This year, I found myself reluctant to come out of the cocoon of rest and rebirth that Winter had held for me. I didn’t want to move away from cosy jumpers, hot water bottles, bare black branches on the trees and the catch of cold in my throat when I went out for a walk. It felt … More Season of Change… Rejoicing in the First, Unexpected Signs of Spring
I didn’t know saffron came from crocuses until I sat down one evening in February in my mother’s cottage in Yorkshire, huddled up under the covers as bleak winter winds and rains battered against the window pane, and I took my second sip of wine. I was thinking about what had brought me hope that … More Is Saffron Good for Depression? Lasting Life Lessons from The Colourful Crocus
This is Alex. Lex to me. He is my closest friend and ally. We have shared over the past 6 years many of the greatest hurdles that we as human beings can face in this life – the death of loved ones, serious and crippling mental illness, a break-up, arguments, moving cities, distance, addiction – and we have shared some of … More How To Save A Life ~ Our Long Weekend in August
This was the July I wrote Summer Is…, sitting with what felt like a forest fire at the back of my head as I teetered on the brink of psychosis for the second time in my life in an office job where no one knew or could understand what was happening to me. I would pretend to … More Jagged Summer: My Experience of Psychosis & Some Hopeful Advice
Blessed be the flowers Of the Winter Womb Brightening up a bleak, bare walk Or a darkened, dismal room Grace of God For giving me Beneath this barren tree, A purple hopeful metallic sheen, A Callicarpa bloom A powder pink Viburnum ~ No tempest born nor Autumn storm Could turn her merry petals To fallen, … More 4. Pocket-size Chants for Winter-Blooming Flowers
Summer roses climbing walls and dogs jumping waves. The sunshine and breeze felt like gossamer on my skin on that late August day as we stepped onto the sands of Barmston Beach. Situated on Yorkshire’s East Coast between Bridlington to the north and Hull to the south, Barmston Beach is a wide expanse of sand … More What Happened Here? The Unexpected Story of Barmston Beach
Waiting for my sister on the busy road outside my little Victorian maisonette, situated above a barbers in London, I watched the early morning traffic as the city started its Saturday and the excitement and promise of the weekend ahead was buzzing in the late August air. It was a beautiful Summer day, bright blue sky with puffy clouds, … More The Next Chapter: What The Earth Spirits Told Me
So here it is – our romantic hideaway for the weekend of Summer 2018. Cobbled quiet streets leading to rows of quaint, trellis-covered terraced houses, the lilting birdsong of a blackbird mixing with the solemn bell toll from a nearby church, a garden bathed in bright sun-trapped light. This unusually warm April reminds me of … More 5. Magickal Ways To Tour The Historic Town Of Chichester
On dark nights in the midst of Winter, I often find myself wondering ~ why do we create? Why am I propelled, driven forward by some intangible, weightless yet weighted desire to put pen to paper, put typeface to script, to live and breathe my dreams into existence on the page in front of me? And perhaps the answer to … More Why Do We Create? Thoughts on Pushing Through The Darkness
Where do I begin from here, where do I even start? I am curled in a chair with my best friend opposite me. I am trying to explain how life has been for the past six months. I have just come home from a day spent at a job I will never return to. I have a glass of wine in … More It’s An Inside Job… Honest Notes on My Breakdown
I’ve holidayed in the sunny seaside town of Fowey, Cornwall, ever since I was a little girl, so it seems only natural for me to do a little tour and give you the very best traveller’s tips of where to go, what to see and, most importantly – what to eat. Fowey itself is my … More Your Picture~Perfect Getaway Guide To The Prettiest Cornish Summer
Frederick Charles Herrick is the gentleman responsible for the early 20th century tube adverts for the London Underground, and a comprehensive collection of his work is held to view at The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. But what I want to focus on today is a little “then and now” ~ a bit of … More When Poetry, Light, Warmth & The Seasons Were Used To Advertise The London Underground: Then & Now
You know how I’m always oscillating between the country and the city? Alcohol and non-alcohol? Bars and restaurants? And always with one running theme ~ green, eco-conscious and independent, usually with a beautiful verdant garden out the back. Those that I turn to time and again ~ to tuck up my knees against my chest and … More Oh, Just Sitting Canal-Side at the Prettiest Distillery in East London
My key for this evening’s fancies lies in a note I received not long back ~ a card from a lady dear to me, scribed in her pretty neat handwriting with a £20 note taped inside. Enclosed was a little booklet, a museum guide as it turns out. But it didn’t read like a museum guide. … More Scorpion Cocktails and Dusty Decadence At London’s Most Fascinating Museum
Remind me of that day ~ Brick Lane and I, we parted ways. A sense of something ending and a sense of Autumn on the soft-sharp winds… It was one of those air-perfect days, when everything was just on the cusp, the beginning of life it felt, the passing of the last 8 years, seemingly … More Ode to Brick Lane… Ghosts of London Past
Calm, steady gravel-thread hands. I remember ~ precise, your nose. Every beach, driving. Hump-back down those roads. Seagulls. Seagrass. Always. Us. ‘Plumbing, pliers, electronics. Understand these my friend, defy all logic’. Calm, steady gravel-thread hands. Hump-back down those roads. Remember when you told me off? I do. Hot, shame-smart righteousness. Ready well of tears and … More Dazzling Blue, Roses Red: Saying Goodbye To My Grandad.
Have you ever wondered what’s behind the Inns Of Court? On a scorching hot day in July, I went behind the tight air, businessmen and swarming tourists of Fleet Street… Through the stone arches that beckoned oh-so-quietly with their private shadows… There is a garden. A garden so beautiful and large – well-tended – that … More In My Opinion, London’s Most Beautiful Gem Is A Garden In The Centre Of The City
A Daughter of Nyx 