Leo Tolstoy once wrote ‘Spring is the time of plans and projects.’ Yet here at home in Caithness, the ninth week of lockdown meant plans and projects put on hold. Keeping up with the daily cycles of homeschool, home work and domesticity leaves us feeling that boredom might be a luxury. Half-weeded patches of garden…
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Week eight of lockdown was a challenging one in our household. With my husband working long hours from the spare bedroom, it fell to me to become chief teacher, cook, cleaner, dog walker and all-round operative of essential domestic tasks. On the school front, we had a day of big emotions as I tried to…
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The last week has brought a myriad of feelings – anxiety, contentment, fear, comfort, positivity, helplessness, happiness. Stories that are not mine to tell mean that there has also been shock – and sadness – too. The devastation wreaked by Covid-19 seems to creep a little closer, reminding us that statistics are not statistics –…
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Over the years, I’ve embraced just about every geographical lifestyle trend imaginable. Hygge – the Danish art of cosiness and contentment: on it. Lagom – the Swedish philosophy of ‘not too little, not too much, just right’: yep, count me in. Ikigai – the Japanese secret to a long and happy life: been there, done…
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Hello, and happy 2020……! The sun has risen on a new decade, and as usual January brings with it a sense of expectation. Resolutions, plans for diet and lifestyle, pressure to overhaul just about everything in our lives. I don’t really go in for New Year resolutions, preferring instead to set goals throughout the year…
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At this point in December I like to emerge from my turkey-induced fog and write a few words to usher out the year that’s leaving us. Of course, this year, we’re ushering out a whole decade, and I’m excited about what’s to come in the ‘twenties’ (not least because we’ll finally have a decade we…
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We generally enjoy our ‘big’ holiday for the year in October, when tourist destinations tend to be a bit quieter, and temperatures are more suited to our far north constitutions. Last year, we went on a mammoth French/Belgian roadtip, visiting Paris, Disneyland and Bruges (amongst other places) and this year, we continued in the French…
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At the weekend, I completed my first official 10K running event, at the Castle of Mey here in Caithness. I had decided to sign up to the event only a week before, in an eleventh-hour decision after our regular Saturday morning Parkrun stint. I had a feeling I might regret not entering, having convinced myself of my…
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Whenever I start to write a post like this I find myself grappling with the same internal monologue: who am I to tell anybody anything? After all, I’m just a small-time blogger with a modest readership – who would want to read a list of blogging tips from me? But then I remember something I heard…
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In the October holidays, we took our first trip outside the UK in our beloved VW campervan. It was something we had been planning for a while – a road trip from our home in the far north, through Scotland, England, and over the channel to France. We wanted to see Paris, Disneyland, and also make a visit to Belgium,…
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