Mindful, Seasonal Living in Middle England – with a family of seven
I miss spending time in the forest during this coronavirus lockdown. Finding ways of replicating the sense of peace and wellbeing that the woodlands give me, really helps ease the longing to be back there. Just after a light April shower is the perfect time for mindfulness in the garden. There is such calmness in […]
We continue adapting to this new, quiet time in our lives. I am noticing little changes. Food, for example, is suddenly becoming very important due to the shortages. We seem to talk about it a lot more than normal. Our autistic sons have very restrictive diets, therefore we are saving all of the plain items […]
In the national lock down, we are all permitted to leave the house for exercise and fresh air once a day, as long as we keep our distance from those that are not from our household. Today is the perfect spring day; warm like summer, with a gentle breeze. I’m walking with my ten year […]
We have spent the last week preparing for the shut down that we knew would be coming. It started fully today. Our business is now on hold and the charity library where I am a trustee has shut its doors on government orders. Even though we already worked from home whilst educating our five children, […]
I found an old camping table in the garage that looked like the perfect size for our youngest gardener. She was delighted and immediately set up a shop and started attempting to sell my pots onto her older siblings. Our second son has been watching his seedlings grow on the windowsill. Every morning he eagerly […]
Any faint glimpse of sunshine (which I am currently defining as “not torrential rain”) and I am out in the garden now. This morning, before anyone else was up, I was outside, checking for signs of spring. In my second son’s little patch of garden by the patio, several crocuses have come into bloom quite […]
For the last part of our Spring Tour of Scotland, we have booked to stay in an apartment that overlooks West Bow. As we arrive, everywhere is bustling. It is a complete culture shock after staying in an isolated cottage in the mountains. The second thing that strikes me after the noise of the crowds […]
Our toddler daughter has become custodian of the assorted terracotta pots of late winter bulbs. Every day, she carefully lifts them over to the raised beds for inspection. Each crocus is petted, kissed and whispered to, before being placed back on the wooden ledge. I wonder what she is telling them for it must be […]
Our youngest son is nervous about birthdays, particularly his own. Bright, crinkling, ripping paper, and the unknown surprise within. Loved ones loudly singing happy birthday in unison. Iced cakes with smoky candles. Being the centre of everyone’s attention. For a child with sensory autism, even happy events can be a little too much. For the […]
[Scroll for video] Today we are pulling on our hiking gear and setting out for a trek along the river. Our cottage is a former hunting lodge. A map on the wall shows an old stag stalking route that leads out towards the sea loch, with a note saying we are welcome to use it […]
Dusk falls in the winter woodland. The birdsong echoes out more clearly without the rustle of summer leaves. My 18 month old daughter has recently learnt the word, “another.” From behind me, where she sits in her carrier, she excitedly calls “tree!” A pause. “An-o-ther tree!” A pause. We wait. Luckily, she has been distracted […]
Kirby Hall is a mirage. Outwardly, it looks like smoke should be swirling up from the vast ornate chimney pots. The inside is hollowed out. Time has mercilessly swept through and taken the walls, paintings, furniture and the inhabitants, leaving just a whisper of its former glory. Do not despair. It is this time capsuled […]
The rain continues. The morning is spent with much-loved grandparents, playing card games at the table together and drinking mugs of tea. After lunch, I grab my coat, pull up my hood and wander through the little potager garden, finding stillness in the water droplets balanced on petals and leaves. My daughter is always ready […]
Refreshed by mugs of piping hot chocolate, we are back on the road. We are planning to charge our electric car at the Charge Scotland point next to The Tongue Hotel. It is mid April 2019 and the weather is being increasingly good to us. A haze of smoke still drifts above Durness, from the […]
It takes a lot to keep our youngest out of the garden. This morning she could not understand why the rest of us were not keen to play out in the biggest storm to hit Britain so far this year: Storm Dennis is arriving today. Our garden is quite sheltered and I find the gales […]
Pineapple Sunshine Cake This is the recipe from The February Garden, after receiving quite a few requests for the details of how to make our “little bit of sunshine” cake. It was inspired by Good Food Magazine’s instructions for a Retro Upside Down Cake, but altered for what was in our pantry at the time, […]
