Counting My Blessings

A Heavy Heart

The past few days have been heavy. I did not know Charlie Kirk personally, but I was familiar with his work. While I did not always agree with his political views, he was first and foremost a brother in Christ, a husband, and a father. To hear that he was so brutally murdered simply for speaking, debating, and seeking to shine light is both horrifying and deeply troubling.

What shakes me even more is witnessing people publicly celebrate the violent death of another human being. Such cruelty, such callousness—it reveals something very dark about the state of our society. My heart grieves for his family and friends, for our Christian brothers and sisters in America, and for the wider world in which hatred is allowed to fester so openly.

On Community

After sharing a simple Instagram story—a photograph of Charlie Kirk with a few words of sorrow—I immediately saw my follower count drop. A sharp decline, just like that.

Now, let me be clear: I have no concern for vanity metrics. Numbers on a screen do not define me, nor do they measure the worth of my life. I come from a time when relationships and real connections meant far more than “likes” and followers.

What I do care about is the kind of community I nurture around me. If those who unfollowed me are people who would celebrate the violent death of a Christian man, then it is best that our paths diverge. We clearly do not share the same value for life, compassion, or truth. Circumstances such as these always reveal the true heart of people.

Drawing Nearer

And so, I turn my gaze back home and count my blessings. In a world that feels increasingly fractured, I am reminded of the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who share our values, who offer encouragement, and who seek light over darkness.

Even in sorrow, we can choose to draw nearer to God, to hold fast to His truth, and to be grateful for the community of faith He gives us.

Counting My Blessings

In times like these, when the world feels harsh and unsettling, I find myself cherishing even more the peace and beauty I can create within my own home.

Home is where we practise gratitude in the ordinary, where we nurture our families, and where we remind ourselves that God’s goodness is still all around us.

One of the small yet meaningful ways I mark this season is by showering our home with autumnal touches—simple decorations that speak of warmth, abundance, and the comforting rhythm of God’s creation.

My hops garland arrived from Huskin Hops on Friday. I absolutely love decorating my home with natural material, usually gathered from nature on my walks.

I had seen hops garlands in various places over the years and really wanted to have one for my own home. However, our previous home just did not lend itself to a hops garland. We didn't really have a natural place where it would hang.

Our new home has a lovely inglenook. The moment I saw it I knew that I would be ordering a hops garland for my autumn decor. It has not disappointed! I absolutely LOVE it!

Of course, I have added a few other autumnal touches because September 1st is autumn for me. There's no waiting until the autumn equinox in my home. I want to get every ounce of autumnal goodness from the season before we transition into the festive season.

So the candles are out and the house fills with the scent of apples, cinnamon, pumpkin and spice each evening.

Autumnal pictures have been hung...

Corners of my home are lit with fairy lights and adorned with garlands and much loved homespun decorations have been brought out of storage and now take pride of place for another autumn season.

Books are being gathered in preparation for longer nights and cozy days. I'll share my autumn book basket in another post. I have added some lovely books to my home library over the last few months that I am excited to share with you.

I love the changing light at this time of the year, it comes in gently and pools in little puddles of warmth throughout the house at different times of the day. What a lovely small blessing!

I have always paid attention to the simple, small things and I love making my home a haven for my family and for those who cross the threshold. Last night, I overheard my husband telling my daughters boyfriend that after a long day at work, he always got excited about coming home because it was his 'happy place' and it was made so because of the love lived within its walls and the care taken in making our home a haven. 

I was so touched by that. That is exactly why I do everything I do, and why I place such value on the simple things that go into running a home.

I want my Biblical womanhood, love and faith that I hold in my heart for my Lord and for my family shown in practical ways through the canvas of my home and it appears that my husband has felt that. It touched my heart hearing those words. 

Thinking about it later on in the evening, I was reminded of the importance of the woman in the home. We set the tone, we are the thermostat to the atmosphere of our home. We can bring blessings in so many ways. Be encouraged. I know it can often feel like a thankless and overlooked task. But what we do matters. It brings blessings!

Before I go, I wanted to share a beautiful playlist that I came across the other day. I hope you enjoy listening to it as I have and may it be a blessing to you.

May your homes be filled with faith, love, peace and joy this next week.

Where Badgers Visit and Owls Call: Life in Our Welsh Country Home

It's 5am on the first morning in our new home and I am sitting in the conservatory, my hands cupped around a steaming mug of tea, watching a badger gorge on bird seed from the feeder he has tipped over and raided. 

