Tag: slow living

Bittersweet Changing Seasons

Autumn is upon us once more, a transitional season that reminds me of the inevitability of change, and this year feels particularly bittersweet. At the end of July, my blog turned seven. I originally named my blog ‘Lovely and Grateful’ because I wanted it to record all the loveliness in my life that I’m grateful for and even the not-so-lovely parts that remind me not to take anything for granted, but I’m not sure if the name still fits. I’d love to know what you think in the comments.

There have been other milestones too, our youngest daughter started crawling at 7 months, then pulling herself up and crabwalking around furniture, she is just so desperate to join in with her big sister’s games and to see what we’re doing. We’ve had a fair few disrupted nights because of teething, but she has taken to weaning with great enthusiasm, willing to try anything and enjoying most of the same meals we eat (without the salt or stock). At nearly 10 months old, she’s still petite and cheerful, but curious and determined too. Over the last few months, we’ve been getting out to bookbug sessions at the local library and baby sensory, which we’ve both really enjoyed. As her first birthday draws near, I’m already feeling the nerves and guilt about returning to work but she’ll have her big sister to look out for her at nursery.

As for our oldest daughter, she is as boisterous and independent as ever but also surprises us with her caring and generous side. We’ve finally started getting to know the parents of our 3 year old’s nursery friends and have had a few playdates together, that we’ve all enjoyed and that I really felt we’d missed out on because of Covid19.

There has been a big change in the garden too, and I’m still getting used to the new view. When our new neighbours in the house attached to ours moved in they asked to replace the privet hedge that separates our gardens with a fence, we politely declined citing the wildlife such as nesting sparrows and hedgehogs passing through. Unfortunately, we’ve had to reconsider recently as they now have a dog that regularly strays into our garden, and he’s a large, reactive breed that scares our kids.

As it happens, I suspect the sparrows had already abandoned the hedge, and we haven’t seen any hedgehogs this year, but it does make me sad that we’re making our garden inaccessible to any that try to visit in the future, but we’ll find other ways of making the space wildlife friendly.

It’s been a summer full of family trips to beaches and playparks, our first family holiday together and lots of time in our garden, and I’m a little sad to say goodbye to the season. So many of the summer highlights have been the pure and simple joy of gardening and watching our daughters learn and grow, and the ordinary moments playing, dancing, reading stories, crafting and swimming together that is the fabric of our family life. As the weather cools and the nights draw in, we have a couple of autumnal light shows to look forward to, as well as our youngest daughter’s first birthday, and all the seasonal loveliness to be found in nature at this time of year. Have a lovely week. X

Summer Harvest

I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch lately, but trying to find little joys everyday, and one place that I can always find a sense of purpose and peace is our garden. As summer is almost over, it seems like a good time to reflect on some of the successes, failures and lessons of the growing season.

We’ve built two new raised bed in the front garden, and filled them with soil from digging out the pond. We had dried peas from ages ago, so decided to use them as a cover crop to improve the soil in one of the new raised beds. Next year, my husband plans to turn this bed into a permanent strawberry and asparagus patch.

I find courgettes and pumpkin will grow almost anywhere so I’m growing some in the other new raised bed in the front garden. The slugs got quite a few of the early yellow courgettes so we’ve only picked a handful that made it to a reasonable size. Next year, I might grow them in the greenhouse.

Our oldest daughter is always an enthusiastic little helper in the garden, we let her plant carrot seeds in some tubs, which turned out to be one of our biggest successes. I’ve never had any luck with root veg, but we were all thrilled when my daughter pulled up the carrots she had grown all by herself.

The biggest disappointment were the brassica, the sprouting broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale that all got devoured by the slugs.

We’ve been gathering handfuls of strawberries through June, then a few blueberries and wine berries. The rhubarb has been disappointing, I suspect it struggled with too much sunlight and heat early in the season.

My husband lost interest in the tomatoes; some become pot bound, the ones in the greenhouse were dehydrated while the ones outside were drenched by the rain. I’ve never grown tomatoes before but I’ve taken charge of the survivors. My husband says we’ll get 10 tomatoes if we’re lucky, and I say challenge accepted!

August often seems like monsoon season in the west of Scotland, hot and wet, but I noticed rowan and elderberries, horse chestnuts and acorns on the trees, and I’m so looking forward to Autumn and hopefully harvesting a few pumpkins and apples too. Have a lovely week. X

Wildlife Watch in the Garden

One of the highlights of the summer has been watching all the wildlife in our garden, particularly the front garden since we’ve added the pond.