As we set out towards Durness the next morning, the mountains are still cloaked in the smoke of yesterday evening’s heather burnings. Smoo Cave is found just a little east of Durness. It is the clearest of days, yet the breeze over the cliff tops is enough to send our smaller children scattering and we […]
A frosty cold morning, one Sunday in January. On days like this it is best to get outside quickly, before the sun has a chance to melt the crispness away. The frost creates beauty wherever it falls. We encourage the children to listen to the crunch underfoot. This is rare and a special part of […]
Today in the garden, whilst I have been working on the veg plot and sweeping the paths, my little daughter has had some lucky finds. She has gathered them in her wheelbarrow, and is now laying them out neatly. We use them to practise her counting, one to ten. She pauses and concentrates after “123” […]
We left our little holiday cottage near Scourie as dusk fell, taking the road north to watch the sun setting over Durness beach. Driving very carefully, due to livestock not hearing our car’s electric engine, we roll over a road marking that makes me smile. Slow is an instruction not just for the vehicle but […]
My little helper, who pulls on her boots the moment she sees me fetch the kitchen door key, joins me in the garden today. I’m so pleased to see tiny crocuses popping up in the old terracotta pots I bought from the library plant sale last year. I like the look of these old frost-hardened […]
We arrive at our holiday cottage, a little north of Scourie, in the late afternoon. It is early April and spring has sprung in the mountains. The little garden is carpeted with daffodils and, just beyond, a small wooden gate leads out to the river bank. The skies are still blue, and the trees are […]
Our visit to Bradgate today is a special one. It is a welcome return to tree climbing. Our second eldest son has spent the last six months recovering from a broken arm, caused by a painful cyst in the bone. To our immense relief, he has had an all-clear that everything has healed and he […]
It is very cold today, but the bright sunshine and clear skies make the garden irresistable. Warmed by cups of hot tomato soup, we check the vegetable plot’s progress. All of our onion sets are now sprouting. The seed company have just sent through a delayed order of giant garlic bulbs and, as I usually […]
We take the scenic route from Aviemore through Bonor Bridge and into the mountains. We wonder if anything can match the sheer splendour of the snowcapped Cairngorms in the early spring sunshine, and I feel a reluctance at having to leave so soon. We drive due west, straight across the country to the bustling port […]
When driving through the countryside in Charnwood we watch out for a line of steam trailing through the fields and up beyond the hedgerows. If we spot it, we will make a diversion for the heritage railway station and watch the train pull into the station. We had a lucky day, this January, and managed […]
Our first full day in Scotland, early April 2019. We spend the morning in Aviemore, enjoying a hearty cooked breakfast of veggie sausages, mushrooms and potato scones before browsing the outdoor pursuits stores. With newly purchased OS maps of the North West Coastal footpaths and a lovely waterproof map holder for all-weather hiking, we are […]
When the sky is a near-cloudless blue, we feel the urge to climb and see rolling green fields stretching out for miles. It does not always have to be a mountain … an ancient tower will do just fine. Kenilworth has undertaken a huge renovation since our last visit a few years before. A vast […]
It had rained for days, weeks, it seemed like endless months and then, one Sunday, it suddenly stopped. The ground would be water-logged and our boots would likely sink in to the mud to a depth of a foot – but it felt so good to finally get out and hike. It was at this […]
It started on Burns Night 2019 – a family promise that we would definitely tour Scotland this year. My husband was raised in England though is actually Scottish, our children are therefore half-Scottish and in the late 1800s my ancestors on my father’s side lived in Scotland too. We definitely felt the mountains calling. In […]
There was a countrywide storm on its way to us today, with predictions of driving rain and thirty mile an hour winds, so we had to quickly sneak some garden time before the gales blew in. One pastime I love in the winter months, when flowers are in short supply, is to start looking for […]
Scottish Raspberry Shortbread (Original recipe by Sue Lawrence in Scottish Baking) I’m going to file this recipe under “Autumn” as raspberries are in season from August-October here in England. However, they do make a delicious treat for Burns Night. I’ve reduced the number of raspberries from the original recipe, as my children find the shortbread very crumbly […]
It has been a long time since I have written for the blog and we would first like to introduce our newest addition to our potager garden – our little girl, born in the heatwave summer of 2018 🙂 In 2019, baby in tow, we toured Scotland – from the Cairngorms, to the North Western […]