I move to re-adjust to a more comfortable position, alerting the badger to my presence. He freezes, our eyes lock for a second, and he turns tail and lumbers off across to the far end of the garden before disappearing through the hedgerow into the field beyond. A small mouse darts out of the undergrowth to steal a few sunflower seeds left behind by the badger.

At dusk I watch bats zig-zag across garden hunting for insects and at night, just before I slip into sleep, I hear the mournful call of an owl. the I feel like I may just be living in a Brambly Hedge storybook!

I had forgotten the deep, beautiful silence of the countryside. This morning, that silence was punctuated by birdsong and the sheep having a chat to one another, no doubt discussing their plans for the day.

It's been 10 days since we moved into Hillbank (the house name reminds me of Beatrix Potter's 'Hilltop Farm'), our home in a small village in the Welsh hills. It feels comfortable, like pulling on a favourite well-worn comfortable jumper on a chilly autumn morning. The house embraces us with its warm wooden flooring and deep inglenook fireplace which promises to wrap us in warmth and cosiness throughout autumn and winter.

The garden is wild. It has not had a proper caretaker for many years. The grass has been allowed to romp freely into the flowerbeds, the rushes have taken over the pond to the point that you would not know that it is there, and the moss in the lawn could provide a hundred florists with all they need for their floral arrangements for months. 

It will be a labour of love to restore the garden to what it once was.

Last week I picked up a few supplies at the small farm shop in the village and met some lovely ladies. "You must join the WI when we reconvene in September!"; and, "We have a choire, do you sing?", then, "Oh we are short of a soprano, I do hope you will join us".

I can see that life will be rich and full here. I am very much looking forward to being part of village life.

This home would have been a perfect homeschooling home! It was the first thing my daughter said to me when she popped over for a visit. She's right, it would have been 😊.

But this home is the start of a new chapter for us. It's a home that anchors us as we start new ventures. My husband has semi-retired - that is, he has left the hotel industry and will be starting his own artisan food and coffee shop. I have finally started writing again and am working with a mentor as I journey to get published. 

I don't know what the future holds, do any of us? But I know that for this next season in our lives, we are exactly where we should be. It won't be our 'forever' home as we are just renting 'Hillbank' while we build our businesses, and I still have a hankering to live in the beautiful Lake District. 

But for now, I know that this is the right place for us to roost. It is near to our adult children, both of whom are in their own seasons of building and establishing their lives and who appreciate the support and proximity that this home offers to us all.

It will be our place of recovery after a really difficult and emotional home sale process (please do pray for us that our house sale goes through and does not fall at the final hurdle once again). Our place of gentle adjustment as we move out of suburbia and back into the countryside, losing many of the conveniences that come town living. 

It's a place gentle reconnection as we adjust to what life looks and feels like with both us working in a self-employed capacity. I'm grateful that we will get to be the caretakers of this beautiful home and garden and to write 'Under a Welsh Sky' for a season 💕

It's The Simple Things That Count

Materialism is an ever-constant assault on our senses. It's everywhere. All the time. Trying to convince us that happiness and contentment can be bought. 

I was scrolling through my archives and found this post that I wrote in 2015. I couldn't help but think how much pressure to 'have more to have happiness' has increased with the growth of social media and influencers since writing this post.

 

Honestly, it's exhausting to be constantly told how to 'find happiness'. Ultimately, the people who are trying to convince us of their wealth = happiness gospel are doing so because it has a direct correlation to their own bank balance!

So, I thought it may be a good time to re-publish this post as timely reminder to rebalance our thoughts and hearts on what truly matters in life.

From the Archives:

In today's post I wanted to share some lovely simple things from my week that have made me happy. It seems to have become a bit of a ponderous post for me though after our read-aloud time this morning. So instead of speaking about those lovely simple things, I will pen out my thoughts and pepper this post with pictures of them instead.

I am reading the book 'Daddy-Long-Legs' by Jean Webster to my girls during our read-aloud time. In today's reading the main character, Judy, writes to Daddy-Long-Legs of her first visit to New York. She writes,

 "I can't imagine any joy in life greater than sitting down in front of a mirror and buying any hat you choose without having first to consider the price! There's no doubt about it, Daddy; New York would rapidly undermine this fine stoical character which the John Grier Home so patiently built up."