I’d read worrying reports of a lack of insects across the UK leading to chicks starving, but I was so relieved to see our blue tit and sparrow fledglings in the garden in June. In previous years, the blue tits nested in a disused pipe on the side of our house and invariably at least one chick would either shuffle or be pushed off the edge, last year we lost three chicks from either the fall or dehydration before we could return them to the nest, so the birdbox has been a huge success in that regard.

It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in our pond because we’ve never been able to coax them into our garden before. While chatting with a neighbour, I also spotted a bullfinch in her garden and I’m wondering if I can lure it to our garden just a couple of houses further up.

Many of our most interesting wildlife finds have been in the front garden, my husband spotted a lacewing for the first time and I spent half an hour watching a red damselfly flit around the pond. My husband was beside himself with excitement when he found grasshoppers in our fairly wild front garden, giving him the perfect excuse not to mow the grass for a while longer.

The Kilmarnock Willow was covered in aphids in early summer providing a feast for ladybird larvae, and we also spotted a very hungry and very fat green caterpillar crawling around. None of these insects are particularly rare or unusual but it’s wonderful to see our garden becoming a thriving habitat in an urban environment.

I know one little garden is not enough to stop the rapid decline of so many species across the UK, and I feel so out of sync with my friends and neighbours who are replacing their lawns with artificial grass or paving over front gardens to create driveways, yet I have to try, and I’ll keep trying to create a little safe haven for everything that finds its way here (especially if it eat slugs!). Have a lovely week. X

Sun, Sea and Sand on Holiday

When it was just the two of us, my husband and I used to love city breaks, but for our first proper holiday with the kids, we decided to have a different type of adventure in a caravan for a few nights on the East Coast of Scotland (we’ll save our more exotic destinations for when the girls are old enough to remember them). It was very reminiscent of camping and caravan holidays from my own childhood, and my husband’s too, before the era of cheap flights abroad. We’d toyed with an island break, but opted for somewhere that wouldn’t mean too long stuck in the car for the little ones but further away than we would travel for a daytrip.

East Beach, Dunbar

My husband and I always like to explore on holiday, but with kids in tow we found a good balance between using the amenities at the caravan park like the playpark and swimming pool (which was a first for our 8 month old daughter but she was perfectly content floating in her inflatable seat), and travelling a bit further afield to visit beaches around East Lothian and the Borders. We were incredibly lucky with the weather and only had one evening stuck inside the caravan playing games of Animal Snap and Little Bug Bingo, reading stories and watching cartoons while the rain hammered on the roof.

Yellowcraig beach

The caravan park turned out to be a great base for exploring the area, and we found some lovely beaches from East Beach at Dunbar, and Yellowcraig with views of Bass Rock and Fidra Lighthouse in East Lothian to Coldingham Bay in the Borders that we enjoyed so much I’m hoping we can return some day.

Coldingham Bay

Our oldest daughter was in her element exploring rock pools with her dad, splashing in the sea and digging in the sand; while our youngest daughter is a bit more cautious than her sister but happy enough digging her hands and feet in the sand and letting us dip her toes in the sea.

Beach babes

We ended our holiday with a wander around Dirleton Castle, originally built in the 1200s and remarkably still in tact. A few sections had been closed off to the public but still lots to explore for those willing to brave the remnants of medieval staircases, and there was a playpark just outside the castle walls too.

Dirleton Castle

We squeezed a lot of fun in the sun, sea and sand into our first family holiday, and I’ll treasure the memories we’ve made together. Back at home on the rainy West Coast again, we’re happy to be reunited with our cat Mara, settling back into our routines and surrounded by all the comforts of home. Have a lovely week. X

An Oasis in the Urban Desert

Last summer, my interest in environmental issues peaked during the heatwave and I was alarmed to learn that the UK is one of the most nature depleted landscapes in the world. I’ve always been someone who believes that small actions matter and we gardeners have the ability to make a real difference to support wildlife and biodiversity.

One suggestion that came up again and again was adding a water feature to the garden. I have fond memories of watching tadpoles, frogs and dragonflies in my best friend’s pond as a child, and thought a pond would be a lovely feature to add to our own garden.

We decided to put the pond in the front garden as it seemed safer for the kids as they’re never out the front unsupervised. We (or rather my hubby and father-in-law) dug out the pond, put in a liner and part filled with the hose, and then cemented crazy paving around the edge. It’s about 60cm deep at the deepest point with a shelf at 30cm and a gradual slope up to a wide pebble beach to prevent any animals from drowning.

