This week I have been struggling with something that really gets me down. It leaves me in a dark place at times, and yet, even there, there are always the small things. Always a cup of tea made by a friend, always the sunlight on the floor, always the jokes of children and the fulfillment…
Home: The Dining Table
Reading Under the Tuscan Sun the other day, I came upon a paragraph I could really relate to. In it, Frances Mayes describes the acquisition of a long yellow dining table for their summer home in Italy… The long stretch of summer calls for a long tavola. Now that the kitchen is finished, we need…
Small Things
This summer, home is a running theme for me as Andrew and I settle in to our new place, which has been lived in by his family for years. My reading has accompanied this nicely as I have slowly made my way through Under the Tuscan Sun, about Frances Mayes’ restoration of a house in…
Lundy Escape
Lundy Island is just off the coast of North Devon – about two hours away by ferry – and is one of the most charming and the most wild places I have visited for quite some time. Andrew and I took a couple of days’ break there just after we moved house, at the beginning…
5 Things to Do in Summer…
I’ve said this before, but I just love working in seasons. Still influenced by school terms, I love the new year-ish focus the Autumn brings, the festive, cosy side of Winter and the fresh, hopeful feel of Springtime, when anything seems possible! And then, of course, there is Summer. My friend Karina and I have…
Small Things
There have been a lot of big changes and big emotions in my life over the past few weeks. Many have been good, but the sheer intensity of it all does leave me a little overwhelmed. This has made me especially grateful for the simple, day-to-day small things. Here’s a little list of some of…
This Week: Small Achievements, Presents and Friendship
This week for me has been a bit of a marathon, trying to cover a lot of ground in a short space of time, so Jesus’ words ‘don’t worry about tomorrow, for today has enough cares of its own‘ have proved very, very good advice. And sometimes I’ve needed to stretch it and tell myself ‘don’t worry about this…
3 Posts that have made a difference to my week
Flowers in the desert + a Recipe for a Better day + How to be Empathetic = 3 posts that have made a difference to my week 🙂 These pictures of the desert covered in flowers, which I found via Ann Voskamp’s website, feel like a metaphor for how I see my life right now. I’ve…
There for the taking
The other night I had a very clear dream, in which I held a new baby. It made waking up a very painful experience – and living another day without the child I dream of rather sad. It was one of those days when songs on the radio seemed to echo my thoughts and my…
This week…
This week started with a beautiful weekend 🙂 We travelled down to North Devon and stayed in what is going to be our new house in two weeks today! It felt really good to start putting some of our things in cupboards, to eat there with Andrew’s parents, and to wake up there! I spent…
Way of Peace: The Small Things
I recently started a post series called ‘Way of Peace’, which I really hope people will enjoy reading as much as I’m enjoying thinking and writing about it. I started by posting about the Lord’s Prayer – I find that saying it helps me to put my trust in God, which in turn has the power to bring…
Hope in Syria :-)
You only have to do a Google Images search on Syria to get a glimpse of the horrors of the conflict there. The screen fills with pictures of violence, sorrow, fear and hate. It is easy for us to turn away from these images, not wanting to acknowledge there is such sadness in the world….
