I got a new toy... I'm a woman with brand loyalties (my love of Apple Mac's is something my husband finds endlessly infuriating), and...

After last week's post, I looked around my kitchen and figured it was time to make some more changes. I've made a sort of pre-New Year's...

A new TV? A fancy stand mixer for the kitchen? What did I get excited about in the silly sales? Nappies! Yes, new nappies. This is the...

It seems to be somewhat of a topic at the moment - so here are some of the things we do to reduce how much of it we get through. I don't...

PENELOPE LIVELY This year has not been the year of the many books - for some reason I seem to have picked stupidly long books and then...

Ok, so it' s been a while since I wrote anything. Term started and I found myself mostly asleep on the sofa in the evening - but more...

Sometimes you've just gotta go with the swing of it! Ed is in Finland this week and it is starting to feel like he has been gone forever....

Not quite literally, but he's nearly there. Ranting about kids being bonkers was not the express purpose of this blog when I started it,...

It was sunny so I took the kids for a picnic. I do love it - its like a magic pass to take the kids to healthsome outside spaces with...

Mary Wesley just did not write enough books. A couple of years ago Waterstones told me to buy The Camomile Lawn.  I don't always do what...

Tuesday seems to have become baking morning around here. Summer holidays are an odd beast. I very much love them, but you can also get a...

Grandma sent us a book. Sally is always excited by post that is addressed to her, and a big book of activities was indeed an exciting...

HELL YEAH. So these curtains have been a long time in the making. The ones they replaced, my mother has just told me, are the same age...

(It was courgettes. Husband does not like courgettes, hence the secret.) One of my best buddies has an allotment. Every year she grows...

Quick and so tasty. I've been struggling to write recently. It's not that there's nothing to write about - rather the opposite, there's...

We have had a busy few weeks. I think I'll start with the party as that was first. The garden was alll glorious and pretty in the sun -...

Love Somerset Maugham - finally got round to reading his long one. I developed a bit of a Somerset Maugham obsession a few years ago - I...

Lots of being sociable and community spirited. Saturday was the street party - we've had one each summer for the last four years. It was...

Finally there are some things to eat from the garden! Sally was a very good helper with the podding of peas (I think her grandma has been...

This is the second of the promised tea posts. It is about my recently developed infatuation for Pukka teas. Look at all the pretty boxes...