Want to give a sock gift that gives and makes a difference?

Well, take a look at Bare Kind’s Bamboo Socks!   I’ve just bought three and they are SOOOO comfortable!  Really, really soft and they wash well too. 

Founder  Lucy Jeffrey founded Bare Kind in 2018.  She wanted to create something that would add value to the world and be loved, and as an animal lover, her childhood dream was to be a vet.  A fear of needles meant that dream ended but the amazing Lucy found a new purpose – to create animal saving socks, and save animals one sock and a time! 

Bare Kind have been saving animals for more than 7 years with their sock profit donation model, and their Impact Report just shows how socks can help make a difference. 

For every purchase, Bare Kind gives 10% of profits to a charity for the species on the sock.  So every time I put my socks on, I know my purchases have made a difference to the species represented on the sock!   I went for pangolins (the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation), puffins (Scottish Seabird Centre) and koalas (the Australian Wildlife Conservancy).   And yes it was really difficult to choose, so I will have to keep buying so the other animals don’t feel left out!!  You can buy them in bundles and mystery bundles – where you just see what appears! 

Bare Kind’s vision is “to bring joy to everyday and to empower the restoration of our biodiverse planet” and they are doing it through socks.  I love their puffin socks;  this is how they arrive:

And their Impact Report for 2025 made fascinating reading for me, and it just showed the impact buying their socks can make.  

There are a lot of charities the donations from Bare Kind have helped in 2025 and they include the Penrith Swift Group – who say that the donation will enable them to install swift nest boxes on a local school to increase swift numbers in the Penrith area.  Doing this will raise awareness of swifts, and inspire the children to care for this species.  

The donations from Puffin Socks have helped to fund conservation and outreach projects such as SOS Puffin Project – it helps to clear invasive tree mallow which had been impacting puffin colonies on local islands of the Firth of Forth, and allowed the Scottish Seabird Centre to take part in 39 community group beach cleans along the East Lothian coastline.  581 kgs of litter were removed. 

But those are just two charities.   Donations from Bare Kind helped Hope Pastures (horses, donkeys, ponies) and Woodgreen.  They helped the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, the Seahorse Trust, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Essex Wildlife Trust and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.   They helped Sea Trees to plant over 1,000 mangroves in Kenya, and donations helped the Snow Leopard Trust, Wolves and Humans, Helping Rhinos and  the Orangutan Foundation. 

So if you want to buy a gift for an animal lover, take a look at Bare Kind.  

Pong Cheese (I love the name!) have a HUGE range of cheeses which make great gifts for anyone who loves cheese and trying different types of cheese.

It was created to bring some of the best cheeses produced by independent and artisan producers.   And they've got gifts for everyone occasion, from birthday to anniversary, and even a Cheese Club with a gift subscription!  

Some of their cheeses have got unusual names, such as the 'Stinking Bishop' - a really pongy cheese, as the name suggests! - and the 'Oxford Blue' which looks a bit bizarre.   

This is the Pong Cheese Explorer Box
for £24.95 with artisan cheeses from England and France.
Bon appetit! 

This summer, Pong Cheese are offering 10% off their international and picnic cheeses here with code SUMMER26.  These include French, Spanish and Italian cheeses, plus individual cheeses and gift boxes.  And they'll be adding more over the summer to the list - all mouth-watering! 

This is the French Superieur Selection Box 
for £48.95 with the creme-de-la-creme of French cheeses! 
Tuck in to more information here.

Head over to Pong Cheese to see the products included in this offer here - the offer expires on 31st August 2026.

Did you know that this year (2026), it’s the 160^th anniversary of the birth of world famous and much loved author, Beatrix Potter? 

I adore Beatrix Potter, and especially the tales of rabbits Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.   When my mother read the Tale of Peter Rabbit to me as a child, she said I always burst into giggles at the first sentence and continually thereafter!  Today, I have the The World of Peter Rabbit Complete Collection, (which you can buy from Amazon) and the beautiful illustrations and tales Beatrix Potter produced never cease to make me smile and giggle! 

So to celebrate the 160^th years since the birth of Beatrix Potter, those fabulous people at Emma Bridgewater have a new Peter Rabbit™ collection!  . Beatrix Potter adored the British countryside and the limited edition products bring the Tales of Peter Rabbit to life. 

The collection is comprised of two ranges taking inspiration from original stencils created by Beatrix Potter’s original art and illustrations.

And they come on products such as mugs, dinner plates, cereal bowls, French bowl, a tea towel, - and there’s a gift set which is boxed, with 6 ½ inch plate and a small mug!  There’s also garden bunting, a garden quilted throw, and personalised gifts, too! 

