25 Nov 2025
October’25 Scrapbook | Primrose Hill & Other Autumnal Days
Pumpkin Patch
I love this annual tradition of ours. This was year four of going to our local pumpkin patch and the joy of it only increases. I love looking through the photos and seeing my baby grow in the same spot over the years. This year felt special because we had Arthur with us for the first time but also because Alfie was now old enough to do most of the activities. Can’t say I was mad about the fact that he wanted mummy to come down the giant inflatable tractor slide with him *kicks wellies off and throws myself down with undeniable glee*. Was less keen on the tricycle go-karting – must up my glute workouts! Oh and crème brûlée crumble in the middle of a windy field – yes please. There were also pumpkins…
Trees and dahlias at Anglesey Abbey
We are now nearly four years into our National Trust membership, and I could write a whole article about how much I love it (*makes note*). It’s how we get a big old dollop of nature when we need it and Anglesey Abbey is our default place when we really feel like we need to be amongst the trees. It’s less than half an hour drive from us and the grounds are huge and gorgeous. Autumn really took it up a notch though; the colours were so gorgeous. And the NT chai steamers just hit different when the temperatures have dropped. When we were there one weekend, I overheard someone mentioning a dahlia garden so insisted we went and had a look (after several rounds of hide and seek). It was stunning. There’s something about the perfect symmetry of dahlias that really feels like Mother Nature is showing off.
Primrose Hill
Had such a lovely day mooching around Primrose Hill in London with my friend Lizzie. This is the kind of day one imagines maternity leave to always be like before knowing the reality and it’s nice to occasionally get one of those fantasy days. We had a brunch that I am still thinking about it. Challah french toast with cinnamon mascarpone and caramelised bananas – those bananas were the stuff of dreams. Absolutely delicious. We climbed the hill to get that view of the London skyline framed by autumnal trees and took a walk around the loveliness of those pastel houses. Also, the charity shops in Primrose Hill are next level, so pretty! I wanted to buy pretty much everything. Gorgeous day.
Things I’ve Loved This Month
Chai season. That first sip of cinnamon spice!
Visiting family in Kent and another visit to Grain & Hearth bakery. Those cruffins though.
YouTube has seen me coming with their recommendations of autumnal café videos that I play in the background for hours.
Autumn leaves – they have been particularly spectacular this year.
Autumn baking. Weekly Tuesday bakes for Bake Off. ‘Tis the season for cinnamon buns.
Arthur in his ‘little pumpkin’ sweatshirt. Adorable.
The smell of caramelised almonds on the market. Impossible to resist. Tucking a bag of them into the buggy pocket and eating warm whilst walking to the river to feed the ducks.
Candle season. If there isn’t a candle burning the moment the skies darken, it’s simply not right.
Reading by candlelight just before bed. On the rare days where I’m feeling a lil’ bit fancy.
The softer autumn light.
Soup season. Preferably with a toastie alongside.
Baby dressing gowns. Is there anything cuter?!
Alfie gleefully jumping through huge piles of leaves, throwing them up in the air with shrieks of glee. What joy.
19 Nov 2025
Why I'm A Center Parcs Convert
There are a lot of adventures I would like to take my kids on, but they all require them to be older and as a result, I have struggled to know what do if we have wanted to go away with young children. You don’t really get a holiday with young children I’ve found, not in the sense that you come away feeling like you’ve had a break (if anything, the opposite) and whereas once travel was just a necessary to get where we needed to go, it now feels like some bush tucker trial one must complete and I’m not entirely sure the results are worth it.
So when I was saying I just wanted a trip away where we could be outside a lot and I wouldn’t have to think too much about how to entertain the kids, Gary gave me a look and that was how I was persuaded to book a four night stay (I was unwilling to commit to more) at Center Parcs.
And do you know what? It was the first holiday I have been on since we became parents where I can honestly say I properly relaxed. I mean, stating the bloody obvious, but it turns out going somewhere that is truly catered to children makes it so much easier for the parents. DUH.
