Postcards From My Kitchen Table

** I just discovered this unpublished blog post. Almost a year on, it’s finally time for you to have a read…** A few weeks ago I turned 40. As part of of my celebrations my two best friends, both of whom I have known for most of my life, put together a photo montage of…… Continue reading To You with Love – The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Yesterday I had some precious childfree hours and chose to spend them watching Christopher Nolan’s much lauded cinematic epic ‘Dunkirk’. I wasn’t there for the supreme cinematography, soaring Hans Zimmer score ringing round excerpts of Elgar’s ever moving Nimrod, or indeed the, surprisingly good, appearance of Harry Styles. I was there to remember Major Rollo…… Continue reading Lest We Forget

This is an edited version of an article posted on http://www.chronicallymotivated.org a support and lifestyle platform for people living the best life they can with lymphoedema.    I have Primary Lymphoedema in my left leg – stretching from the tips of my little sausage toes, right up to my thigh. It began one gorgeously sunny summer…… Continue reading Learning to Love my Limbs

nostalgia – a sentimental longing for or wistful affection for a period in the past Over the last few days I’ve been listening to a lot of Radiohead in anticipation of their headlining performance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury tonight. Not ‘Kid A’ or ‘In Rainbows’ era Radiohead but 90s ‘Pablo Honey’, ‘The Bends’…… Continue reading Looking Back, Looking Forward

Last night like many across the UK, and probably the wider world, I watched the news in shock and horror, appalled by the senseless violence inflicted on young people and their parents in Manchester. As a mum of three small children I felt intense fear. Fear for their freedom and safety,  fear for them growing…… Continue reading A Life Lived at ‘Critical’

Our beloved chicken Maudy died on Easter Sunday.  A week previously I noticed she wasn’t quite herself. The friendliest and sparkiest of our small flock of six, she had begun to isolate herself, preferring to sit alone under trees with her feathers puffed up – creating the illusion to her fellow hens and any potential…… Continue reading ‘Will she still remember me Mummy?’ – how a chicken taught my son about death

It’s funny what we do in the early days of a relationship. We tend to hide bits of ourselves and bend to meld to our new other, desperate to make them like us more. That’s why I started running. I had a boyfriend who wasn’t just a weekend runner, he was a serious runner once…… Continue reading Born to Run

Yesterday my eldest son Angus turned five. For some reason this birthday has hit me in a way that his others haven’t. It feels significant, a marker in the sand. I can feel him moving further away from me and yet at the same time, pulling closer. I want to savour every moment with him…… Continue reading Now We Are Five – what I’ve learnt since becoming a Mum.

As a child of the ’70s my first experience of the internet wasn’t until 1998 – my third year of university. My flatmates and I had ventured to the computer room – a mythical space full of green screened monstrosities and people way more intelligent than us – to email our landlords in Canada begging them to let…… Continue reading Digital detox -why I decided to ditch Facebook

Motherhood is tough. Yes it’s a gift, it’s incredible, transcendental even but it’s also really bloody hard sometimes. This time last year I was struggling to keep my head above water. I had three children under four and every day felt like Groundhog Day. I didn’t feel I was doing anything particularly well as a…… Continue reading How I learnt to drop the judgement