🌱 When the Light Returns

With the lighter nights and Spring edging closer, something in me lifts. Shoots push through soil after a winter that felt far too long. The birds get louder, the air hums again, and nature remembers itself. It’s a joyous time of year — a small resurrection.

🐾 The Unplanned Cat Confessional

I hadn’t planned on writing about my little fluffs, but clearly something in me needed to reach out. My animals are stitched into my days whether I intend to talk about them or not.

My old boy — rescued almost fifteen years ago — still uses my head as a midnight treadmill. One a.m., purring like a tiny engine, demanding fuss. I’ve tried shutting him out, but he throws himself at the door with such force I worry he’ll knock himself into another realm. He came back to me through my son after his sibling died last year, and losing that one nearly split me open. Pets do that. They love without conditions, and the grief is the price of that purity.

Then there’s the one left for dead in a plant pot outside a foodbank, rain hammering down. Friends got him to rescue, and I helped nurse him from the edge. I brought him home to die — he chose life instead. Now he’s fat, adored, and entirely himself.

He vanished for six months during the height of the stalking terror. I still don’t know how I got through that period. My cat had been charming a chip shop for scraps, and a kind lady put him on Facebook. I don’t do socials, but a mate saw it and contacted me. We trapped him in thunder and rain and brought him home.

In the meantime, one dark night I trapped another stray cat in an alley way that I thought was him. It wasn’t. Nobody claimed the poor baby, so I kept him. He stole my heart. And then, a couple of months after this, my original boy returned, the stand‑in died in my arms at the vets. Very poorly. Very loved. Possibly he was abandoned as his previous owner couldn’t afford the vet fees. He wasn’t neutered either. The alleys are full of lost love. But to be found. I love the back streets. Though tampering with security needs close supervision.

In the last three years I’ve held three animals as they left for the universe — my dog of eighteen years, and two cats. Each one tore something open and left something behind.

🏡 A Sanctuary Made of Us

Two cats remain, plus the other little rescues who orbit this house. They take time, money, sleep, and emotional bandwidth. They also give structure, humour, warmth, and a reason to get up when the world feels sharp. We’re a sanctuary — all of us rescued, all of us recovering, all of us choosing one another.

Yes, I could do more without them. I don’t take holidays. I can’t just hop across the pond to see loved ones. We’d have to travel as a package. But it’s possible. And honestly, I wouldn’t trade this ecosystem of love and hope for anything.

📻 Jazz FM, Danielle Perry, and the Art of Being Kept Company

Most days I potter — always something to do, always wondering where to start. The radio keeps me company, and for years now it’s been Jazz FM. I’ve gotten to know the characters. Danielle Perry is on at the moment. I feel like I live with her and the family sometimes. She shares how she met her husband, what she’s done with the kids. She’s a Gemini and I often think, she sounds like me, though her history in music is extensive.

Yesterday she and the Jazz FM team covered the Jazz FM Awards — the nominees, the stories, the excitement. Now the public can vote. I’ll be honest: some of the acts I know well, others not at all. But that’s the quest — to discover the artists not yet on my radar.

I was thrilled to hear Emma‑Jean Thackray is up for an award. Her music is part of my story. She’s a brain‑stimulator, crafty, cosmic. And EarthONaut — their song arrived at the right moment for me and a special man across the pond. Then the absolutely ‘all mighty’ Snarky Puppy who delivered a full orchestral performance!! So good luck to them all. 🎶

But with any award system, I’d encourage people to vote honestly for who they enjoy most. Not strategically. The UK needs to rise in real talent — an altruistic platform of art, music, and intellectual entertainment. We need to break the loop that fills our heads with rubbish. Music is our pressure‑release valve.

🧹 Reclaiming the Corners

I haven’t had time for TV. My focus is getting organised — and I haven’t been. Christmas was chaos with vintage. Now I need to step back, look at what I have, and decide: throw it away, give it away, or sell it. I need to put my nests into chapters. To create busy corners that still have a system.

🌍 The Small Things That Keep Us Human

I hope everyone is enjoying whatever makes them happy. Sometimes it’s the small things: a mannerism, finding something lost, a gesture of goodwill, a smile in the supermarket, a bird on the window ledge.

We must learn to live with ourselves before we can be a joy to another.

🎷 Vote at Jazz FM

So anyway after you have explored the various artists and bands up for The 2026 Jazz Awards, you can vote!

🐰Rabbit🐰