My fear that I might feel like I was stuck in a resort full of shrieking children (look, I love my kids, but I am not a natural when in a room full of children. I find softplay so overstimulating that I have to wear loop earplugs if I don’t want to end up rocking in a corner hyperventilating) was unfounded. Okay, the echoing swimming pool was a lot on the senses, but otherwise, I really did feel like I was in a quiet forest a lot of the time. The cabins are cleverly designed in such a way that you don’t feel like you have neighbours so waking up and looking out the window at trees and little deer scampering about was very calming.
The things that struck me the most was all the little details when it came to being set-up for kids. The child-sized trollies in the supermarket that turned a practical task into an activity within itself. The mini softplay areas tucked inside the restaurants that turned dinner into a relaxing experience as opposed to some weird challenge where you have to attempt to shovel food in your mouth whilst wrangling an octopus. The staff member who bribed Alfie into wearing a life jacket with a cuddly bunny rabbit when my pleas were falling on deaf ears.
We are a family that need to be outside a lot so being able to step out the front door and immediately be in nature was a delight. We taught Alfie to scooter in the forest, took regular trips to the beach, played in some epic playgrounds and would swing by Starbucks for a chai latte and a wander through the trees (yes, I enjoyed this first hint of Autumn), and that was before all the other options available to us. Arthur and I did a baby sensory class, we swam everyday, took a boat trip on the lake and discovered we all really like playing adventure golf together. Having it all right there and hardly having to think about what to do was such a treat for the ol’ noggin. My brain slowed down, and I can’t tell you how nice a feeling that was.
It meant that we could just focus on being together as a family. We made core memories. It will always be the first place Arthur went swimming, his little chubby thighs splashing about in the water. Him accidentally dunking himself is already turning into a family anecdote. It was the first time Alfie went on a water slide, the place we taught him how to ride his scooter. When we got caught in a rainstorm, we had no choice but to turn it into a game and we jumped over giant puddles and 'ran away' from the rain. Pausing on our way home at dusk so Alfie could quietly watch the deer walking through the woods.
Very happy to hold my hands up and say, okay, I was wrong. You gotta embrace the phase of life you are in and with two active boys (if you’re thinking, how can an eight-month baby be active, please feel free to come look after him for an hour), Center Parcs actually enabled us to feel like we were having a proper holiday for the first time since becoming parents.
31 Oct 2025
The Golden In-Between Month | An Ode To September
That refreshing new-school year feeling that always has me wanting to buy a fresh notebook even though I don’t need one. It has me shaking out limbs that have been languishing in the humid air and want to get organised, shake things up a bit. Arthur turning six months felt like we were saying goodbye to those sunny newborn days. We were both in need of a little more stimulation now and we’ve started baby yoga and tumble tots each week. I’ve had a restlessness around the house, wanting to move things around, update photos, get new curtains. Have it looking nice and fresh before we hunker down for the colder months.
The feeling has felt particularly poignant this year as we started looking around schools for Alfie. I have literally been amongst kids with their new pencil cases, trying to imagine my baby joining them in less than a year’s time. Our annual September holiday was laced with a little melancholy as this is the last year we won’t be confined to school holidays. We have often gone away in September, and it has always been my favourite time of year to do so; I will miss it.
There’s the familiarities of September that are as comforting as pulling on a favourite jumper. Perusing candles for the autumn, booking pumpkin patches and Christmas lights, doing the little dance by my sock drawer every evening… is it cool enough for the fluffy socks?
Whereas August melts into September, October seems to arrive with announcement, leaves whipping around in sharper winds, the smell of spice hitting your nostrils, soft golds replaced with vibrant reds. All confirming that, yes, we are definitely here now. Soon there will be glowing pumpkins, the skies will sparkle with dancing fireworks and windows will illuminate with decorated trees. Autumn has arrived.
27 Oct 2025
One Minute Book Reviews | Summer Reads
Here’s what I read over the summer!
