Waste Not Want Not

06/04/2026

Perfect advice! Enjoy your choc! 🐣

Happy Easter!

If you're tucking into an Easter egg today, don’t forget—you can recycle most of the packaging at home! Here’s what to do with the most common Easter waste:

✅ Easter egg boxes – clean, dry cardboard can be recycled at home!

✅ Plastic Easter egg packaging – all colours of plastic pots, tubs, and trays can be recycled at home, including the plastic trays inside your Easter egg box!

✅ Easter egg foil – Scrunch up the foil in your hand. If it holds its shape, it is aluminium foil and can be put in your recycling bin. If it springs back it contains plastic, can't be recycled and should be placed in your general waste bin.

🚫 Sweet wrappers and plastic packaging – soft plastics cannot currently be recycled in West Sussex and should go in your general waste bin. However, they can be taken to participating supermarkets for recycling as part of their soft plastic recycling scheme.

🐰 Easter decorations – keep them somewhere safe and re-use them next year! If they can’t be re-used, put them in your general waste bin or consider donating them if they’re in good condition.

💐 Flowers – cut flowers can go in a compost bin or garden waste bin if you have one.

03/04/2026

29/03/2026

Lovely, lovely lemons! 🍋 And Piazza Di Maradona! Amazing!

28/03/2026

Fabulous food touring in Napoli with these two followed by shopping and a carbohydrate induced coma! More pastries I could do! Fried pizza and pasta not so much. But we’ve found a very special spot we love slot!

14/03/2026

So I don't get time to research and post much these days, but I do still make sure I buy the 'right' low waste, resource friendly products! I am massively into 'refillable', 'solid' and buying in bulk to avoid unnecessary use of fuel for transport, and plastic for packaging! You might be suprised to know that it can quite often save you money to do this.

I also often rely on the lovely Wendy at Moral Fibres for her impeccably researched view on things. She's written this piece on refillable beauty, and I just wanted to share it. I don't do a lot of 'beauty', but I do try to do 'refillable'.

As ever with these things, some of the big players and even some of the more innovative brands don't do quite what they claim to be doing, and this is a great guide as to what to look out for and some of the better brands to support.

If you look at the Moral Fibres website, you'll find similar information on just about every subject! And her Substack is brilliant! I've posted a link in the comments below.

And if there is anything in particular you are trying to find a product for, let me know...I will sometimes know, and I'll almost certainly know where to look!

Enjoy! x

21/02/2026

Today is my dad’s birthday. He met Ella only once, when she was three months old, a week after his 70th birthday and the day before he died.

My last memory of him conscious was him staring at his first grandchild like he wanted to imprint that image on his brain for eternity. I hope he did, and I hope she was the ending to his story he was hoping for.

At 16 she stands 5’8 tall, just like his mum, my Oma. She loves to dance and she is an amazing cook - just like my Oma - with aspirations to work in the hospitality industry, the industry he loved his whole life, his passion to provide impeccable customer service and food! She is a natural and I am sure it comes from him.

He would have been so proud to see her performing her solo at the Godalming Arts Festival this week. And delighted that she plans to study Travel and Tourism next year.

She doesn’t like beer much though, so the genetic connections stop there! 😂😂 Prost Daddy! I will certainly raise a beer to you today! 🍻

18/01/2026

GCSE year coping strategy Part 1. When retiring to the utility room to iron the school uniform that nobody else actually irons but you have been ironing for nearly 5 years, take a perfectly chilled glass of Gary Barlow with you. You don’t want to be in the kitchen when she is practising making pasta for Food Tech! She de-boned a chicken breast like a pro.

💕

23/12/2025

One of my favourite bits of Christmas. Packing up the home made gifts. I very nearly bailed on the home made stuff this year as I was running out of time. But a friend and serendipity, also known as my cousin Paula, urged me to make the extra push and give the piccalilli a go. So glad I did. It is my kind of liquid gold. Looking forward to sharing it and the slightly dodgy looking Pfeffernuesse - they taste good though. You can taste the pinch of white pepper which has without doubt been my favourite ingredient discovery this year. Adding it liberally to all my lovely winter soups! God, I love making soup!

Anyway, to all you ‘elves’ aka mums creating Christmas magic, remember to take a moment to yourself and do the bit that you enjoy. We are nearly there.

18/12/2025

This year I made a super grown up wreath for a change! This is because I was lucky enough to be guided expertly through the process by the lovely Kate from

It was a lovely treat to spend the morning in her little flower barn having an as usual fascinating chat and creating this. In fact we chatted so much, I ended up with an enormous wreath which is now adorning my front gate.

It’s far less stressful when somebody tells you how to do it! And now I know the secrets I have a new skill for life! I am so appreciative and grateful that she took the time to show me how! Thank you Kate! 💕

03/12/2025

And then there were two at the traditional and ever earlier Christmas tree buying ceremony! The chaos is evident. Christmas tree security will be required. 16 years, three springer spaniels, and of course, a partridge in a pear tree. Happy December everyone! 🐶🐶🐶🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

20/10/2025

Shades of plum! Loving them! 💜