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  The weather this year has been dire, this picture was taken on July 4th and is a rare specimen as it features sunlight glancing on the patio. I find it hard to get motivated when the sky is grey but usually when I get into my studio I can find my mojo. At the moment I am working on a few paintings and doing a course in psychic development. I like doing courses, I have diplomas in all sorts of things: mindfulness, CBT, counselling, intuitive healing, tarot, freelance journalism, spiritual life coaching and others. Years ago I did a course in counselling before it had even become a thing, I still have my certificate which is dated  2002. Life sort of gets in the way though, people need you, children need you, partners need you, schools need you, work needs you, parents need you, animals need you, and you need yourself. So, life is busy. But it's not so busy now, my children are adults, my animals have gone over the rainbow bridge, dad needs me, grandchildren need me and my hea...

This is a photograph of me and my eldest daughter, she is thirty-two years old now. The photo was taken by her granddad on holiday in Spain. I had Emily when I was twenty-three. I had no plan for our lives, other than to be happy. The early years of my marriage and motherhood were lovely. We owned our house (well, with a mortgage) my husband had an excellent job in The City, and I was a stay-at-home mum. Me and Emily had a blissful couple of years. Then when I was pregnant with my second child, my husband lost his job and the recession kicked in. Our riches turned to poverty. Our freedoms turned into prisons. The prison of poverty and depression. My husband fell into a despair. But I had two young people to nurture. A lot of people were in the same boat, and we all helped each other out, some managed to stay strong while others fell by the wayside. Then circumstances picked up again and we were OK for a while. My husband chose to spend a lot of time in the pub, but that was ...