Hannah Lynes

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…

My family and I travelled around the UK in summer 2020 visiting Harry Potter sights. This was a way of having a varied holiday that all the family could engage with and enjoy. Our 12 and 9 year olds are big Harry Potter fans. Some people have asked me to share our itinerary, so I’m…

If a breastfed baby or child needs to have a general anaesthetic, how long before their surgery do they need to stop breastfeeding? I’m researching the instructions given to parents by NHS services across the country. It appears that most hospitals say the last breastfeed should be at least 4 hours prior to surgery, but…

I’m sharing something my family has started doing in the last few days. If you’d like to encourage people in your household to do what is right, then there may be something you could adapt here. When we play card games with counters, (Nain Jaune is a favourite thanks to DH’s French ancestry), our children…

We’ve bought a house. It’s a special house, not just any house, probably unique. But it’s not a perfect house. It sits on its own little plot, like a tiny bit of countryside in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood. It has some pretensions to grandness – wooden pillars, “imposing” double doors and stuck on…

I recently adopted a new habit – to share something of value every day. I was inspired by listening to Ali Abdaal’s video about passive income in which he emphasised the importance of creating useful content consistently over time. And while I’m not likely to match Ali’s level of productivity, I thought maybe I could…

This is my first post describing a fun family activity. I’d like this to be the first of many such posts and hope that I can build a library of fun things families can do together that I and others can turn to if we’re stuck for inspiration. This post describes an activity that my…