Her very next letter sees her in a more rational frame of mind. Daddy Long-legs evidently sent her a cheque after reading her letter, but she returns the cheque with a note explaining why she cannot accept the money, she writes, 

" I am sorry that I wrote all that silly stuff about the millinery shop; it's just that I had never seen anything like it before."

I'm sure we can all find a time in our life when we felt like Judy. It is so easy to get sucked into a world of materialism. I usually try to avoid shopping malls that hold every top brand name, or those streets in London that house the same. It sucks you in and you begin to feel a little like Judy. I know what she means when she says that *New York (*fill in your own city/mall/shopping weakness here) would undermine her stoic character.

Materialism is a terribly enticing and bad master and the truth is that shopping up a storm or adding 'stuff' to your name does not make you a happier person. Unfortunately we spend our lives having advertising companies bombarding us with messages on why we will only ever be happy if we buy x-y or z.

The best way of counteracting this is to cultivate a spirit of thankfulness for what we have and appreciating the simple things in life. 

There are many, many things to be thankful for and appreciate if you just look around you. Here are some of mine this week:

* The good health of everyone in my family

* BBQ's on a warm spring evening

* Nature walks with my children

* New life springing out from all quarters every single day

* A roof over our heads and food in our tummies

* A good job to keep us in above-stated condition :)

* Being able to sit quietly and work in my nature journal

* Good friends to talk to

* Happy memories of family holidays and times together

* Living in England! I love this country and feel blessed to be here

* Seasons - I love the seasons

* Birdsong - how can you not be cheered when you stop to listen to them

* Buzzy bumble-bees and fluttery butterflies - all out in the sunshine

* Washing dancing in the wind as it dries outside on the washing line

* Freshly cut lawn

* Clouds scudding across the blue sky

* Blossoms and blooms - they are everywhere at the moment

* The feel of my fountain pen moving over paper as I write in journal entries

* Reading good books together with my children and for myself. We have many wonderful memories of books read together. I'm so grateful that I have given my children a living-books rich curriculum

* Jumping on the trampoline with my daughter and laughing until our sides hurt

* Eating ice-creams outside in the warm sunshine

* Seeing the Cowslips blooming - they are so sweet, I love them.

I could go on but I fear I might bore you LOL. But I'm sure that as you read my list you will see that none of the things I have listed as precious and thankful memories and moments have cost very much or anything at all.

In a world that seems to have gone half-crazy on materialism, I'm immensely grateful that its the simple things in life that make me most happy.

A blessed Thursday to you all...

Finding Your Way Back Home: A Letter to the Weary Homemaker

 For the Christian woman who longs to return to a life of peace, purpose, and grace

I walked past a quilt top that I first pieced together in 2017. It still is not finished! I have started hand quilting the top but the fact that it has taken me 8 years to get to this point bothered me.

This prompted me to think about when the last time was that I created anything at all. When last did I finish a knitting project? When last did I spend some time enjoying a bit of cross-stitch or excitedly plan out a new project of some sort?

I have Pinterest boards brimming with ideas and projects that at some point inspired me, things I wanted to try my hand. I remembered back to the days when when I was most certainly an inspired homemaker.

When Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore

There comes a time in many women’s lives when the joy of homekeeping fades into the background. Perhaps you're walking through grief, burnout, motherhood’s exhausting seasons, or simply the noise of a fast-paced world. You look around your home and no longer feel inspired. The laundry piles up. The meals are rushed. The creativity you once poured into everyday life has run dry.

If that’s you, dear sister, you are not alone. 

I've been pondering this thought for the last week and awoke with a sense of clarity on Sunday morning. My decline is closley tied up with the start of my degree studies. I don't regret my studies as it was a season of accomplishing something that I did not think I was capable of. I'm glad I did it, but it came at a cost that I didn't even realise I was paying.

A Gentle Art Forgotten

I have always loved the gentle art of homemaking and there was a time when tending the home was more than chores and checklists. For me, as for many other women over the annals of time, it was a sacred rhythm—baking bread with joy, wiping counters while praying over family, folding laundry as an act of love. I remember being delighted in creating a haven: candles glowing, scripture on the wall, beauty in the small things, and I miss that.

Life has a way of crowding out the quiet.

Maybe like me, you’ve lost that rhythm. Maybe you feel you’ve failed. But friend, hear this truth: you are not too far gone to return.

The Invitation Back

God is always calling us back—not to perfection, but to peace. Not to performance, but to presence.

He gently invites us to slow down. To light a candle. To clear a corner of the house. To make a pot of tea and open our Bibles. To begin again, not in our own strength, but in His.

