My Moon-Shot - family life with a green twist - Clare F Hobba

  Nigel went down to a four-day working week. The idea is to find the activities with which he will one day enrich his retirement. His top p...

It's a year since Mum died. I guess, because we lived 300 miles apart, there's a sense in which she remains alive in the same way sh...

Sometimes we are so busy rushing off on tourism expeditions in other places that we fail to explore our own stamping ground. F...

At this time of year, part of me wants to stay in and hibernate, but part of me is ready to greet the new year with new adventur...

  It was very January today, when I went out for my morning walk - grey and spitting with drizzle. UNTIL I saw on the pavement a short trail...

I've been collecting feedback and reviewing Christmas with a view to improving my festive performance for next year.  There ...

Whenever a Christmas do comes round, I always want to say, 'Don't be ridiculous. I can't come out. I have far too mu...

It was Nigel's birthday.   He had said that he would prefer 'an experience'. Carenza, Sandy and I took him to The HG...

Our freezer got congested. It was completely full, yet we had little idea of the contents. So we've been eating our way through it.  Nea...

At the moment, if you visit our house, I will offer (gushingly) to introduce you to the new love of my life.  Indeed, he might be pottering ...

Last Friday, we went with Pascoe and Sophie to see Chekov’s The Seagull at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Running low on time, we de...

The change in climate means the seasons are less predictable.  This Autumn is a 'mast year' where beech trees produced a...

A couple of times a year, Nigel and I meet up with our old friends David and Carolyn who live in the North East. We walk, pub a...

  On Friday, I was out walking with two friends.   It was a five mile country ramble which we know well. Being women of a certain age, we ...

  We were paying our first visit to Perran in his new residence in Brussels. He took us to what used to be called a flea market but is now k...

  When we arrived in Enniskillen, the sun came out and shone throughout our visit. What a pretty place it was, surrounded by lakes and woods...

We were to drive from Carnlough to Derry/Londonderry. Was there anything we should see on the way? Indeed there was. On the Lima...

In Dublin, I was keen to visit bustling Grafton Street because it has so often been mentioned by Irish authors. There we stood, listening to...

It is clear the RSPB will stop at nothing to gain members.  But tinkering with the weather?!? When we arrived at Rathlin Island,...

On our way to Northern Ireland, our ferry docked at Dublin, so we'd decided to spend a couple of days.  We last were here over 25 years ...

Not long after returning from walking the Pembrokeshire coast and we are off again, this time to Northern Ireland. Nigel had booked travel a...

Finally we reached Broadhaven where we were to stop our walk and return home.  We had to admit that our hike had a couple of gap...

On a coast path, you are very exposed to the weather. Even worse, you can see it coming from a long way off, the cliffs whiting ...

Last year, when Nigel and I walked the South Downs Way, we met another couple who were undertaking the same walk. They said something which ...

I thought the coastpath walk was over for me. My poor old knees were very painful after 16 miles of distance and 1240 metres of ...

When my knees let me down and we abandoned our coastal walk, I said to Nigel, 'I remember you telling me about labrador dogs...

One of the drawbacks of walking a long distance path is it's a new hotel each night.  You don't get to know the place be...

In 2022 we walked Hadrian's Wall. Beforehand I was apprehensive - my various arthritic joints wouldn't hold up. But desp...

  I’ve always had plenty of greenery in my house, but I would never have called pot plants a hobby.   They are just part of the household,...

Carenza was preparing for the Hackney Half Marathon . She was hoping to beat her previous best by a whole seven minutes – a be...

 As pets we keep no dogs nor cats, but free-flying white doves who come to be fed. On the end of our house is a white dovecote which has p...

Before ever my mother became ill and died, we had booked a holiday cottage close to my parents for a week at Easter, intending to get the wh...