Happy September 2021 friends. Flipping heck it’s been a while!! Call Fox Mulder because that is some serious lost time on my behalf. I have no explanation whatsoever. The blogging mojo just upped and left me completely. But I revisited my blog recently and I wanted to post a wee update in the form of a photo diary, taking me from autumn 2020 through summer 2021 and now easing back into autumn again. Life is just the same and also completely different. I turned 40! I sewed more York Pinafores! I got double vaccinated! I went on walks! I embroidered! I was gifted new artwork! Lots of random mom ..read more

Friends, the festive season she approaches with speed! And here in the UK we are locked down once again, at least until early December, but possibly beyond. I therefore thought it would be a wonderful time to share with you all the lovely folks at Mettalife, a curated marketplace of ethical and vegan products produced by UK small businesses and brands. Mettalife kindly sent me a couple of products to try out in order that I could share with you all. You can read all about how Mettalife operates here, but I’ll go ahead and tell you a thing or two as well. (Hello, these products were provided t ..read more

Happy Halloween fronds, and welcome to the final instalment of my Blogoween trilogy. Having already given consideration to my previous two horror movie genres (Haunted Houses and Found Footage) it’s now time to turn to one of my all-time favourite categories…. THE DEVIL. Please allow me some leeway as some of my choices are more in the ballpark of Satanic worship, or demonic activity, rather than the devil him/herself, but all are so much fun that I had to include them. I also wanted to say a little word about the inclusion of Roman Polanski on this list; I don’t promote the man in any way, a ..read more

Hello friends! Welcome to day two of my mini three part blogoweenaganza! You may have read yesterday that my blogoween posts will be a number of film/telly recommendations in the following three categories: Haunted Houses Found Footage The Devil You can catch yesterday’s post here, but now, let’s dive with our handicams right into found footage… Found footage is rather divisive as a genre. Personally I think there are some superb found footage films out there, but at the same time, they demand rather a lot from their makers and actors, as well as the viewer, and can be very very terrible ..read more

Greetings, fronds! It is nearly Halloween!!! You may know that every year (ish) I make some blog post or other with movie/TV roundups. Like this: Halloween film list 2016 Halloween film list 2018 Top Ten films/TV that scared the crap out of me as a kid I also did a vegan mofo horror film theme one year, which was a lot of fun! This year I’ve decided to do some sub-genre round-ups which I hope you will enjoy. These will be listicles of my favourite films that fit (more or less) into the following genres: Haunted Houses Found Footage The Devil Prior to this year, all my previous lists had ..read more

UK fronds! I want very much to tell you about SHOP AND DONATE. This initiative is an excellent way to get your fruits and veggies, as well as dried goods and PPE, and other household items. That’s because when you buy from their online shop, you are directly supporting UK food banks, vulnerable community residents, and the NHS. What started a few years back as a community hub eventually morphed into a food bank. When Covid hit, CEO Danny Barnes quit his job to fully dedicate himself to the work of Shop and Donate. In their own words: The main focus of Shop And Donate since April has been hel ..read more

[blinks into the digital daylight] Hello world. It’s been a while, hey? I’ve been on a rather long hiatus. There was a pretty perfect storm of Things that led to an extensive period of complete zone-out. The pandemic, the lockdown, work stresses and strains, my diabetes, the general trash-fire state of the world, and some very difficult and ongoing therapy work around my childhood and trauma and other stuff. My mood hasn’t been too great. In fact, it was pretty bleak for a while, but I knew I needed that long period of isolation and retreat to recharge a bit. I’m not quite feeling the best at ..read more

I’ve been in self-isolation hibernation. How’s about you, friends? My grey matter has regressed extraordinarily, and/or it’s been another Olympian feat of dissociation (more likely). Something I discovered in recent times is that my brain’s reaction to stress or trauma is to pare down to emergency function only. I am a world champion at compartmentalising. It keeps me safe and helps me manage a bit better! It also means I forget Everything Ever, which is a curious side effect of my upbringing. At times like these I enjoy spending time in other worlds like exploring Red Dead Redemption 2, or i ..read more

Hi friends, I am seeing so many wonderful and cockle-warming links and initiatives around and I wanted to create a master-post that I will continue to update throughout the next few weeks/months. If you have any suggestions please do let me know. Favourite indie online shops? YouTube channels? Education resources? Anything! This is primarily UK based. I am home-bound for the most part as I have underlying health conditions that put me at a much greater risk of coronavirus complications, so a lot of this is about stuff you can do or access from home. Mental health General tips: make your bed ev ..read more

A ..read more