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.” – Isaiah 30:15

Rediscovering Peace in Small Things

You don’t have to overhaul your life. You simply have to begin again—with Him, and that is precisly what I have started doing. Here are a few small things I have started doing each day as I rediscover peace in my homemaking.

Start with One Room

Choose a space that matters to you. Clear it, tend it, pray over it. Let it become a sanctuary.

Anchor Each Day in the Word

Open your Bible before your to-do list. Let scripture be the first voice you hear in the morning.

Create a Ritual of Beauty

Light a candle as you clean. Play worship music while you cook. Make small acts of service feel sacred again.

Keep a Homemaker’s Prayer Journal

Write down your prayers for your home, your family, and your heart. Invite God into every ordinary task.

Plan to be Creative

I spent a wonderful afternoon going through my Pinterest boards and craft books. I have picked out a few creative and seasonal projects that I want to get started with right away and ordered the materials I need to do them. To foster creativity you have to be creative. Scrolling through IG my be inspiring in the moment but it is no replacement for setting aside time to work with your hands on something that brings you joy. So make sure that you plan some time out each week to spend on something you have always wanted to try or make.

The Truth About Worth and Calling

You are not just a housekeeper. You are a keeper of hearts, rhythms, refuge, and love. You are called by God to create spaces that reflect His peace and presence. Your home, however imperfect, can become a holy ground.

And even if you’ve wandered far from that calling as I feel I have, the way back is paved with grace.

“She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” – Proverbs 31:27

But she also knows when to rest in the Lord, and let Him restore what’s been lost.

A Prayer for the Woman Who Wants to Return

Lord,
I am tired, and I’ve lost my way.
Remind me that I don’t have to earn Your approval.
Teach me how to tend my home with joy again.
Restore my heart.
Renew my spirit.
Lead me gently back to Your peace.
Amen.

You Can Begin Again—Today

You don’t need a perfect plan. You just need to respond to the invitation: to come home. Home to the heart of God. Home to the calling He placed within you. Home to the quiet joy of caring, creating, and keeping.

Start small. Start slow. Start now.

And know this: every step you take is watched with love by the One who calls you beloved.

An Old Soul

 I am an old soul and often feel like I have been planted in the wrong time in history. I would have been happy to not have the pressures of modern technology and all that they bring.

To see mans lust for power, money and other things spewed out morning, noon, and night over the radio and television is enough to make anyone dispair. 

So I make time to escape to the lands and worlds created in the pages of books and sometimes, those lands and worlds are grasped and turned into television productions. I've recently come accross the period drama inspired by the Candleford books written by Flora Thomspson - Lark Rise to Candleford.

I am hooked. I'm tempted to binge watch it, but then it will be over all too soon. So I'll resist the urge and instead savour it slowly, escaping to a world that had it's own pressures but maintained a sense of humanity and care for the people that were neighbours. 

My daughter made herself a fantastic 2025 moodboard background for her desktop computer...

It got me to thinking that I want to do one myself. To spend a bit of time thinking about the things that are important to you and thing about how and where you want to spend your time. I think it is such a good idea to have something that inspires you, to remind yourself what it is that is important. To see the beauty in the world rather than all the wickedness that is forced upon us on the one device, that I for one, spend a lot of time on given my work. Yes, I think I will take a leaf out of my daughters book and work on that this week.

The garden continues to flourish and I'm taking joy in spending time in the garden, planting, feeling grounded in the things that remain the same and have done for thousands of years, even though the world feels like an unsafe, ever-changing, and hostile place.

I was washing the dishes in the kitchen sink this morning when I spotted this little fellow having a drink from the garden pond. I paused and watched him for a while ...

He picked at the offerings that had fallen from the feeder thanks to a resident squirrel...

I am always amazed by the life that happens in our gardens while we are busy with our daily tasks. Most of it goes unseen. But if you take the time to pause and notice...you will be rewarded with these little cameo moments of lives been lived out by the small creaturs that make your garden their home.

Yes, we live in a very busy, loud, messy world. But we can find peace in the small things every day if we just choose to notice.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Ordinary Days

It's been longer than I had intended since being here. I've thought about it a thousand times but March turned out to be a very busy and disruptive month. 

You see, our house sale fell through yet again! Second time! This time, the person who was buying our buyers house pulled out, as a result, we lost our onward purchase.

