I love Mondays! The girls are dispatched on to their school bus, a quick clear up of breakfast things, and I'm off. The journey in itself is a treat. Roof down, I usually leave Half Tree Hollow in blazing sunshine, climb up the hill to St. Paul's and beyond, quickly leaving the orange dust behind, barely out of second gear. Within five minutes I have entered a different landscape and climate zone. The chilly mist of low cloud, swathes of ferns and flax, and anci...

I have fallen in love with this island. The beauty and the brokenness, it's stunning vistas and its vulnerability. A mere spec in the South Atlantic, this island doesn't yet know its true worth, it hasn't yet realised its potential. an island damaged and altered by outside influences. Imperfect, yet hopeful, and so full of promise. This island, which makes me gasp in surprise, belly laugh at its absurdities, and stops me in my tracks in awe of its beauty. This i...

Two weeks in and we are settling in to the rhythm of life here. After several showery and overcast days it has become very warm again. For a week or so Phoebe was very low, and begged us alternately to get a dog, and go home! I think partly it's boredom. We are living with the contents of our suitcases, so the girls just have a handful of books and DVD's and a few small toys. Interestingly they are adapting. They are tiring of watching DVD's and are venturing out...

Today, 25th November, is the international day for Elimination of Violence against Women, "white ribbon day", marked in the UK and many places around the world, including here in St Helena. This evening I joined a group of about 30 to walk from the bay at Jamestown to the Jamestown Community centre, wearing white ribbons and carrying candles. We gathered down at the bay, several women from the Salvation Army, the couple who run the 7th day Adventist church, some ...

Today's activity of choice was donkey walking. The weather has become unseasonably cloudy, windy and drizzly, though still fairly warm at half tree hollow. Donkey walking is over at blue hill, in the central, higher altitude part of the island. It's about a 15 minute drive (or would be if it wasn't for a 20 minute diversion to scoot round a road closure due to road repairs.) the change to the landscape and the climate in that 15 minutes is staggering and a bit su...