Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

30th July 2020

Breastfeeding bliss, beachy crafts you'll want to hang on your walls, cutting-edge courgette recipes, magical free storytelling and wild art events!

Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

30th July 2020

Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

30th July 2020

EVENT Simply The Breast
World Breastfeeding Week runs from Saturday, a chance to celebrate the free, totally portable, nutrient-packed baby food. The week is a global campaign to raise awareness and galvanise action on themes related to breastfeeding. The 2020 theme is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet.” Why not join in the global virtual latch on? Ordinarily, parents would gather for a mass feed, supporting and promoting breastfeeding, but this year, it’s being done virtually. Find a network near you here

RECIPE Cor!-Gette
Courgettes are well and truly heavily in season: the shiny, long vegetables are sprouting on allotments and in gardens up and down the country. Feeling a bit jaded by the jade-green vegetable? Try some new ideas. A courgette and orange cake or fruity courgette muffins, simple enough for little hands to bake. Spiral them into noodles or get more creative; zing them up into a pickle, chutney, or marmalade. Or try our recipes for courgette chocolate ice-cream, griddled courgettes with mint and lemon or iced courgette soup with yoghurt.

MAKE Cockles and Mussels
Spending time on the beach in the sun? Shells are the perfect, free, art material. Try making a mathematical mandala – a great way to learn about art and maths, or blob crayons on heated shells. Hang these seashell-covered letters on your walls, and be reminded of holidays every time you see them or make this stylish, seashell-encrusted wreath for cool coastal style. Head here for more beautiful and cute ideas - we love their shell necklaces and driftwood weavings.

EVENT Listen In
The Yorkshire Festival of Story starts this weekend. This year it’s entirely online, and all free, which means everyone can enjoy the stellar line-up. The guest director is writer Joanne Harris, and she’ll be in conversation on Saturday. There are dozens of enticing events, but we’re most looking forward to the shadow play about the construction of the Ribblehead Viaduct, the Great Botanical Adventure, which tells the story of a Yorkshire man who toured the world in search of rare plants, a chat with Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen, and a romp through Kevin Crossley-Holland’s take on Norse mythology.

EVENT Trail Mix
Headed west this month? The Cornubian Arts & Science Trust based in Helston, Cornwall, are running a series of free outdoor creative events. Follow a CAST-OFF trail exploring the Cober valley and grounds of Penrose, with creative things do to. On Tuesdays and Saturdays there will be artists popping up along the way to inspire you. Maps and free sketchbooks and pencils will be available from CAST. Find out more here

What we’ve been reading this week:

‘We really shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves’: Ideas to entertain your kids this summer
“Tom Hodgkinson, the author of The Idle Parent, suggests ramping up slowly with an hour or so of “nothing time” every day – maybe less, if your children are very young. If they resist, he suggests doubling down on tedium – reading Paradise Lost or screening an Andrei Tarkovsky film – so that they end up running into another room and doing something else. ‘You could try boring them with your games so they invent something better,’ he advises. “Be a really boring mum.’” Read more here

Found something inspirational to read that you’d like to share? Want to share your creations with us? Have an idea for things to do? We’d love to hear from you. Email Kate

loading