It's the little things people do that will make the difference; my little thing is planting treesWangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate 2004 Wangari Maathai, credit: Martin Rowe Kenyan activist, environmentalist, and 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai, would have been eighty years old this year. Although she lived many thousands of miles away, her legacy …
Continue reading National Tree Week 2020: Celebrating Wangari Maathai
When they walk along our road, or round the park or through the woods - my children always find a stick to carry with them. Depending on its length, and size and straightness, a stick can be many things... It can be a spoon for stirring a witch's brew or mud pie mixture simmering away …
It's time I let you in on a secret. For the last five years or so, Mr Rixon and I have been followers of a growing movement across the world known as financial independence (FI) or FIRE (financial independence, retire early). Our goal is to save up enough money so that we can quit the …
Credit: Peter Neumann, Unsplash I've always had mixed feelings about Halloween. On the one hand, I love the celebration of autumn and the feeling of liminality that the date conjures up. On the other hand, I could really do without all the plastic rubbish. A report by The Fairyland Trust (a charity that gets children …
Celebrating the diversity and complexity of the hidden world of bugs
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 …
Reliving the Grand Haringey Fungus Foray - my initiation into the weird and wonderful world of fungi
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 …
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)
I am not normally one for dispensing parenting advice, but if you were to ask me for my ultimate, all-time, number one, ‘can’t do without’ tip for looking after little ones it would have to be ‘camomile tea ice lollies’, known in our house as simply, ‘camomile lollies’. I’m not entirely sure how they came …
