Live in the Now: May

The Bank Holiday weekend was a good reminder of how important sunshine is. Everything seems easier, everything can be done with a smile on your face, everything seems more possible when you open the curtains to a warm, bright day instead of a cold, grey one.

We had one of those weekends where it didn’t feel like we were doing very much, but we still seemed to pack it in. A lovely lunch and an afternoon at the park with a friend we hadn’t seen for a long time. (‘Jeez,‘ she said. ‘Is this what people do in the suburbs?‘) A drink at the pub in town with a beer garden where, to DorkySon’s delight, there was a bouncy castle set up. A little potter around the farmer’s market to pick up some local honey and strawberries. And some bread and ham. And some cheese and radishes. Oh, and some chicken, and some ribs. And some freshly ground coffee… Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who wrote ‘I can resist anything but temptation.’
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Food for Thought

literacy and nutrition campaign Save the Children

I love it when nice people do good things. Nothing makes me happier. So when I saw that several of my very favourite children’s writers are backing the latest campaign from Save the Children, it put a huge smile on my face.

More than 25 children’s writers and illustrators, including David Walliams, Oliver Jeffers, Michael Morpugo and Philip Pullman have come together to warn of a global literacy crisis, ahead of the G8 nutrition summit on June 8th.

Eh?’ I can hear you saying. ‘What have literacy and nutrition got to do with each other?

Well the answer to that is ‘quite a lot, actually’. Continue reading

Something For The Weekend

Happy Friday! I hope that if you’re in the UK you’re looking forward to some fun over the Bank Holiday weekend.

A lot of bloggers will be taking the weekend off, so I thought it might be nice to do a roundup of some older posts to give you something to read. I asked some of my favourite folk to share a post from their own blog – the one they consider to be their best ever – and these are the ones they chose.

Hope you enjoy them! Continue reading

Reasons to be Cheerful

It has been a good while since I joined in with Reasons to Be Cheerful over on Michelle’s blog, but after reading her post last week about why it’s the best linky out there I felt inspired to give it a go again today.

I have a lot to be grateful for this week, and a lot of things making me happy.

A valve broke in our heating system last week, so we went from Friday night to Tuesday afternoon without any hot water in the house. Monday night chez Dorky was like a scene from a comedy film, as we spent an hour boiling saucepans of water on the stovetop to fill up the bath with. Our cruddy old hob is so slow that by the time we got through to the bathroom with a new pan full, the water from the last batch of pans was already cold, but eventually we managed a tepid six inches in the tub, which the three of us shared. Thankfully the plumber managed to get things fixed on Tuesday afternoon, and I have taken a moment to feel very grateful for every lovely hot shower I’ve had since. Continue reading

Volunteer Champions

CSV Volunteering campaign

CSV, the UK’s Volunteering and Learning charity, have just launched a lovely campaign that I wanted to share with you.

The campaign is called Volunteer Champions, and has been launched to celebrate the people all over the country (and indeed the world) who quietly give up their time to try and make the world a better place.

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