Initially we were a bit sad but we know that everything happens for a reason and that God has always been and remains good! We relisted our property and sold it within days for significantly more than we had hoped for. This has opened up an opportunity for my husband embark on a new business venture so we look forward to seeing how that will come about.

In the meantime, we have decided to rent while we look for another property. It will also mean that we will be able to do away with any lengthy chains which has proved so problematic for us so far. By renting, we will be ready to move quickly once we find our new home. 

So for the next few months, we are still in our lovely home which means there is no need to put off planting my vegetable seeds. Once they are big enough, they will go into pots so that when we do move, they can come with us.

Growing

 I've got tomatoes, beetroot, peas, beans and courgettes growing on the windowsill. You can see how much they have grown in just a few short weeks since planting them.

I have also been growing new spring onions from a bunch of spring onions I bought at the grocery store. You simply trim the roots halfway and pop them into some potting soil. It is amazing at how well it works!

Reading

I mentioned in a previous post that I had resolved to only read 'real' books in 2025 so to that end, I applied for another library card and paid a visit to my local library.

It was lovely to be back in a place surrounded by books. I spent a lovely hour choosing my reads for the next 4 weeks. I am looking forward to diving into this pile of books! The only author I am familiar with in this collection is Alexander McCall Smith. The Agatha Christie book is about her life and characters, written by Cathy Cook. Agatha Christie is my favourtie author so I'm looking foward to seeing what the author has to say.

In the Kitchen

It seems like we are just not getting though our bananas very quickly these days so I have made a couple of dozen banana bread muffins. I have frozen them in batches and take out 6 at a time for us to enjoy with our tea and coffee mid morning or mid afternoon.

Around the Home

As we are staying in our home for a few more months, I unpacked the boxes that we had packed before Christmas. I now have all my receipe books back in use!

We are still enjoying our the new layout of our spring reshuffle. This space is working well as a dining room so I'm glad that we will get to enjoy it for a couple more months.

I have also reinstated our milk delivery. I had stopped this a week before we were supposed to complete on our sale way back in October. Given our luck with the sale I decided that I was no longer going to live in a state of flux - it's just too stressful. I'll stop the delivery when those papers have been signed and there is no turning back! 

In the Garden

One of the good things about being in our house for another few months is that we get to watch the garden come back to life.

We build this garden from nothing and we love it so. It is a blessing to see it slowly come into it's own. At the moment, it is an explosion of yellow punctuated with the bright pinks from the tulips.

The Marsh Marigold seems to have come out of nowhere. One moment is was a compact mass of leaves hunkering down, and the next this...

The garden has responded well to the burst of warm weather we have been having. I've enjoyed hanging the washing outdoors to dry in the breeze and we have spent quite a bit of time pottering about the garden. 

It is looking Easter Egg Hunt ready! Yes, even though our children are adults, they still enjoy a good old hunt. I think it's the free chocolate! Plans for Easter will be underway next week and I'm looking foward to turning my thoughts and heart back to the simple joys of observing the liturgical year and nuturing those who cross my threshold.

Anyhoo lovelies, I've prattled on for long enough today. Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you back here next week.

April Reflections

Hello my lovely friends!

I hope that you are all well. Apart from being exceptionally wet, how has April been for you? I hope that you have managed to find plenty of opportunities to appreciate the beauty in the small moments that present themselves to us each day.

Now that the bulk of my exams are over (only one more left!) I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders and I have relished just resting in the moment when these simply, small moments present themselves. 

Like standing for a few minutes to take in the carpet of bluebells at the foot of a tree before we headed into church one Sunday morning.

I absolutly LOVE bluebell season, don't you? 

Coming from South Africa we didn't have bluebells. As a child my favourite author was Enid Blyton and she had a gift for describing the English countryside so I held vivid pictures in my mind of what carpets of bluebells might look like.

When we moved to the UK, I made sure that we visited our local woodland that very first spring to see this purple spectacular. I was not disappointed. 

13 years later and I still uphold the tradition of taking a woodland walk during bluebell season and they still bring delight to my soul!

On my needles, I am knitting a sweet little lacy baby dress using a skein of Miss Potters Paintbox. I think the colours are very springlike and I am loving working with this yarn. Don't you just love the sweet little forget-me-not flowers? I think they compliment the yarn quite nicely.

I've just dyed up some more Miss Potters Paintbox so if you are looking for a pretty spring yarn to knit with you can grab a skein in my shop now. 

