Travel

The woods will wait for you

A flask, a quiet place to sit, and nowhere you need to be.

There is a particular kind of tiredness that only trees seem to fix. Not the gym sort of outdoors, with a route and a target and an app counting your steps. Just trees, and quiet, and the smell of the ground after rain.

Late summer is a lovely time to go. The light comes through the leaves in that soft, greenish way, the blackberries are out along the paths, and the whole place is just beginning to think about turning. You do not need to go far. Whatever woodland is nearest to you will do the job, though if you fancy a proper day of it, the New Forest, the Forest of Dean, Grizedale up in the Lakes, or Sherwood are all worth the drive.

Here is the only plan you need: a flask of something warm, wellies (theirs and yours), and no particular route. Let the children get filthy. Let yourself sit on a log for longer than feels productive. There is nothing to see, no landmark to reach, no photo you have to get. That is the point of it.

A forest asks nothing of you. It does not mind whether you are keeping up, or getting things done, or making the most of the day. It simply lets you be there, under the trees, for as long as you like.
Go when you can. The woods will wait for you.

The one good coat

There is a morning, usually somewhere near the end of August, when you step outside and feel it for the first time. Not cold, exactly. Just the smallest cool edge to the air that was not there last week. Autumn, sending word ahead. It is the loveliest moment to think

A chair for the long evenings

Late August does this lovely thing with the light. By eight o’clock it comes in low and gold and sideways, catches the dust, and turns an ordinary corner into somewhere you want to sit. It does not last. In a few weeks the evenings will draw in, and we

Hello. How was your day?

Tough, long, still going, exhausting, anxious. All the feels. I just want to say to you: you're amazing. You're here. You're living. You are doing such a great job. And I want to say to you, you don't have to. You don&

Tomatoes, and not much else

There is a short window, right about now, when tomatoes actually taste of something. It does not last long in England, so this is the month to do very little to them and let them do the work. This is the pasta I make on a hot evening when I

Read more

The one good coat

A chair for the long evenings

Hello. How was your day?

Tomatoes, and not much else