It is our second year of being allotment holders. Any of you who are veg growers will know that its time… Time to get the seed packets out.. To sow… To plan… To plant… So many veggies on our wish list (about 40 to be precise) and being a big urban hippie, we are growing [...] Read more...
How to be an urban earth mother – part one
Over the years I have turned into an urban hippy. I didn’t set out to do it - no master plan. It just happened, slowly, incrementally. In part, it was due to my exposure to the Waldorf-Steiner movement through two sets of good friends whose children went to Steiner schools. My profession – social work [...] Read more...
Frolicks in hay bales and glens..
Yes, that has been us in the last two weeks! We started off on the southern most tip of the UK, amongst the hay bales of the beautiful Eweleaze campsite on the Dorset coast and ending up in Scotland, dipping in the North Sea (brrr….!), baking bananas on the beach with the driftwood we gathered [...] Read more...
Camping with children – the pros and cons explored…
For those of you new to Glittering Shards, this site explores mosaics, art and soulful, creative living. My blog posts are categorized in this way (see column on the right) and I write them from the heart because these are things that motivate me. Its true to say that ‘Mosaic Loving’ has featured the most [...] Read more...
Waiting, waiting…
…for spring to come. This week, we have all been struck by nasty viruses. It is the part of parenthood that nothing can prepare you for – tending to sick children night after night and then getting ill yourselves. It will pass, as sure as spring will come (and funnily, we always get most [...] Read more...
Summer in the City
This week, being a tourist in our beloved London. Houses of Parliament from the Abbey Gardens (free to enter, very quiet and peaceful place) Despite recent events just up the road from us, scary and unnerving, we keep …our eyes locked on the overwhelmingly bigger amount of good (see here and here and here) ..our [...] Read more...
Our Father’s Day gift tradition (& our new venture!)
It was a whim of an idea three years ago that is now a solid tradition. Just before Father’s Day, the kids draw a picture of daddy then I transfer them to a t-shirt. Daddy t-shirt 2011 (kids aged 5 and 4) Yesterday we unveiled Daddy t-shirt Number 3 and he just loves it – [...] Read more...
Make your own champagne in 5 easy steps!
Now, I wasn’t planning on making champagne this weekend – I didn’t even know the possibility was available to me. Yet, I kid you not, I now have a huge vat of champagne brewing in my kitchen, thanks to a serendipitous chat with a good friend at the school.gates on Friday afternoon. “Come to the [...] Read more...
A week of firsts
Its been a busy ‘ole week here in Glittering Shards land. We have had dear friends visiting all week and this weekend too. I have finished another mosaic piece for an exhibition – will post pics in the week – and have started on a beautiful, delicate commission for a 40th wedding anniversary. Workshops continue [...] Read more...






