Recipe: Plum, fig and almond cake

It's late September. The kids are back at school. The kits are settling in. The kitchen is half finished and a bit of a tip.

What to do in the midst of a building site? Make a cake, of course.

On light: Autumn equinox and tentpoles

So here it is. The autumn equinox – the point in the calendar when day and night are of equal length – falls today. Which means (gulp) the nights will be longer than the days from here until March. My brain melts a bit at this prospect. When I talk about my love of summer, it's not the heat I crave but the light. And I think I know why.

Family life: Back in the Saddle - Cycling with Halfords

The week before last we holidayed at Center Parcs, Longleat. More to come in an upcoming post but by day we made our way through the forest by bike, finding it the easiest way to get from lodge to pool or playground or lake and back again. Fast forward to this morning and the school form I've just had to fill in about our cycling habits. Do you cycle as a family? Well, yes and no.

On chaos and making sense of time, the seasons and everything

Want to know the two best words in the English language? In my opinion, anyway.

Travel, family and more: 18 highlights of Summer 2016

Phew! That was a summer...

It's always the same – at the beginning of the holidays I'm a rabbit in the headlights, wondering how on earth we're going to fill the six and a bit weeks stretching out ahead. This year? We packed in so much!

Here are some of our highlights.

Inspired by... / 08 Artist Dan Parry-Jones and the Affordable Art Fair, Bristol

Before I did this – blogging, writing, digital content etc – I worked for some of Bristol’s loveliest arts organisations, from large, stately art galleries like the Royal West of England Academy to smaller, artist-led studios such as Jamaica Street Artists. Art has always been a big interest of mine and I’m fascinated by how artists create. But getting work from the artist’s studio to the customer’s wall is a tricky business…

Recipe: Hermits - a spiced biscuit inspired by a childhood book, Carrie Hepple's Garden

There are books from my childhood that have stayed with me forever. But they aren't necessarily the classics... Instead, many are under-the-radar favourites from an esoteric, mismatched collection of hand-me-downs, charity shop finds and gifts. As is the case with my grown-up library too, I suppose. One such book inspired a love of warm summer evenings, cottage gardens and unfamiliar baking. A beautifully drawn picture book from the eighties called Carrie Hepple's Garden.