I’ve been filling the pond with plants, Hornwort and water crowfoot as oxygenators, then water forget-me-nots, flag iris and Marsh marigolds as marginals. We’ve also submerged a couple of water lillies in the deepest part of the pond, but I’m prioritising native plants to attract wildlife.

Cranesbill or hardy geraniums are my favourite perennial, so they were my first choice for planting around the pond to soften the edges, provide shelter for critters and food for pollinators. I relocated dragonheart from the long border in the back garden to the edge of the pond, along with a blue geranium I picked up years ago that has been living in a pot while I tried to find a permanent home for it, and added a few more that I bought from a local nursery.

I’ve always taken a “build it and they will come” approach to coaxing wildlife to our garden, and been rewarded when birds, insects and animals have found their way here. We all trooped out in our Pyjamas one evening after I’d spotted a pond skater, and my husband found diving beetles a few days later. It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in the shallows as we’ve never had them in the garden before.

We’ve had a prolonged spell of dry, hot weather, leading to water scarcity warnings (very rare in Scotland!) and we’ve seen the pond water level dropping, and algae spreading. Nevertheless, I hope that over the summer our pond will be a little oasis in the urban desert for wildlife. Have a lovely week. X

Birds, Bees and Seedlings

We’ve been enjoying a spell of warm, sunny weather lately, which has meant we’ve been spending lots of time out in our garden.

I risked sowing chilli seeds at the start of February, as always tricky to judge when the best time to start them off is as they need a long growing season but seedlings raised on my windowsills tend to go leggy as they stretch towards the sun on East and West facing windows, before transferring them to the greenhouse.

I sowed pumpkin, squash, courgette and sunflower seeds in the middle of April, and I’ll plant them out in June – which will probably bring a month of rain and a plague of slugs knowing my luck. My husband has also started off lots of tomato seedlings, and we spent an afternoon at the weekend pricking out and repotting them. The greenhouse is currently full of seedlings and plants as we’re always ridiculously optimistic about how much we can grow in our garden.

There was blossom on three of our four apple trees, unfortunately the other has grown several water spouts from the trunk, which is usually a sign of stress or a failed root graft. Our plum tree also had two little flowers on it earlier in the spring.

In the flower beds, the tulips and daffodils have died back but the Geum and Thistle have flowered, and I always enjoy counting and identifying the bees that have been crawling all over them.

We got a bird house for Christmas and affixed it to the side of the house, soon after a pair of blue tits moved in and I love watching them flit back and forth to feed their chicks while I’m working in the greenhouse.

May is often a month of anticipation marking the gentle transition from spring to summer, and it’s been lovely to spend so much time outside. Even when we have very little to show for our efforts, gardening brings us a tremendous amount of joy. Have a lovely week. X

High and Low Tide at Lunderston Bay

We’ve had a couple of trips to Lunderston Bay, a little beach in Inverclyde, at high and low tide this spring, and it’s rapidly becoming one of our favourite places to visit.

The first time we visited Lunderston Bay this year, the tide was in and there was a fairly strong breeze that made it ideal for trying out our 3 year old daughter’s new kite.

We spent a lovely afternoon strolling along the shore, splashing in the waves and looking in rock pools for crabs. It’s amazing how much fun and how memorable such simple activities can be. After that we meandered up to the new playpark for swings, slides and climbing fun before heading home at dusk.

Our second trip was on a sunny morning when the tide was low. My husband and oldest daughter wasted no time in making straight for the rock pools to search for crabs and other aquatic critters, and we found lots of little crabs, sea snails, a sea gunnel and even a couple of starfish clinging to rocks. The sea was too cold for a proper paddle but we waded in wearing our wellies and I found a little sea urchin shell to take home as a souvenir.

A trip to the seaside is always one of my favourite ways to spend a day and I’m looking forward to lots of picnics, building sand castles, beachcombing, rock pooling and paddling in the sea over the summer. Have a lovely week. X

A Rainy Walk in the Woods

We’ve had a fairly quiet weekend as both girls have been poorly with fever, coughs and runny noses. After a few days recuperating at home, playing with playdough, potting up seeds in the greenhouse, plink plonking on the piano, reading stories, watching Sea Beast and How to Train Your Dragon, and having some epic afternoon naps, we were all feeling well enough for a little trip out.

We decided to visit Rouken Glen so we could buy some seeds at the garden centre and then took a wander around the woodland paths to see the waterfalls after a few days of rain.

It was overcast with drizzle but the trees protected us from the worst of the weather. I carried our youngest, while my husband gave our oldest daughter piggybacks when she complained about tired legs.

