January has a reputation as a dull, dark and dreary month. But in reality, it is a magical time of year, filled with natural wonders and possibilities. And it's a splendid time to have a birthday...
Category: gardening
A tale of two orchards
Today (21st October 2020) is the 30th anniversary of Apple Day and I thought I'd mark the occasion by telling you about two urban orchards close to where I live in North London - one around one hundred years old, the other just ten. Apple Day was founded by Common Ground in 1990 as an …
The trouble with beekeeping
I have always dreamt of keeping bees. On my good life wish list, it has ranked somewhere alongside tending an orchard, building a treehouse and creating a wildflower meadow for many years. Lately, I have been reading bedtime stories to my children from a book called Tales from the End Cottage, which has rekindled that …
Six crafty recycling ideas for kids (no.5 is a bit bonkers)
In our house, we’re always keen to find quirky, new uses for worn out things and reduce the amount we put in the bin. And if recycling something involves a fun activity for a rainy day then so much the better. However, I'm not the most arty of mums, so I like to keep it …
Continue reading Six crafty recycling ideas for kids (no.5 is a bit bonkers)
Little garden helpers
When I tasked Mr Rixon with the project of constructing a sandpit two summers ago I had pictured long afternoons of the children happily making sandcastles side by side while I got on with other stuff. But right now I’m having to dash outside every two minutes to prevent the garden from being covered in …
How (not) to be a Bad Gardener Part 2
Lesson two: Don’t piss off the locals. I’m talking about the four-legged, bushy-tailed, red-furred, nocturnal, cunning kind. Upon moving in we discovered that a family of urban foxes was using our garden and its neighbouring ones as a ‘suite of rooms’. The south-facing garden with the wide, sunny lawn? The playroom. The overgrown garden full …
How (not) to be a Bad Gardener Part 1
I’m going to share some of our mistakes in a series of blog posts, partly to remind me not to make them again, and partly in the hope that others might learn from, or at least laugh at, our foolishness. Lesson one: Do not poison the soil Plants tend to have a short lifespan in …
Goodbye Tumbleweed
It's been a loooooooooooooong time since I last wrote. I’m now mum to two beautiful, delightful and extremely cheeky daughters: Gwendolyn (aged three) and Josephine (aged one) and right now, while on lockdown in our terrace house in Tottenham, London, with their daddy, and our two cats, I’ve decided it’s finally time to dust down …
Three books on trees
At The Tree Council we are lucky to have a large collection of excellent books celebrating all aspects of trees. With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I'd let you know what I thought about three very different books to recently join our little library: Trees in Towns and Cities, A History of British …
