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 …
We are lucky to have a lovely little open space at the end of our road. The bigger parks can get too busy for my liking but Brunswick Park is nearly always quiet. During the lockdown we have been there lots and lots. Even while the playground has been closed, we have made our own …
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 …
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 …
