I hope you all had a good Easter! It is April, season of spring planting and a little sunshine. Perhaps the season to embrace going out without a jacket again? Then again, perhaps not. Yesterday (while I languished in an extra day off by mostly staying in bed and listening to Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince), it poured with rain on and off, interspersed with glorious spring sunshine almost tempting me to venture out before it actually thunderstormed. Suffice to say I will be staying indoors a while longer.

A short history of marmalade.

“The bookstore has a personality of it’s own.” A bookstore with a typewriter in the basement.

Talking to children about their experiences of food insecurity.

Women and their experiences of health.

Seed libraries in book libraries! Such a wonderful idea. I feel like I need to start one in Nottingham.

The complexity of philanthropic foundations.

Independent food magazines that are surviving despite more traditional magazines folding or cutting staff.

Two articles have dominated my Twitter feed in the last few weeks: Helen Rosner using a hair dryer to improve her roast chicken (I am totally going to try her recipe the next time I cook chicken) and Alice Waters’ egg-spoon.

Following your intuition.

Jamón production.

I made a decision back in January to try and buy fewer books this year. Not no new books you understand, because that is virtually impossible for me, but just to not buy books on a whim. I found that it was making me very anxious having all these unread books about you see. Of course, in the last few months I have bought some but notably less than normal. What is more, I am choosing what to read from my shelves of bought-and-forgotten books. One I finished recently is Lady of Magick. This is the second in a series about Sophie and Gray, powerful mages in a world where magic is still very much studied, and magical people live amongst non-magic folk. I loved this second instalment because the action moves from Oxford and London up to Edinburgh. Sophie comes into her own as a young witch. Her sister Joanna is one of my favourite characters, being non-magical but practical and sensible. She is regularly around to save the day.

Writers on overcoming creative blocks.

Have a good week! x