Welcome to the Blog…

My next little book is all planned out, but I found that there was something else that I needed to do first – Finish that basket that I began back in February.

It’s been calling to me for some time and I have done my best to ignore it, but over the past couple of months I have come to realise that I shouldn’t have to ignore it.

I love making baskets.

Taking a step away from them for the past 6 months has been hugely beneficial. Taking time to explore other possibilities and just given fuel to the fire of my enthusiasm for basketmaking and given me heaps of new ideas, for combining applique, embroidery and quilting with basketry.

So I was delighted to pick this one up, last week and begin where I left off – on the top section, but with the benefit of all that I have learned this year.

I know that I can be an “all or nothing” sort of person.

But life, just like my basketry, is a practice and I am always learning. I think that I have learned a lot over the past decade about the importance of balance. I still struggle with it, but I am constantly in search of it.

The reason that I tend to have an “all or nothing” reaction, is because I throw myself at everything with 100% of my energy and enthusiasm. I want to give my best to everything that I do. Sometimes that leaves me feeling that I just can’t take on anything else. How could I possibly give it the attention that it deserves?

Well I have come to realise, that a rich variety of interests doesn’t have to mean that I’m spreading myself too thin.

Different aspects of my life can feed off each other, making way for new ideas, fresh approaches and renewed enthusiasm.

After all, “a change is as good as a rest”.

So I used what I have learned, from working with applique and quilting over the last few months, to finish this basket.

I have applied fabric to the surface of my work before, but have previously used a framework of coil to form the attachment. Now I am using the same needle turn applique technique that I have been using in my wall-hangings.

It has worked really well, and it opens up so many possibilities for further development.

Most excitingly (for me) it holds the key to the visual storytelling that I was interested in developing back at the start of 2026.

If I hadn’t taken a break, I might not have found that answer.

This is of course, just the beginning of that journey and I have a lot more questions and answers before me, but I am really pleased with how this basket has turned out and I will be continuing to work on basketry and quilted pieces in tandem, letting the ideas flow back and forth between them.

Finding my focus with a simpler life once more, has already had a huge impact on my work.

It has given me the opportunity to strip everything back to the core and to consider what is important to me and what I want to hold on to, as I move forward.

The garden is a great place for thinking.

As I am busy working with my hands and connecting with nature every day, everything seems so much clearer. The blanket of confusion and brain fog that modern life sweeps over everything, is blown away and makes me feel hopeful again.

I realised that I love to watch things grow – my children, my garden, my work.

All of my passions in life stem from the same root desire, to watch and to help tiny beginnings develop and flourish.

I have found the strength to know what I want and what I don’t!

I don’t want to feel forced to be just one thing. Social media platforms (in my case instagram), galleries and craft events, all seem to push creatives into narrowing their outlook. They must stick to their lane if they want to be seen or accepted.

I don’t want to have a narrow outlook. I want to develop and to do that I need to try new and varied things. I also don’t want to feel forced to leave things behind, like my basketry. I want to be the big mixture of things that I am and I want my work to reflect that.

Life is so much richer when you mix it all up with a big spoon!

I don’t want to judge the success of my work on how wide the reach of my last instagram post was. That might sound obvious and easily avoidable, but if you are a busy mother, relying on social media to connect with others, with no gallery representation, no one else at all in fact to help you show what you do, what you’re all about……then it’s all too easy to get sucked into watching with horror as your posts reach less and less people. It takes a conscious effort not to react to that.

For me it took saying “I’d rather nobody sees my work, than live and work like this”.

It helps too, that I have barely made a penny in last few months, but the world hasn’t exploded. We’re still surviving. In fact we’ve had some wonderful, happy months. 

So I’m focusing my online energies here and on Buy me a Coffee. My own spaces, with my own rules, where I can be that big jumble of mum, wife, gardener, basketmaker, textile artist, home maker, thing finder, gatherer, blog writer etc etc etc

I’ll still be posting on Instagram, but I’ll be posting what I want to post when I want to post it, so you’ll probably never see it and I’m ok with that!

So what have I been making, with this great new positive outlook and freedom to just be?

Well that little stitched book really gave me the confidence to express myself through stitch and I have been working on a little quilted wall-hanging that just sums up where I am right now.

Oh To Watch Things Grow, has a patchwork backing, made from leftover fabric and fabric from a pair of trousers that I found in the local charity shop. The front is appliqued and embroidered with the image of a woman, holding a crown of flowers on her head. I originally planned to surround her with plants, but all of my thoughts about simplicity over the past few weeks, made me decide against it. I found that I knew what I wanted to say and I felt that was enough.

So it reads

“Oh to watch things grow. To see them triumph against all odds and lift their joyful faces to the sun”

I will hang it from a length of wooden dowel this week and add a couple of my paper beads and then she will be heading to my shop. 

