Katie in Richmond Park today

Living next to Richmond Park is a joy every day of the year for all the family but when it snows the pleasure the park gives is wonderful. The excitement started when the kids schools closed on Friday and they all got home early.

I had to cancel my trip to Cambridge University where I was going to speak to the MBA students, which hopefully we can reschedule, and took Sam, Katie and their friends off to catch the first of the tobogganing.

A snowy allotment

Sam had surgery the day before to remove the offending fang and less than 24 hours later he was hurling himself down the slopes deliberately engineering face plants by way of entertainment. Thankfully the stitches held!

On Saturday my sister and I did a brisk walk covering a few miles around the park, admiring the deer and marvelling at the peace and quiet.







Today Katie, Hubbie  and I walked all the way around the park, around 6 miles stopping off at the allotment on the way home to shake the snow off my netting which is doing a vital job  keeping the pigeons off my brassicas. I love this weather, it brings out the best in all of us.

When teeth can kill

Image from the fantastic blog Weirdness And Cake

I am sharing this tale so that you might know what I have learnt in the last couple of days, which is: teeth they can be killers.

My Sam and the children of Sierra Leone need your help

My 14-year-old son Sam is training hard to cycle the 220 miles from London to Paris in aid of Street Child Sierra Leone in three weeks, and he needs your support. To sponsor him and his Dad, who is going to do it with him, just go to Sam Ogden-Newton's page on JustGiving.

Chris (front) with (l to r) Joe, our
friend Nick and Sam, off for a ride

Sam's school, St James in Ashford, has been fund-raising for Street Child, which gives a better future to children living on the streets of the world's poorest country.

When Sam was asked to think about what he'd like to do to help, he had been really moved by the stories of the precarious lives of these children, so different from his own, so he decided to really challenge himself and try to make a difference.

His father Chris and I want the children to be ambitious and if they feel able to, to push themselves. So even though Sam is only just 14 and many people think we are mad, we have agreed to this personal challenge as long as his Dad cycles with him and I can bring up the rear in the back-up vehicle, otherwise known as the family car, with puncture kits etc. on board. 

We have only just sorted out the dates for the journey to fit around Sam's school schedule; so he will be setting off on Saturday 3 June. That leaves just three weeks to train with the added complications of a mildly fractured hand (rugby at the weekend) and out-of-shape Chris (note snuggly fitting yellow cycle jacket above). 

Still it's all to play for and the boys are trying to fit 35 miles in each day between now and push-off. Go on, it's a great cause and Sam is a great kid with a big heart and the courage to really help others, even those he has not met.

Click here to read more

My three visually challenged mice

Katie, Sam and Joe (right) sporting their natty, new specs

Watching the TV as a family these days has taken an odd turn. When everyone is looking at the screen, I find myself glimpsing the faces around me because I am now surrounded by the visually challenged.