Table for One by Emma Gannon
Willow’s settled life falls apart when her partner leaves her, and phases her out of the business they set up together. She is forced to start over and in doing so discovers a relationship that she has long neglected: the one with herself. A couple of my personal bugbears cropped up with this novel – wooden dialogue that doesn’t read how people actually talk and a title which didn’t feel quite representative of the story. Didn’t blow me away but enjoyable enough with some fun characters. 3/5
Knife by Salman Rushdie
Rushdie’s memoir about the knife attack that resulted in him losing his eye, and the following year of recovery. This was a fascinating, if grisly, memoir. It is so personal that at times, it’s almost uncomfortable to read. There were some meandering tangents which I didn’t necessarily think added much but, on the whole, this was a powerful book that was hard to put down; I read it in a couple of days. 4/5
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Set against the backdrop of the NASA space shuttle program in the early 1980s, we follow astronaut Joan Goodwin, jumping between a disaster on the space shuttle and the events leading up to it. This was my first TJR novel and I loved it. I was hooked from page one, adored Joan and Vanessa and didn’t want it to end. Those final few pages had me weeping. I’ve got a lot of TJR novels to catch up on! 5/5
How Not To Be A Supermodel by Ruth Crilly
A nineties memoir about Ruth’s time not-quite-making-it as a supermodel. This had me snorting aloud on more than one occasion. A bit like sitting down with someone, glass of wine in hand, and them regaling you with funny stories from their unusual past. 3.5/5
Who Wants To Live Forever by Hanna Thomas Uose
Yuki and Sam are a happy couple planning on spending the rest of their lives together, until a miracle drug is released which can extend a human’s life indefinitely. Yuki campaigns against it, Sam chooses to take it. Following a cast of intersecting characters, we travel over the next few decades exploring the effect of the drug both on the world and individual ordinary lives. My only gripe with this book was that I wanted it to be longer; there was so much detail to unpack, and there wasn’t quite enough book to do so. But I loved the idea behind it, loved the themes around society’s fixation with aging and the parallels that could be drawn to the current alarming trends around Botox and weight loss injections. Would recommend. 4.5/5
Bikini by Amber Eve
Greek island, pop star, enemies-to-lovers, good dose of silliness. Perfect summer beach read. 3.5/5
One More Croissant For The Road by Felicity Cloake 4/5
Peach Street to Lobster Lane by Felicity Cloake 4/5
Red Sauce, Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake 3.5/5
These brilliant foodie travel memoirs kept me company for six weeks over the summer and I was genuinely sad when I had finished all three and was no longer cycling around with Felicity. A food and travel adventure is right up my street, and I loved Felicity’s writing style and funny stories. I thought the UK trip wasn’t quite as fun as the others, mostly because of the Covid restrictions, but these were all really enjoyable reads – I particularly enjoyed the American trip. If you’re a fan of cycling, food or travel (or all three!), I would definitely recommend these.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Within a few minutes of starting this book, I thought uh oh and my bank balance groaned. Because I knew that I had just found an author whose entire back catalogue I now had to read. I know, I know, I’m late to the party, but I instantly loved Fredrik Backman’s writing style. And this story! The way it was peeled away, layer by layer! It’s hard to describe without giving too much away but it is the story of Louisa and how she is one of the few people who notices the teenagers at the end of the pier in a world-famous painting, and how the painting ends up belonging to her. And it is also the story of the teenagers in the painting, twenty-five years earlier, whose friendship will change Louisa’s life. I adored this. 5/5
Happy reading folks x
24 Sept 2025
Summer Journal | Slipped away like a moment in time
Meanwhile, after a glorious summer where I have spent so much time outside that my hairdresser recently asked me if I’d had balayage done to my hair without her knowledge, my teeny tiny newborn has suddenly turned into a chubby six-month-old who is making it quite obvious that he needs to move into the bigger buggy, the bigger cot, the bigger high chair, needs to start trying food and is politely waiting for his mother to stop standing there in disbelief and make these things happen. I will, soon, but I might just need a mo to mourn packing away the baby things for the final time.
(I wrote a whole post on the postpartum summer over on Substack should you fancy a read).
I am an Autumn girl at heart, but I have really found summer hard to let go of this year. It has melted away, no matter how hard I have tried to cling on to these fleeting days with my beautiful newborn.
