Why l'encre d'olive?

When you're looking for inspiration you tend to look at what's around you.

I have a vintage parker ink pen, right next to me on my desk, that was given to me by my mum's lovely partner. At the moment, its barrell is filled with Diamine: Wagner ink, which is a delicious rich, olive-green shade.

I love this colour and I love to write with with the pen.

As well as being just a lovely thing that gives me pleasure, the olive not only gives us the name of my favourite colour, but also a wonderful plant that provides delicious and healthy berries and oil.

[ Olive ink | Olive tree | Digital garden ] It all kinds fits together if you squint and think about it for way too long.

The

The

L'encre d'olive means 'olive ink' in French.

I'm not French. I don't speak French. But doesn't it have a lovely ring to it?

What's a digital garden?

A "digital garden" is a metaphor for a dynamic and living system of information, ideas, and inspiration that interact, cross-fertilize, feed and grow on each other.

The garden metaphor, as opposed to the publishing metaphor normally used for digital content creation, is an interesting one as it allows for more creativity and freedom.

The traditional shape of a website supporting a knowledge entrepreneur is flat pages of content, crafted then pushed live, supported by a steady stream of blog posts touted on linked social media profiles.

A digital garden is a much more fluid and natural way of sharing thoughts and collections online.

And, as with a garden, rather than preparing and working with it somehow hidden from view, everything is done in the open for any passersby to see. Some parts might be fully cultivated, whilst others are patiently waiting their turn for the gardeners attention.

Areas of the garden need to be regularly fertilised, weeded and replanted in order to support their higher purpose. That purpose needs to be defined in order for the garden to support the gardener's vision.

Who's writing this?

A person with a vision.

A 50 year old.

A mum to an eight year old.

A content designer.

A Notion user.

A Management and Psychology graduate.

A woman on a ten year journey to secure her future.