Being Buttons

125 years of the National Trust

125 years of the National Trust

This year marks 125 years since the National Trust was formed. I’m sure there were meant to be a number of exhibitions and celebrations throughout the year which, like many things, have now had to be cancelled, postponed or moved online. I’ve been a member of the National Trust for as long as I can remember and have a great many happy memories from visiting National Trust properties and land as I’ve grown up. Now seems the perfect time to share some of my favourite locations in my own personal celebration of its anniversary.

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A Lock-down Food Diary

A Lock-down Food Diary

Anyone who has spoken to me, or has read one of my previous posts on life in lock-down will have realised that I’ve become slightly obsessed with food over the last month or so. I think about food a lot. I’ve barely finished one meal and I’ve already started planning the rest. Why? Well I do enjoy food and lock-down is as good a time as any to eat well and take time preparing it. Underpinning this there is probably also a slight anxiety about when it will be time to do our next food shop, but I’m choosing to focus on the fact that lock-down has helped me to rediscover my enjoyment for cooking and planning meals which are tasty and varied.

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Lessons Learned in Lock-down

Lessons Learned in Lock-down

A few weeks ago I shared a few thoughts about life in lock-down. At that point I’d been working from home for four weeks and living in lock-down for just under three. Now we are into our sixth week of life in lock-down and it’s all starting to feel a lot more normal and familiar. In my last post I was still reacting to what was happening, whereas now I feel a bit more able to reflect on the current situation. James and I have spent a lot of time on our daily walks discussing if and what the world will learn from this period of time and how it might adapt accordingly. But I think there’s a lot that we can take which starts with us as individuals before we start to think about what big businesses and governments might learn.

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A love of libraries

A love of libraries

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love books and reading. I’ll be honest, it’s a little bit odd that I don’t write about books more often but I’ve never really been one for writing reviews. However, more and more frequently I’ve become surprised by how few adults I come across own library cards, let alone understand why they would want one. This baffles me! I’ve used libraries from pretty much as soon as I was reading and having enjoyed them as a child the thought never even crossed my mind that I wouldn’t use them as an adult. But apparently it’s not a service that everyone makes use of, and libraries are one of our services that are at risk of losing funding. This post shares my love of libraries, through different ages and for different reasons.

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Twelve non-fiction book recommendations for life in lock-down (or any other time…)

Twelve non-fiction book recommendations for life in lock-down (or any other time…)

When I was younger, I would devour book after book after book and the vast majority would be fiction. I would never consider looking for non-fiction books to buy, asking for them as gifts or getting them out of the library. I had a few, such as my trusty encyclopedia which I would happily sit and flick through but my main interest was always reading stories. That all changed rather suddenly in my early twenties. Whilst I still very much enjoy fiction, I’ve found myself reading more non-fiction than ever before. I have a long list that I want to read and I find myself gravitating towards non-fiction new releases in bookshops.

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