An Introduction to La Pinède

I think it hails back to when I first drove down the main road into the farm estate in 2011. My soul stirred. And as occupied as my mind was by other things at the time, I remembered this moment. It felt like home. As it turned out, this place became increasingly important as my world became smaller and walking became more difficult. 

The estate lies in the part of the Helderberg area still labelled as rural. There are quite a few functioning farms here, as an increasing number of them are, or have already been developed into an estate. This estate is unique though. It has only a few properties, each in excess of 1 hectare in size. 

At the back of my space is mostly untouched nature. I have counted more than 300 trees, mostly stone pines (Pinus pinea or Mediterranean stone pine) some of considerable age. The house is more of a little cottage than it is a house, and it has a mysterious origin. Some say it used to be a cattle shed (the estate had previously been a farm). But it was the land that attracted me. 

A Winter Scene in La Pinède

There is something deeply grounding in this space and among the trees. I soon discovered there was a circle formed by a few of the older stone pines. It didn’t take me long to feel drawn to this circle and I started to keep the grass cut in the circle and did my morning exercises there and took evening walks with the circle as my starting point to the walking path which was laid out later. Although they are considered an invasive species in South Africa, these old souls provided an atmosphere of tranquility and bliss, especially inside the circle. I eventually decided on the name La Pinède, as I felt it deserved a name, given the healing space it provides. It feels like being in a cathedral of trees. La Pinède has witnessed my ordinary days and my extraordinary ones; my grief, my healing and the peculiar gait of a woman learning to walk again. 

I have developed a deep connection to this place and it has provided an escape and unconditional welcome in some trying and painful phases of my life. I decided to share my FND story with La Pinède as the backdrop as it is intricately linked to my healing journey in so many ways. When FND changed the way I moved through the world, La Pinède did not ask me to be different. It simply continued to welcome me beneath its trees. For the most part, healing for me is not found in the grand moments, but in the ordinary ones repeated beneath the same trees, under the same sky. This is where I am learning that although our bodies may change, some things remain steadfast: trees, sunsets and familiar paths. 

There are so many things that remain unchanged here and many others that are always in flux: The morning sunrays peeking through the canopy of the tree tops and warming my skin in ever changing places, the gentle breezes that feel like a massage, the endless, incredibly blue sky that crowns it all, the various species of butterflies, birds, even birds of prey seemingly soaring higher than the aircraft tracing lines across the sky. The various wildflowers putting on their seasonal show. And then of course, there are my pets, Emmy, Luna, Sky and last but not least Dennis. But more about them in a later post.