April 2025

I had the privilege of being treated to lunch at Harvey Nichols today by a beloved friend. Like myself, Eve is a pastor’s wife and has spent many years homeschooling. In the community she is known as a gifted veteran homeschooler because she & her husband homeschooled successfully for more than twenty years, and their […]

I don’t think there are many of us who feel as carefree as my daughter running down this hill in the picture right now! It’s very easy to become discouraged at the moment with so many normal avenues of release and true relaxation closed off to us.  It’s easy to feel trapped in your circumstances […]

I have to make confession. This is one of my most favourite drinks in the whole world. In fact I love it so much, I would have it instead of dessert almost any day. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you have it for dessert, but despite it’s rather sanguine appearance, I would love […]

This year in August the British Parachute Regiment celebrated 80 years since it was founded during the Second World War. The story of how it was founded and the positive difference it made to the war effort is both a thrilling and exciting one as well as showing how determination comes into play and courage […]

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Almost exactly one month ago, on Tuesday 6th October, I was delighted to be able to attend a recital of music and poetry for the Harvest of the Sea at St Mary-At-Hill church in London. My brother Charles MacDougall, who is a tenor, professional choral animateur & vocal coach, was singing in the choir, so […]

I don’t know about you but I love a decorative tin  and at Christmas especially, the proliferation of delicious Panettone offerings provide a multitude of beautiful tins as well. And every.single.year I buy one for the dual purpose of enjoying a slice of the best sweet breads in the whole world, while eying up the […]

This is what my young son and I saw last night on our evening walk to reach our family cabin. I was busy just admiring the beautiful hue of faded watery blue of the sky and stars against the white puffy clouds and imagining an adventure worthy of Aladdin and he piped up, “Mummy, look […]

There’s been a Street Food Festival at Portmeirion in North Wales this week but sadly we weren’t able to make it. However it gave me the idea to share some photos I took of Portmeirion last year instead. Here we are swimming and enjoying the water and of course the beautiful village. I’ll post pictures […]

I’ve nicked this image from Pinterest so my sincere apologies to the person whose picture and quote it is; I have tried unsuccessfully to find the owner so I can pay to use the image, so if you are reading this now thinking ‘that’s my image, how cheeky!’ please let me know and I’ll sort […]

Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham Lancashire is a small but mighty fine Elizabethan mansion to visit for a few hours or half a day. I personally have an exciting, historical and sentimental reason for wanting to visit there as regularly as I used to, as well as just wanting to enjoy looking at some beautiful history. […]

Merry Christmas 2020 Everyone!  Despite the restrictions, we are deeply thankful for our blessings and have had a truly joyful day. For part of our Christmas meal this year our son cooked a Marmalade & Pepper Glazed British Gammon joint and yes, it was exceptionally good! Well done son!  He was going to cook Nigella’s […]

I don’t know if you can work out what’s going on in this photo but as I stayed in from church this morning due to feeling exhausted, I decided to dry out some logs on the AGA to use in the cabin log burner for another day.  I was so thankful to be able to […]

Hello everyone, please accept my apologies for there being no blog post today. I am at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s amazing River Cottage Cookery School this week and have been so busy having a fantastic time, that I have run out of time to write. Instead I will be posting sometime tomorrow instead and the speed with […]