Hello! Welcome to my first blog post of 2016 which I am writing in my pyjamas. Yay – I’m having a pyjama day. Blue striped PJs and a wool cashmere poncho. I am joined by my sleepy feline friend Pookie who is sporting a brown and beige fur onesie. It Read more…
If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will know that I am someone on the move. Two years ago I was living in a small city apartment in Lyon. Then there was a year in a large country farmhouse in Poitou Charentes. Next, a Read more…
Sometimes, when I’m stuck on the big things, I try extra hard to focus on the little things…. The first signs of spring appearing in the garden A coffee outside with the sun on my face (even if I’m still bundled up in my winter jacket) A feather on the Read more…
Our wonderful housesit in 110 acres of rolling French countryside has become a 26 square metre apartment on the ground floor of a busy Bordeaux street. The earplugs are back in use and the rent per month is just under what we paid in bills for a whole year in Read more…
Running Boy couldn’t sleep last night. Consequently neither could I. We went outside at one thirty in the morning to walk in the garden and look at the stars. The night sky was beautiful with so many bright stars. The Milky Way was almost aglow. I reached my arms up Read more…
It’s that kind of unsettled weather at the moment, hot one minute, stormy and raining the next, warm air mixed with a cool breeze. I had breakfast on the front step today, breathing in the warm scent of summer, enjoying my banana and strawberry smoothie, watching the butterflies and bees Read more…
Early morning and I can see the moorhen chicks in the pond, darting around, quick movements. The sun catches the ripples in the water, the slight breeze causing the leaves to chatter softly in the trees, the green of the hills, gently rolling away into the distance. I love it Read more…
Wanting to change your relationship with alcohol doesn’t have to start with an almighty hangover. It does help though! For some time now I’ve been saying I wanted to cut down but for some reason it just wasn’t happening. Enter celebrations for my boyfriend’s 40th along with a rather bad Read more…
I love to see things from a different perspective and standing by the pond yesterday evening with my camera in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, I realised how we can so often miss the beauty of a moment when we look only for what we Read more…
Although the sun has finally come out after more endless rain I find myself sitting here thinking of Britain and suddenly I want to go home. I know it’s easy to wear rose-tinted glasses and only think of the positive but it’s more than that. It’s a strange thing, the Read more…
When I was around eighteen years old I stopped buying fashion magazines. For one simple reason. They did not make me feel good. At the time it was difficult to put my finger on what it was exactly that made me feel bad, but without fail, I would finish a Read more…
For years we have been told that as women we can have it all. I can’t quite remember when this started, the eighties is my guess, but I do remember clearly hearing as a young women that yes, you can have it all. No longer were we restricted to the role Read more…
“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” Brené Brown If you’ve been looking down my blog sidebar you will notice I’m a fan of Brené Brown. It started with a Read more…
It is twenty two years since The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf was published. I read this book avidly, absorbing its every detail, nodding my head in astonished agreement. Yes, she was right. As women gained more and more political and social standing, they also conformed more and more to Read more…
A couple of days ago we went for a walk through the fields and little country lanes, past swollen rivers and sturdy trees hanging on to the last of their colourful leaves. As we wandered along we heard something, a cacophony of noisy chattering that was getting louder and louder Read more…
How many times have you been told in response to a new idea or plan that things just don’t work like that in the real world? I have, countless times! I’ve heard them all: “Oh no, no, that won’t work at all.” “How are you going to be able to Read more…