Hannah Lynes

Since April, I’ve been an Olio Food Waste Hero. This means I collect surplus food (in my case from Tesco). I can keep 10% for my family and I list the rest on the Olio app. People can then request the food from me and I try to share it out fairly. The aim is…

I’ve started researching the history of 49 Kelsey Lane, Beckenham. At the moment I’ve just started collecting relevant documents and links. I’m using Notion to keep track of what I find and you can see my Notion database here. If you have any information that could be relevant please let me know. If you can…

This is an update to my original post on school uniform and road safety. After hearing from a parent in another part of the country who had found my page useful and is complaining to her local school, I’ve decided that it’s time to restart my campaign which I had begun before COVID. I am…

DS1’s secondary school requires the children to wear black coats and bags, in addition to black trousers, shoes and socks. I believe this makes it harder for the children to be seen by drivers and increases their risk of being involved in road accidents. I don’t think this uniform policy is unusual – I know…

Are you applying for a policy-related job? Feeling anxious about whether you’ll have the right answers to the interview questions? Worried your mind will go blank at a crucial moment? In my pre-motherhood years, I attended lots of interviews for policy roles. I always worried that I wouldn’t be able to think of the right…

This is an update to my original article about my plants database. Since I first created a database of the plants in my garden and house, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of using it and have added some new features. As my database template is available for others to use, I’m providing this update…

On checking a small plant that had started growing amongst some gravel in our garden, I discovered that it is cotoneaster horizontalis. I also discovered that we have an overgrown horizontalis in front of our kitchen window. Reading up on this plant let me to realise that it’s considered to be a non-native invasive species…

In this post, I’ll explain how I’m making a database of all the plants in my garden and house and I’ll signpost you to the resources I’ve used, including my own Notion template, in case you’d like to try this yourself. We recently bought a new house which has a mature garden with lots of…

We’ve recently bought a house with a beautiful but slightly neglected garden. Having never really been much of a gardener, I’m embarking on a steep learning curve. I’m determined to do the garden justice even though I don’t know much right now. In the last few weeks since moving in, I’ve been using Plantnet to…

Given my maternity-related roles, I’m often asked by friends and neighbours about where new mothers can get support locally. I tell them about two places where mothers can not only turn for support, but also find community and opportunity. I know there are many support options available but these are two that I know about…