Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
Our little son was very good at communicating his need to watch tv before he could even speak. As 15 month olds they communicated with us via sign language as we had taught them from age seven months basic signs for milk, various animals, food, ‘more’, ‘help’. We made up easy signs when required [...]
My son really disliked peas. The way to get him to finally after years of cajoling him try some and announce ‘Yum!’ was staightforward but long winded in the extreme. I had to sow peas, grow peas, stake the peas, have the children pick the peas, shell the peas and only then did he feel [...]
Last month my daughter and I decided to create a mini pond in our rented garden with the hope of finding some frogspawn to come and live in it.
We built the pond from an inexpensive ‘tub trug’ and placed loads of rocks in it and around it so the small creatures could get in and [...]
Edie and I watched some ladybirds ‘cuddling’ last week and photographed them.
Later in the week when we found our newly flowering aquilegas were covered in aphids I suggested we go on a ladybird hunt as they are good at eating all the aphids.
We were both a little surprised to find one who did in fact [...]
A lot of lucky kids have playhouses in the garden which are smashing but they do cost a fortune. This new structure in the garden for our kids to play in cost £40 for materials (willow ‘withy wood’, twine and weed-free membrane) plus a half-day of labour. It looks quite pretty already but it should [...]
Blessed Bealers wondered if I had anything in particular I wanted to do to mark this Sunday’s Mothers’ Day.
After about 1 second of thought I realised I didn’t want cut flowers or to be wheeled out to a restaurant with the rest of the nation’s matriachs. Instead I’ve suggested that if the weather’s fine we [...]
This time last year we were using some of my City bonus to book a Beale family holiday for some urgent winter-sun in Lanzarote, one of the Spanish Canary Islands.
We did have a wonderful time but it was tremendously expensive and if the weather had been poor we would have been hard pressed to find [...]
Despite the fact that I truely hate being cold, the kids and I have discovered this winter that we really like visiting beaches when it’s super cold (but sunny) as they are always deserted and it feels so wonderful to have so much open space & light all around us.
Yesterday we visited deserted Weston-super-Mare beach [...]
We listened to the local radio station to hear the long list Worcestershire schools who were unable to open due to to overnight snow & the kids were thrilled when they finally heard the name of their pre-school.
The kiddies and their Daddy wolfed down some steamy porrdige and Horlicks before making an enormous snow woman [...]
As many readers will know I’m not one for splashing the cash these days and have therefore managed to put off the day when I took my kiddies to the local soft play centre ‘Having a Ball’ in Malvern for the 7 months since we relocated here from London. This was partly my daughter’s doing [...]