By Kate Hodges
18th March 2020
Together We Are Stronger
This month, the world has become a darker, more intense place. Many of us are now in semi- or total-lockdown, living small-scale, confined to houses and, if we’re lucky, gardens. Testing times, to be sure. We’ve started a list of online resources to help, from how to structure your days, to lesson plans and home-ed resources, online story tellers and ideas for kitchen-table art, front-room workouts, inventive ways to play, stress reducers for the family, fun sites to visit, virtual museums to explore, and the online communities springing up to support us all. Please take a look, share and get in touch if you have any suggestions for more resources or just want to chat. Meanwhile, over at our Facebook community, we’re sharing resources and tips, and getting through this together!
DO Here We Grow
Facing a distinct lack of greenery in your newly confined life? Try these kitchen planting ideas using leftovers that work even in tiny living spaces – we are going to grow beautiful potato plants and regrow organic vegetables from scraps! Magical – and deeply cheering. Alternatively, you can never, ever go wrong with cress heads, and, if you’re all at home, they’ll get all the attention they need.
DO Thanks, Mum
It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, and, this year in particular, celebrations will be home-centred. Find our ideas for alternative ways to mark the event here, from foraging, making scrapbooks full of memories, or creating a CD or playlist of songs that mean something to you and your family.
If you’d like a deeper dive into the emotions behind the occasion, (M)Others Day is a project developed by artist and author of Mother in the Mother Pippa Robinson.
It aims to looks behind the surface commercial vision of Mothers Day - the cards, chocolates and flowers, to try and unearth what the day really means to people, particularly if those people have a challenging, ambiguous or absent relationship with their mother, or if their mother has died.
Pippa is collecting people’s stories here and will have a selection of stories to share for online publishing. Why not share your story with her?
EVENT Here Comes Spring
The spring equinox, or Eostre falls on Friday. Bulbs are bursting from the ground, there are early lambs in the fields, but this year, for obvious reasons, small-scale, family celebrations are the way forward and are a way of fostering hope and positivity in dark times. Find ideas for how to celebrate inside and out here – a country stroll, a feast, creating a spring nature table or dyeing or balancing eggs on end (apparently you can only do it at the spring and summer equinoxes!). Find more ways to make Eostre magical here
EVENT Fly-By Gardening
The Wildlife Trusts and the RHS set up Wild About Gardens to celebrate and encourage people to use their gardens to help support nature. This year, they’re campaigning to encourage the green-fingered among us to create butterfly- and moth-friendly patches. Collectively, we can improve the homes and food sources of these beautiful creatures. Why not use your new spare family time to create a patch for butterflies. Read the guide on how to get started here (you could even win goodies from new film, The Secret Garden.
What we’ve been reading this week:
The family lockdown guide: how to emotionally prepare for coronavirus quarantine
““I’d suggest at the very start the family sit down and devise a family contract,” Waters says. “Have a discussion: what do you think will be the biggest challenges? What are the strengths that we each have as an individual family member that can help out?” Discussing concerns and expectations about the quarantine, and what role each person can play to make it better, can be helpful, she says. “Forewarned is forearmed.”” Read more here
Found something inspirational to read that you’d like to share? Want to share your lockdown creations with us? Have an idea for things to do? We’d love to hear from you. Email Kate