I think I’ll make another little book next, because I enjoyed the first one so much and I would like to capture some of summer in the garden. But who knows what will come after that? 

One thing is for sure, “It will be an awfully big adventure!”

I have just had some wonderfully restorative time off, with my family. Just simple days at home or out walking, and the perfect opportunity to organise my thoughts, which sometimes feel as though they are in a whirl!

I think that when we left Orkney, a part of me felt that our search for a simple life would have to be shelved.

It is after all, a lot harder to imagine a simple life in the middle of a town, than it is in the middle of nowhere, on a tiny island.

It may be harder to imagine, but is it harder to put in into practice?

I’m beginning to realise that it is actually easier, and without any big push, our plans for a simpler life are slipping into place quite organically.

Matt works just two minutes walk from home and as we have excellent train and bus connections right on our doorstep, we have been able to give up our car. We also have the benefit of a network of cycle paths, from home to our favourite areas of coastline and to local woodland. We  needed new bikes to take advantage of this, but I have been able to find secondhand bikes for Lark and Wren, within a short walk of home. One was free and the other only £25 and both are in very good condition apart from the tyres. Fortunately, at the back of our garden there is a local mens group, who provide free bicycle servicing and repairs, only charging for any parts that are needed.

Matt has a bike already, so now I just need to find one for me, but in the mean time I can walk and Lark and Wren can wait for me to catch up!

We’re also looking out for a bike trailer, for when we need to pick up larger things, that are a little further from home.

It feels like a really positive change.

Changes are happening in our garden too.

Although I discovered my love of gardening in Orkney, it certainly had its challenges. Especially when we moved to South Ronaldsay, because the site was so exposed to the weather.

What a change then, to find myself with a walled garden and calmer weather.

Even when the wind does blow, the garden is protected by the high wall and the other tall buildings around it. It’s really like a micro-climate in our garden and several degrees warmer than the surrounding area. We rarely get any frost, even when it is really frosty nearby.

With my health back in order, I have been able to turn my attention to the garden again and have been thoroughly enjoying my time spent there.

In amongst the mature trees and shrubs, I have been creating our fruit and vegetable garden.

This feels like a very important contribution that I can make to our family, in a time of high food prices. We have all committed to eating simply and healthily, but the prices of veggies at the supermarket is through the roof!

It’s a modest start this year, because at the start of spring I was recovering from months of ill-health. But as my strength has returned, the garden has grown and we are eating leafy greens from our garden throughout the week.

Strawberries and gooseberries are ripening and some raspberries have been planted ( although I don’t expect any fruit from them this year).

I have also put in a bed of squashes and tomatoes. All of these are being grown vertically, so I built a framework, out of strong saplings that we needed to remove from the garden.

That is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of this garden. It is surrounded by large mature trees, and saplings are continually sprouting. In the years before we moved here, quite a number of these had been left and we are now working to remove them, as they are too close to other properties.

But in the right places, trees are very welcome and I am hoping to introduce some new fruit trees to the far end of the garden, next year.

We might be living on a town high street, but in this sheltered garden the sounds that I hear most are the voices of birds. So many of them, of all shapes and sizes! That is a real joy to me, because it’s one of the things that I loved about Orkney – the sound of myriads of birds, each singing their own little song.

And what about our furry and feathered friends?

They absolutely adore this garden! Our two Ducks, Tonka and Sorrel, travelled down from Orkney with us nearly two years ago and they couldn’t believe their luck! A sheltered, large garden with plenty of opportunity for foraging and a well protected duck house to rest in. Their house is the old brick washhouse, still complete with copper and mangle, which leads right onto the garden.

Meadow, our cat has adapted very quickly to town life. And although she might pop into the high street shops and cafes occasionally, she can usually be found hanging out in our garden or in the graveyard next door. With all of those trees to climb and plenty of shady nooks for a snooze, she is a very contented tabby and loves to help me when I’m busy in the garden.

The ducks are a huge help with keeping on top of garden pests. I really don’t know how I would manage without them, even if they do have a quick nibble on my kale as they walk past!

So I am thinking that I might get a couple of hens next year. That was always the plan in Orkney, but one that never fell into place, as renovations took up a huge amount of time and energy.

There’s plenty of room for a couple more feathered friends, and chickens are brilliant at preparing ground for planting and would provide us with extra manure. The extra eggs would be a big help too.

All of this garden goodness has been providing inspiration for my work lately too. But more than that it has been making me consider the best way forward – something that has eluded me for a while now.

It’s time to simplify things on the work front, this last couple of weeks has given me the thinking time that I needed to figure out some important truths. But I will tell you more about that next time, and I’ll show you what I have been working on as well.