long computer day, an argument, or am feeling overwhelmed with what’s going on in the world, I can just go and spend some time in the garden – planting some seeds, digging things up, weeding – it’s the best therapy. You can really work through things when you’re in the quiet presence of Earth.’
This in an edited extract from ‘Women & Nature’ by Emma Drady, published by Thames & Hudson. Purchase the book online now here.