Nature reserve move helps artist find a way back from debilitating stroke

 

ARTIST Chris Oliver has been aided in her recovery from a debilitating stroke by a move next door to a nature reserve.

Chris, of Cherry Orchard, Codford, lost mobility in three of her limbs when she suffered the stroke five years ago. She has now regained 80 per cent of her movement but still suffers with her balance and an intolerance of noise. She cannot listen to music or watch TV and has difficulty concentrating and even going shopping causes her distress.

At the time of her stroke she and husband Daren were living in a White Horse Housing Association home in Church Acre, Codford, which had a coach depot at its rear. “There was noise all day long and into the early hours from the coaches revving and beeping as they reversed,” she said.

“I shut down as soon as there's too much noise, I'm like a robot, and it was like dying a slow death living there.”

She asked White Horse for a move to another home in the village but it took three years for a suitable two-bedroom bungalow to become vacant. “White Horse were very sympathetic but there was just nothing else available until this one came up. They gave us time to get everything ready to move, which really helped.”

The new home borders the nature reserve created in 2011 with money from the National Lottery and Wiltshire Council in partnership with White Horse and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. “When we moved in it was like my soul breathed a huge sigh of relief,” said Chris.

She loves wildlife and is able to spend her days watching and photographing the birds feeding from the table and feeders she replenishes three times a day. She recently counted 27 different species for a British Ornithology Trust bird count. Among the regular visitors to the reserve are robins, blackbirds, rooks, crows, ravens, long-tailed tits, woodpeckers, jackdaws, starlings, chiff-chaffs, goldfinches, greenfinches, an egrit and even a Eurasian jay, as well as hedgehogs and, on one occasion, a beaver.

“It is really peaceful and it has made a big difference to my recovery,” she said. “I just love listening to the birds while I sit drinking my coffee. I feel at peace.”

Although feeding the birds brings Chris pleasure, there is also a more serious reason. “England is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world,” she said. “We've got this obsession with tidiness, we find one little bug on a rosebush and that's it, everything has to be poisoned.

“Everyone cuts blackberry bushes down and it's always in spring and autumn when there are berries and nuts around. So I feel like I'm giving a little bit back, because we've taken everything from them.”

Before her stroke Chris, a trained artist originally from Plymouth, had just finished a course at Pinewood Studios making intricate miniature buildings and backgrounds for TV and films. “I had hoped to eventually work at Aardman Studios but two months after I started I had the stroke and that was it,” she said.

Her love of art has also been a factor in her recovery. From a shed studio in the garden she creates intricate sand and resin pictures, line drawings, wooden models and a plethora of other creations for friends and family.

Chris, who has a son and a daughter, said: “After my stroke I drove the nurses in the hospital mad because I kept trying to get up. In the end they went to the children’s ward and got me some beads and shoelaces to keep me busy. I had lost all my math skills and was unable to read. I started crocheting to get my arms working again.

“Everyone laughs at me because I'm always buying some new sort of craft material and I just like to play and experiment with it. I love art because it helps with my mental health, it's my meditation.”

Every morning, as she wanders down to her shed listening to the birdsong she counts her blessings. “We say all the time how glad we are we moved here,” she said. “We think it’s beautiful and we are so grateful.”

Find Chris’ artwork on Instagram at Chriscella_art.