There’s nothing quite like a summer fruits PYO farm. Our local one is Stonepitts and we visit on a roasting hot summer’s afternoon. Nestled near the North Downs, we are in a pretty spot. I teach my son how to find the best berries where no-one else has bothered to look. We slow to a steady … More Slowing down at Stonepitts.
I expect that the idea of International Happiness Day 2018 will summon a sneer of disdain from my sceptical sixteen-year old (writes his cynical mother) … I learn about today’s significance in the village shop, where one fellow customer observes, “I’d quite like to be happy tomorrow as well.” Me too. The day isn’t going well in … More International Day of Happiness – really?
Too cold for running in German as sleet stings my face. I skate across snow-packed surfaces smoothed by sledges. I skip over small mounds where grass strains through. I stumble when I sink in surprises of deep white. As gusts of wind constantly sear my cheeks. All I can do is yank my hat down and pull … More Snow run in English (it’s too cold for German)
Snow run number 2, featuring my favourite Treeo. And a welcome pitstop at Otto’s coffee house. Before the snowball fight begins. I love them, but when will they go back to school? Schneelauf Nummer 1 here.
I’m training for Berlin so I’m running in German. It’s a Schneelauf (snow run). I’m walking with my daughter so I’m talking in English. It’s a snow walk. I’m home warming up with a chocolate brownie bake-up. Good in any language.
I am rushing along a featureless fast road rising high above the London orbital, my mind muddled by a million different mundanities. I am half-running, half-walking, needing to be somewhere else, blindly ignoring the faceless cars swiping too close and too fast. Then I look over my left shoulder, primed by I don’t know what. … More Sunset slows the day
Cold, bright and still. It was all about light, shadows and textures at Knole today. A brisk run for me and a walk in the park for the deer.
Autumn leaves little time for writing – too much takes us outside. Earlier this week, Storm Ophelia drenched our skies with red, bringing hints of the Sahara, and a physics explanation too complex for me. And now, we have swished our way through a childishly colourful weekend … Finding fruit in hiding. And leaves that turn into … More A Childishly Colourful Weekend
The evening light is leaving us, and the nights are growing cold, but colours like these keep winter blues whispers at bay. I find crabapple red. And sweet chestnut green and brown. Pretty for decoration or delicious for dinner. (Just be careful when scuttling over a sweet chestnut carpet. It’s like negotiating carelessly strewn prickly … More Winter blues whispers and prickly tennis balls
Last year my naive experiment of growing a luffa plant (in the relative cool of Kent) from a seed shaped in the sunshine of sub-Saharan Africa, came to a leaf-withered, sorry-looking nothing (despite having survived a nasty accident with a bike). I was sad. After receiving a lesson in luffas from Bettie in Malawi, I had planted … More Lovely Luffa