Things I’ve loved lately
A couple of hours with just the one child (the one that currently can’t run away) eating cheese and drinking wine to celebrate six years of marriage.
A lovely, if full-on, holiday in Norfolk, our first holiday as a family of four.
Arriving home from holiday to a gorgeous bunch of flowers that my sister had left in the kitchen.
Focaccia sandwiches from the Italian store on the market.
Dresses and sandals.
The flowers in our front door pots looking gorgeous – thanks mum!
Alfie splashing in the paddling pool.
Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream.
Arthur’s first proper laugh.
‘Foodie Fridays’ in our town – recent delicious tastes include some Thai dumplings, a bhaji burger and honey lemonade.
Neck fan saving my sanity in a heatwave.
The lavender in our garden bringing all the bees to the yard.
Skin smelling like floral scents and sun cream.
Catching up with my friend Alice and our babies in London, our lunches are somewhat more chaotic these days!
A day in Cambridge with my sister, lunching at Dishoom, appreciating the smell of bookshops and chatting constantly for hours.
Alfie wanting to hold Arthur’s hand whilst he walks next to the buggy.
Post-nursery pick-up picnics in the park.
A trip to Kent to catch up with family and friends on Gary’s side, including a trip to Diggerland (a rip-off but hard to argue with the joy on Alfie’s face when he got to operate a real digger) and to the seaside at Whitstable.
This bakery in Faversham which did incredible cruffins.
Arthur’s first time in a swing.
A trip to Hertfordshire zoo with old friends and our six kids. Absolutely impossible to catch up but so lovely to see all our brood playing together. Also, the three-year-olds firmly established that fake dinosaurs are far scarier than watching a jaguar devouring a rabbit….
Being able to take both boys out by myself and it no longer feeling daunting.
An hour to myself in the kitchen baking without interruptions.
My brother-in-law making us amazing pizzas in his new pizza oven.
Arthur’s current habit of grabbing my face with both hands and giving me extremely slobbery kisses/trying to bite my nose/eat my hair.
A trip up north to visit my dad and step-mum – walking through the gorgeous Peak District and eating National Trust scones.
Extended family coming to visit and kids running riot in the garden.
Fresh tomatoes, courgettes and green beans from my parents' garden.
Catching up with my friend Jordan and our kids playing hide & seek in National Trust grounds.
Taking Alfie blackberrying.
The golden, in-between weather as summer starts to melt into autumn.
31 Aug 2025
Ten Years of Blogging
In a way, that moment signified the start of my ‘proper’ adult life. I was 23, had been out of uni for 18 months and floundered about a bit in a way that we probably all need to do. Lived at home, went on some questionable dates, drank a lot of wine with friends, did two internships, an admin job, one random shift at an event venue (which somehow ended up with me on the back of a stranger’s motorbike… but that’s a story for another day) and 6 months at what I thought was going to be a dream job and ended up being slightly hellish (did pick up my future husband though so all was not lost). But by summer 2015, I’d just landed a job that essentially kickstarted my career, was three months into my relationship with my now-husband and just felt like I was… on my way, I guess? I have always kept diaries or journals in some capacity, always put together scrapbooks and photo albums, but this is the most consistent I have ever been, and I think it’s pretty special that I’ve got my first decade of adult life documented like this.
That first post was a list of things that had made me happy recently and whilst I am so far away from that 23-year-old woman sat on her bedroom floor, ultimately this blog is still, and has always been, about capturing the good stuff.
There have been a few times when I’ve debated putting it to one side - particularly now that my life looks so different – but, whilst I’m sure one day the time will come, there’s still something in me that wants to write here. I don’t think my small-town life as a mother of two young children is as bloggable (that’s a word right?) as a twenty-something experiencing lots of new things and places, and I am certainly more cautious about what I want to put on the internet these days, but writing and documenting is still in my blood so I will keep doing so here for as long as it feels right (I do also write over on Substack these days if you want to come and join, you can subscribe for free :))
If you read this little blog and particularly if you’ve read it since the beginning, thanks for coming along for the ride; it’s been so much fun to have you here.
Hey there!
