I posted a couple of weeks ago about what a surprisingly lovely time I had just going for a walk and taking a path that I hadn’t been down before. The weather was stunning again today, so I went out for another walk along a similar route, but this time I took a macro lens to really make me pay close attention to some of the things I saw along the way.
Continue reading
The lovely folk at Abel and Cole sent me a freebie in my box this week. Normally that’s a cause for great joy. Previous freebies have included mince pies, cheese, lemons, olive oil and a recipe book.
This week they sent me a bottle of Beeple Juice. It’s a combination of beetroot and apple, and probably contains the recommended weekly dose of all kinds of vitamins.
Continue reading
We have just booked our summer holidays for this year, and we can’t wait. We’re having a few days up seeing family in the Western Isles, followed by a week in Edinburgh at the Fringe. I am reminded once again how much my idea of what a holiday is has changed over the years.
A few weeks ago, I did a guest post about holidays for Marianne over at Mari’s World, and she has kindly agreed to let me publish a version of it on my own blog too.
Holidays? I’ve had a few! They change though, don’t they? Not just the places you go, but who you’re with, why you’re going, what you remember…
Continue reading
I’m super-excited to have a guest post on the blog today from the lovely Hollie Smith. I got to know Hollie online when she put out a call for mums to contribute to a book she was writing. That book is out very soon indeed (details at the bottom of the post), and she has kindly agreed to write me a post for me about one of the topics it touches on.
A bit about me, um, I am 42, married and have two daughters aged ten and eight. First Time Mum is my tenth book (and my last I think, cos I’m knackered!). Before, and in between, books, I scraped a living as a freelance journalist. However, I always found it a pretty demoralising business, and having submitted my last manuscript – in spite of the fact I was staring unemployment in the face – I vowed I was not going back there! So now I blog, instead and write what I like, when I like. I also work part-time as part of the Netmums PR team.
As someone who’s researched and written three separate books about the challenges of early motherhood, there’s a subject that never fails to touch me, every time I return to it: postnatal depression.
When I write about PND, it’s only ever in the third person. Although I struggled to cope in many ways as a new mum I was never, thank God, forced into a state of actual depression. But in the course of my work, many women have shared their PND stories with me, and it’s given me some understanding, I think, of how awful this illness can be.
Continue reading
I am sitting on the sofa reading a book, vaguely aware of some scuffling noises behind me, when suddenly there is a violent grunt, and a bang.
“Bloody hell,” says DorkyDad.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“There’s something wrong with the printer.”
I turn round and peer over the top of the sofa.
“You haven’t switched it on,” I say.
Continue reading
