I have spent a large portion of my life avoiding major DIY projects on the basis that there really is so much that can go wrong. The moment of realisation usually comes just after the water has been disconnected or a cut has been made in the wrong direction. It really...

I have discovered during this lockdown season, that I have a real love for gardening, amongst other things, like developing my basic piano skills and upcycling old ladders!  We moved into our current home about a year ago and have spent time unpacking (haven’t...

It was 2009 when we made our decision to move from Zambia to Mexborough in South Yorkshire. Accommodation would obviously be a huge consideration when making the move across the world and searching for a home became quite an event especially for me. (I love trawling...

“2020 needs to be reinstalled, this version has a virus”. There are so many posts circulating social media about how 2020 is such a crazy year, we would probably be best cancelling it and starting afresh. I agree with these posts often, when I look back on the months...

This week we heard of the tragic, untimely death of George Floyd. When these situations come up I find myself doing a lot of thinking, and as I’ve mentioned before I find it therapeutic to put my musings into words on paper.  If you haven’t heard of this case I’ll...

On Friday I got a parcel. It was a jigsaw puzzle.  I had mentioned to someone during a phone conversation that as a family, during lockdown, we had developed this love for puzzles.  We have done quite a few. We ordered a couple online, three we got during a 2m social...

At the beginning of every year I always have a general idea of what the next 12 months will look like.  Not necessarily specifics, but enough for my mind to meander forward several weeks and months ahead of me, with mental lists of things to do or to get, in...

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity shown by our donors over the last 3 weeks. We launched our COVID response fund knowing that something had to be done. This week we began distributing the funds raised. So far, we have sent enough money to Zambia to buy food...

Unprecedented? Or same old, same old…? There is nothing else for most of us to think about than the strange and unusual circumstances forced on us by the novel coronavirus, Covid-19. The shock at the speed with which it has gone from being nothing at all to basically...