Solace: Life, loss and the healing power of nature

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Join author, photographer, and activist Catherine Drea as she talks about her deeply personal and inspiring book Solace: Life, loss and the healing power of nature.

Catherine Drea is a visual artist, writer and blogger who lives and works in rural County Waterford. Catherine writes a column called ‘As I See It’ for the Waterford News & Star and blogs on Foxglove Lane foxglovelane.com A graduate of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and University College Cork (UCC), she has worked as a graphic designer, an art teacher and a group facilitator. After 10 years of part time teaching and raising three boys, she trained as an Integrative Psychotherapist, completed a Masters and co-founded Framework, a community support organisation, NGO and charity. In 2010, after the economic crisis, Catherine and the Framework team began working from home. This spurred her on to start a blog Foxglove Lane, about the small patch she calls home. Catherine has since won four Irish Blog Awards, including Best Photography Blog in 2018. A lifelong activist, Catherine has been a campaigner in a number of social movements over the years. She remains a passionate advocate of equality, biodiversity and the natural world. She shares a couple of wild acres with her Right Hand Man, Alan, and has three grown up sons. She is currently Chairperson of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) and has just published her first book Solace (2022 The O’Brien Press).

Solace is that feeling of calm and comfort, that sense of peace that is all around us when we are open to finding it. Writer and photographer Catherine Drea explores the solace to be found in nature and creativity. She reflects on loss, the cycle of life and the healing power of family and community. She muses on the joy of finding a place to call home, the escape that travel brings and the exhilaration of plunging into our waters - all the while embracing the therapeutic power of observing the ordinary and the everyday. With the passing seasons, her camera captures fleeting moments in nature - the light and lie of the land, with its precious wildlife: sentinel robins, elusive Irish hares and serene swans. Solace is quite simply a balm for the soul.

'In this beautiful book, Catherine Drea explores deeply emotive issues, calms the mind, soothes the soul, and focuses her sensitive lens on the wonders of the natural world.'

Alice Taylor, author of To School through the Fields

Claire Hennessy is a writer, book critic and creative writing facilitator. @chennessybooks