It was lovely to see the waterfalls flowing and the forest looking so green and leafy, but the unexpected highlight was spotting a little duckling nesting in a tree hollow. We were very quiet and after lifting the kids up to have a quick look, we returned to the path, then it was time to head home for cheese toasties for lunch and the girls’ afternoon naps. Have a lovely week. X

Bedtime Stories

Even though my own reading progress has been slow and sporadic this year, I’ve been reading much more consistently with our 3 year old daughter who loves her bedtime stories and we usually read at least two but often four or more picture books together every evening and wanted to share some of our current favourites.

A Dress With Pockets by Lily Murray, illustrated by Jenny Lovlie

This is a mostly rhyming story about a little girl called Lucy choosing a new dress for her birthday who eschews a dazzling choice of sparkles, frills, feathers and everything in between for a dress with pockets to store all the curious things she finds on her adventures. We love this story because much like Lucy, my daughter loves dresses but couldn’t be less prissy and enjoys exploring on her own little adventures.

‘A Home’ Series by Peter Bently, illustrated by Charles Fuge

A trilogy of books about a badger called Bramble and his friends, I found the first one in the library then bought the whole series second hand. These are lovely rhyming stories about kindness and friends helping each other out from investigating when the local river runs dry to inviting his friends to stay when a storm wrecks their dens and celebrating birthdays together.

Bunny’s Book Club by Annie Silvestro, illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss

A cute and cosy story about a bunny who loves reading so much that he starts sneaking into the library every night to borrow books, before long he starts including his animal friends in his after dark heists until one evening the librarian catches them in the act.

Where Happiness Lives by Barry Timms, illustrated by Greg Abbot

Another rhyming story of three little mice who all live in very different homes from a little cottage to a huge mansion, and the risk of assuming that bigger must be better. Where Happiness Lives is a really lovely story that reminds us to appreciate what we have and to avoid comparing, a message that feels so important to learn early in the era of social media.

Usborne Farmyard Tales ‘Poppy and Sam’ Series, illustrated by Stephen Cartwright

A simple series about two children, Poppy and Sam, who live on Appletree farm with their parents, Ted the farmhand and a range of farm animals from their pets Rusty the dog and Whiskers the Cat to Curly the piglet and, my daughter’s favourite, Woolly the naughty sheep, and all the little adventures they have together.

Our 5 month daughter also likes stories, and we’ve enjoyed a few stories together including books from her baby box, as well as a few That’s Not My, lift the flap and board books she got for Christmas too.

I really love reading bedtime stories together, it’s a lovely activity to help our boisterous oldest girl calm down before bed, and often one of the highlights of my day. I’ve loved discovering so many new stories with both my girls and look forward to sharing more of our favourites soon. Have a lovely week. X

Spring Moments and Milestones

I feel like blogging has fallen by the wayside; time seems to be slipping through my fingers and I can hardly believe that we’re a quarter of the way through the year already – life is just so busy and full at the moment.

Our oldest daughter moved from nursery to pre-school at the start of the year, which has generally been a smooth transition. We still go to our sensory group together almost every week (which we’ve been going to since she was 6 months old), and I’ve also been taking her to playgym where she can play and experiment with gymnastics equipment. There have been regular trips to the swimming pool with her dad while I usually have a coffee and cuddle with the youngest. We bought her first pedal bike for her 3rd birthday, and with her typical determination she mastered pedaling, steering and braking in just a few days so we’ve been spending lots of time at the park while she practices cycling.

Our youngest – now 5 months old – is also hitting new milestones every day from giggling and rolling to teething. She’s still very petite, but a bright, cheerful and curious little baby. We’ve been going to Bookbug song and story sessions at the library (something I missed out on with my oldest during the pandemic) and we’ll start baby sensory soon but most of our days are still spent at home reading stories, singing nursery rhymes, playing and snuggling. Our daughters are fascinated by each other, and it won’t be long until they’ll become little playmates and friends.

Our senior lady, Mara, has spent most of winter hibernating, but she’s been a bit more active lately, wanting to play, snuggle up and curious to see what we’re up to. I’m so impressed with how well Mara’s coped with the upheaval two noisy little interlopers joining the family caused. Mara really is a very special cat, we’re lucky to have such a gentle, playful, affectionate and stoic family pet to teach them about caring and handling animals, and our little daughters adore her.

I’m so enjoying this period of family life as the baby and toddler stages are so brief and the girls’ milestones come thick and fast as they change and grow. I love having my blog to record all the details of daily life, and always enjoy looking back at older posts when I’m feeling nostalgic. Have a lovely week. X