30 Apr 2026
Notes on nature and travel from The Pumphouse
I step softly out the bedroom with the baby on my hip, trying to stay quiet so as not to wake everyone else in the house, but when I glance out the landing window, I audibly gasp.
We are staying in The Pumphouse, a lone structure perched on the side of a river in the Fens, and the misty sunrise outside is spectacular. I am in my wellies and out there quicker than I ever usually move at that time in the morning. I can practically hear the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack playing as I walk through the dewy grass, watching the sunlight sparkling through the mist and listening to the geese gently honking in the fields beyond. My lungs exhale a lot of tension I didn’t even realise I was holding.
I need to be in nature more. Whilst I don’t have plans to move, for the first time in my life, I can understand the appeal of living in the countryside. I’m not sure I ever would – I think my desire to live very close to both a coffee shop and a bookshop will probably always win out – but I have a feeling my nervous system would be a lot happier if I were surrounded by trees. I’ve noticed how much happier Alfie often is when we’re in the middle of a lot of green stuff and I think noticing what the kids need is a very good way to learn, or at least be reminded of, what you need.
I keep having this feeling of wanting to disconnect and simplify. I suspect it’s simply a product of being a mum of two young children in a system that demands perfection and offers very little support to achieve said perfection, but I find myself fantasising about throwing my phone in the sea, going and living in a cabin in Scandinavia. In the meantime, a peaceful, misty sunrise definitely helped.
Later, my step-mum and I have a conversation about travel and what we want from it. I used to feel a pressure – almost certainly derived from social media – to go everywhere. And actually, I don’t regret leaning into this in my twenties. There are a lot of places I want to go, and I feel very lucky that I ticked off quite a few bucket list places before we had kids. But I feel a lot more intentional and selective about it now. It’s got to feel worth leaving home for – I like being at home (despite fantasies about upping and leaving for Denmark)! I don’t want to go somewhere less nice than my home and my own bed. I don’t want to go somewhere just because the masses declare I should. I want to go somewhere because I know that if I were in my eighties and I had not gone, I know in my soul that I would regret it. Letting go of this pressure is quite freeing; it allows you to focus on where you truly want to go.
We stayed very close to home last year; I vowed I wouldn’t force us into stressful scenarios with a new baby and a three-year-old just because I felt like we should and so we none of our trips took place outside of East Anglia. I have learned that the feeling that we often chase from a holiday is perfectly possible to find without actually going very far. The Pumphouse was a twenty-five-minute drive from our house and I left feeling refreshed, like I’d been somewhere different, like I’d cleared my head and taken a pause. And the lack of travel is such a perk; we left on Monday morning and could still be back in time for Gary to start work and Alfie nursery. It means that the refreshed feeling doesn’t get ruined by a long, stressful journey.
I sometimes miss the freedom I used to have when it comes to travelling. I never enjoyed the travel per se – it was a necessary evil to get where I wanted to go – but I miss how I could just go. Not having to weigh up the multiple needs of multiple people, questioning how fair it is to put young children through the stresses of travel when you know in your heart that they are probably happier pottering about at home. I hope to show my children more of the world as they get older but in the meantime, I hope to teach them that you can still gain a lot by hardly travelling at all.
Written November 2025
25 Mar 2026
If we were having a coffee, I would tell you…
28 Feb 2026
Some Lovely Things
14 Jan 2026
New Year Possibilities
Well, okay, I might be a little disappointed if I don’t do any of it, but the point is: this is not about punishment and pressure. It’s about looking at the blank page and musing about what could be had from the year. Mostly, I want the same but more. More of this lovely little life. More of the everyday joys of watching my babies grow. But maybe slightly more balance? Taking a bit more time to ourselves once I’m less confined by breastfeeding. Reintroducing our monthly dates. Have a day in London with my sister. Have a solo date – take myself out for lunch and to browse bookshops and just let my brain breathe a bit. Occasionally see friends without a baby in tow. Treat myself to a manicure. Have a massage! Live in delusional hope that one massage can cure all the aches caused by childbirth/breastfeeding/general day-to-day parenting!