I have spoken about this in my podcast but if you are not a podcasty type person I'll mention it here. I am moving away from Etsy. Their fees have become ridiculous. They charge a commission on everything from the listing fees, sale fees, and they even charge a fee on the postage and packaging - which is ridiculous because that does not come to me at all.

I still have my Etsy shop open but I am no longer updating it with new stock. I am now selling all my yarns from my Website. So that is where you will see anything new that comes along and any shop updates.

I wanted to show you my favourtie farm shop. It's called The Hollies and is rather pricey so we don't go often, but every now and again we head out into the countryside and enjoy a little wander through the shop and pick up a few of our favourite treats. It even looks lovely on a grey dreary day.

April has been a month of getting back to doing things that bring us joy, and one of those things is visiting National Trust properties. We love heading out after church on a Sunday and taking a walk through a bit of English history.

This past weekend we paid a visit to Attingham Park in Shropshire. Pictured above is the groundsmans cottage - which I could TOTALLY live in! The manor house is significantly bigger but I like cozy.

In fact, as we walked through the manor house, which is lovely, the bit that drew me most, as it always does, was the 'downstairs' areas.

For some reason the kitchen and servants quarters are just so much more interesting for me.

Perhaps its the connection I have with the kitchen being a hive of industry, a place where traditional homekeeping skills are cherished.

I can picture women wearing aprons gathering around and chatting as they cook up delicious meals. Or sitting by the hearth with a basket of mending.

I am absolutly romanticising it - I know - but for me the kitchen symbolises the heart of the home, as it has been through time.

I especially loved the copper pots in this kitchen and how all the ingrediants were laid out in brown paper bags. What is it about brown paper bags that harkens back to a simpler time I wonder.

I loved how the National Trust had used sprigs of lilac from the garden througout the house. We are lucky enough to have a lilac tree at the bottom of our garden and I too have got vases of lilac in my kitchen right now.

I wonder if, 100 years ago, the staff were picking vases of lilacs for the house. Although time and space may seperate us from bygone eras, we are still the same aren't we?

We love, laugh, cry, experience hard times and good times, and we pick flowers to adorn our homes.

 This property is a good hour away from our home but often think that the drive is half of the joy really. The weather was really quite nice on Sunday and it was lovely just to drive through the countryside. England is truly specatular in Spring!

Very happily, April saw me move into my very own sewing/craft room. I don't know why I didn't do it before now to be honest. It wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind until about a month ago, while working in the garden with my husband, the thought suddenly struck me out of the blue.

Our youngest daughter moved into her own flat two years ago and she has a huge room which is completley unused. The only ones to use it are the cats and I tend to fight a losing battle to keep them out and off the bed!

Meanwhile, right next door in a much smaller room, which I have utilised as my study, all my fabric, yarn, sewing machine etc sits packed away as there was no space for it to be easily accessible.

Still a lot of decorating to do - you can see we have started patching up the walls

"Why are we not utilising the space in our house in a way that suites us"? I wondered.

There is no good reason. Our eldest daughter commandeered the summer house which was earmarked to be the sewing room - funny how that happens - and for as long as I can remember, I have wanted a dedicated sewing room. Where I can have my sewing maching out at all times and my yarn and fabric around me.

So that is what we did. The office has become the guest room (it still fits my daughters double bed with space to spare) and I have a lovely large sewing room.

Don't you just love the bright rug? I loved how it looked like a quilt and thos colours! It's the boldest colour choice I think I have ever made.

I plan on making this a very cozy and creative space. I have so many things I want to make for it and so many ideas floating about in my head. I must actually sketch them out otherwise I will just get overwhelmed and end up not doing anything!

Just to let you know, I have relaunched my podcast. The first episode is very long - just over an hour - as there is so much to catch up on. It's not out yet as it is taking an absolute age to upload to YouTube. I seem to be having a real issue with it uploading. I'm on my third attempt over two days! Grrrr!

I will probably let you know on Facebook and Instagram once it has finally published.

In this episode I am talking about:

• Empty Nest Syndrome and thoughts on navigating this change of season and thinking about the "what's next" question.
• Sharing some of my finished knitting projects
• showing you what I have on the needles right now.
• Sharing two lovely crafty books that I have on my bookshelf
• Spring yarn inspiration
• and a little chat about quilting.

I'm going to end this post with a lovely view of the little art shed which sits behind our pond and and the apple tree, which is blossoming beautifully! Last year we harvested 5 apples - I'm hoping this year it will be more.

That's it from me today. I hope that you are all having a lovely week and I look forward to seeing you back here very soon.