JC

Suddenly I can forage for and breakfast on field mushrooms every day. Marvellous.

Some time mid/late August I woke up and decided things had to change, mainly because I want to be around (and healthy) as long as I can for my children. Vaping, energy drinks and alcohol. These were the bad things. So vaping stopped, replaced with those little pouches, intake fell off a cliff and continues to be tapered. Energy drinks, in hindsight I wasn't just hooked on the caffeine, even on the days I was well rested I was reaching for a big colourful can of pick-me-up, so they stopped and when I really must I reach for a coke instead. Alcohol, too easy to end a day with a few drinks at home, so for now that's reserved for social occasions only. Has it been easy - no. I've been a nightmare to live with, and know there are probably some weeks left before I'm over the grouchiness, but my other half told me don't quit quitting now

Nick emailed me about his Friends page concept after finding me on Derek's Now directory. After the children went back to Mum after summer I'd really been thinking how I need to spend more time nurturing my wider human connections and Nick's email landed right in the middle of those thoughts, so the page went up. The concept isn't just a long list of people your friends with but people that are important to you and links to their online presence, some are people I'm well acquainted with, others I've met or conversed with a handful of times, others have simply influenced me in a big way and we've never met.

Ever heard of Loving Kindness Medititation? You bring yourself into a state of 'warmth' - think about the warmth you feel for someone dear to you, hold that feeling, that sensation, then wish kind thoughts, first towards your self, then to others. The HeartMath Institute run regular sessions where hundreds or thousands of their users all do a similar practise at the same time, all holding positive intentions on an area or group of individuals and their data shows those positive intentions have real world effect. So I scaled this idea down. Sometimes it's hard to open up, sometimes there's nobody to open up to. So the Someone Cares app gives people a way of placing their emotional cloud on the map, and others can practise a short loving kindness focused on that cloud on the map, hopefully with a similar positive effect. At the very least it means you can place your cloud on the map and know that you are seen, know that someone has focused their kindness upon you. The app encourages users to warm others' clouds, but at the very least I focus my loving kindness practise on those clouds on the map so no cloud goes unwarmed. A simple idea, it's not exactly the kind of thing that is likely to go viral, but if from time to time it makes a small difference for someone then it was all worth it.

7 books so far, written for my children, available freely for anyone. There are more to come but I've not worked on them over summer as that time is being present with my children. My children always want to hear them at bedtime now, which means the world to me, they've even suggested ideas for new books.

I've spent quite a bit of time at various beachs in North Yorkshire, and over the last few years have figured out which beach to go to if you want to find a particular fossil, what the parking situation is like, whether or not it's going to be pushchair friendly (it's a couple of years since I needed a pushchair but once you're in the habit you can't help but notice these things), if there's toilets nearby, and so on. Originally I uploaded this to Etsy, but I wasn't prepared to spend time driving traffic to the page so it's available on the link above, and for everyone's favourite price - FREE.