Be intentional. With everything. Quality time, hobbies, habits. Try not to do everything in impossible levels of multi-tasking frenzy. Be realistic about what can fit into one day; make peace with reaching the end of the day with a long to-do list still ongoing. Good enough is excellent, perfection is impossible.
Get offline. Life should be more analogue; my phone should be like a tool – a Swiss Army knife. You wouldn’t sit and pointlessly stare at a Swiss Army knife instead of doing things you love. I deleted instagram off my phone before Christmas – the difference! This has to stay the case. No screens in the bedroom. More TV free evenings. Writing things by hand – it’s grounding. Journal. Note down thoughts on books and bakes. Opinions formed outside of the internet. Hobbies that use my hands; baking, of course, and maybe some scrapbooking this year? With stickers! Learn more about my iPhone camera. Print out that nice photo of the sunset or a cake or a pretty building. Put it in a scrapbook, make it physical.
Prioritise offline writing over online writing. But also, don’t overthink online writing. I love this space, I love Substack. Good enough, not perfect.
Invest time in things that will make my life easier in the long run. Declutter the house in tiny increments every day. 10 minutes a day to reply to messages (Stop! Taking! Weeks! To! Reply!). Back up & organise photos once a month. Write a seven-day meal plan - breakfast, lunch & dinner – and the full shopping list to go with it. Use it when I’m exhausted, overwhelmed or busy. Don’t do meal planning and the food shop at 10pm on a Sunday. Use the emergency meal plan when it’s 10pm on a Sunday and I’m cursing myself for not having stuck to this. Go shopping for good jeans; I hate it but I don’t like any of the jeans in my wardrobe and it’s just getting silly. Go shopping for glasses; my prescription is wildly out of date. Simplify my skincare (just can’t shake the feeling that most of it is all a scam?).
Pay attention to what my kids need and then apply it to myself. If I think that they need to be drinking enough water, eating enough veg and spending plenty of time outside, then so should I. If I think it’s good for them to feel boredom rather than having constant stimulation, then perhaps I need to allow the sensation too.
Expand my brain. Read outside my comfort zone. Authors I want to read more of, or try, for the first time this year: Zadie Smith, Maggie O’Farrell, Fredrik Backman, Eliza Clark, Saba Sams, Brit Bennett, Alison Espach, Ian McEwan & Nora Ephron. Read more of my cookbooks – I love reading cookbooks! Cook recipes with unfamiliar ingredients. Try five new bread recipes. Nail a really good tiramisu recipe, both vegan and non-vegan. Make a Bundt cake. Perfect really good porridge. Eat lots of beans, like nice, good-quality beans. Those fancy ones you see in jars. Plenty of veg, plenty of pasta. Ooo try five new pasta shapes. And unusual pestos! There isn’t a rule that says New Year’s resolutions can’t be daft and fun, although we all seem to act so.
Take the boys for a weekend in London, take them on the London eye, see it through their eyes. Go back to Center Parcs. Keep going to national trust places on the regular. Go on mini adventures. Put my toes in the sea at least once.
Live seasonally. I spent 2025 writing could-do lists at the start of each season and I found it energising, having that little re-set every 2-3 months. It made me feel like I was making the most out of the moment. Leaning into the feeling of each season (see above about January being gentle). More of this. I want to live slow enough to notice the seasons change. Cook seasonally, switch things around in the house. Even just changing my phone background to a recent photo of the snow. Small changes stop me feeling sluggish and I struggle to care if others think it’s all a bit silly. More silly little things that make me happy!
Happy new year folks!
P.S. I have been poor at sharing posts on social media in recent months so if you've come from that direction, here's some ones you may have missed:
Summer Journal | Slipped Away Like A Moment In Time
One Minute Book Reviews | Summer Reads
The Golden In-Between Month | An Ode To September
Why I'm A Center Parcs Convert
October'25 Scrapbook | Primrose Hill & Other Autumnal Days
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.
Hey there!
