I have a new video up on my Youtube channel. I take a tiny pocket sketchbook everywhere and draw everything that catches my eye, from a windy churchyard and a hospital waiting room, to my local riverside. This tiny sketchbook…
I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel. With no recipe and some experimenting, I created a rich brown ink and used the sticks to carve handmade dip pens. The results? Surprisingly great! watch the video here:
As I sit here in my sofa nest at the end of January still recovering from a nasty bout of bronchitis and cracked ribs, I find myself reflecting on 2024. It’s tempting to label it a year of chaos and…
As autumn edges toward winter and the clocks have changed, I’ve shifted our daily walk from the morning to after lunch, better light and a chance to walk off the coffee and sandwich. This afternoon, the air feels cool, and…
I started something exactly a year ago today that surprises me. It all began on 7th November 2023For the past 365 days I have written in a diary. And I’m not talking about just a few scribbles here and there,…
After a very long time (I’m talking years) I’d been mulling over cyanotype again. More specifically, river cyanotype. Something I’d been experimenting with, and with varying degrees of success around 2018-20. I also finally redecorated my bedroom. I had a…
Last month marked 20 years since leaving England and starting a new life in France, with 3 young children and Arthur the dog. No savings, no work, no long term plan. The children are now all grown up and I’m…
{I realise that all these first posts involve me talking about the lake, so I’m not going to mention it again or else I’ll seem a bit obsessed with it (ok maybe I am just a little bit 😃)} Instead…
I’d been swimming every summer in the lake with the kids when they were young, but I can remember clearly the day it became something that changed my life. On the morning of 9 August 2019, I woke up wanting…