You can find out more about the story of the Peter Rabbit™ collection and how they came into being, from Emma Bridgewater’s Head of Design, Sophie, here. 

Hop off to take a look at the collection here!  Oh, and by the way, they have a  Peter Rabbit Inspired™ Carrot Cake recipe!  Why not give it a go?

The 27^th April to 3^rd May 2026 is National Gardening Week.   And it invites us all to embrace curiosity in our gardens; to slow down, to look more closely and find out about “the small wonders that bring outdoor spaces to life, as the RHS says”.

It’s amazing what I find in the nooks and crannies of our garden – I always feel very excited about it!  And getting excited and discovering more about our garden spaces, however large or small they are, is a great way to strengthen our connection with these areas.

What are different ways we can celebrate National Gardening Week?

Here are 5 ways to celebrate our gardens!

Who are we sharing them with? 

Sir David Attenborough’s new Secret Garden shows we are probably all sharing our garden spaces with far more creatures than we think.   Who are you sharing your garden with?  Watching for wildlife who are coming to visit can lead us to ask, what more can we do to encourage more wildlife and help them?  Having a water feature – however big or small – is a great way to entice wildlife!  Why not take part in the National Garden Scheme’s Big British Garden Survey and help them map the biodiversity in gardens across Britain?

The RSPB has this Garden birds identifier chart for £4.50
Who can you see in your garden?

Enjoy just being in your garden

I love walking round ours.  It’s not very big, and needs a lot of work;  I want to get planting and put lots of colourful and wildlife friendly flowers and plants in it.  But I love peering round the corner to see if anyone is visiting;  to look out of the window and watch the birds taking a bath or tucking in to our feeders, and examining our small garden pond for signs of life.  Take time to sit and watch, sit and listen;  enjoy the sun’s warmth. 

Do some nature journalling! 

I found a great site by John Muir Laws which tells you all about nature journalling.   It’s a great way to really sharpen your observations of things in your garden, be they wildlife or plants and flowers.   Why not do some drawing or painting?   Keep a journal of what your garden means to you, take photos of it throughout a year or photograph things really up close, such as a patch of grass and then see what you can see in it and draw. 

This is the RSPB Lodge nest box classic apex for £26.00

Celebrate those inspiring people who spread the love of gardens and gardening!  Be one of them!  Spread the word! 

There are many gardening charities doing amazing work to help people learn more about it, and also help people get into gardening who may not otherwise be able to do any.   Thrive for instance, the RHS campaigns such as their Campaign for School Gardening and community gardening.   Thrive use gardening “to bring about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities or ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable”.

Discover more about gardening.

Did you know that the RHS has an RHS Grow app?   You can use it to identify plants and keep track of what you’re growing – and get tips to help care for them.  But the RHS has LOTS of information on its website, e.g. planting ideas for small spaces, beginner’s guide to gardening, five ways to help birds in every season, plants for pollinators, how to make a wildlife pond etc.  Take some time this week to have a good dig around their website.   They have lots of courses and workshops which may be of interest too! What other things can you put in your garden to add interest, colour, sound and scent?  Plus, what should you be doing this month?  Check out the RHS tips on what to do in April.

Find out how you can make a difference to biodiversity & climate change.

Sir David Attenborough’s programme Secret Garden on BBC1 shows that there is a great deal we can all do to have an impact.   There are 41 million gardeners in the UK – and the RHS says we are “at the frontline in protecting biodiversity and fighting climate change”.  

Whatever you do, just enjoy your garden and use your five senses to make the most of it:  sight to enjoy the beauty of it, hearing to listen to bees humming and birds singing;  smell to enjoy the various scents;  touch to feel the different textures (may be not stinging nettles!), and feel – how does being in your garden make you feel?  Happy?  Contented?  Relaxed? 

Enjoy visiting other gardens

This is a great way to enjoy the fruits of labour of other people, and just relax and take a stroll round gardens you may not have visited before.  I love visiting gardens at different times during the year, taking in the different sights, sounds and light.  If I’m travelling somewhere, I make a point of stopping at gardens en route.  It’s lovely to get chatting with fellow garden lovers as we gaze in awe at the beautiful sights before us.  And of course to stop at the café, if there is one, to tuck in after gentle exercise.  It’s a great way to get ideas for your own garden.  I like to come home and make notes of what I’ve seen that I particularly liked to see if I might just be able to put them in somewhere in my garden. 

Why not visit gardens and be inspired there? 
Virgin Experience Days has some great experiences at Kew Gardens  
See what they've got here.

The National Garden Scheme has been  funding nursing and health charities since 1927, and it offers a wonderful way to explore lots of diffent public and private gardens.  The RHS has five gardens to explore – Wisley (Surrey), Rosemoor (Devon), Bridgewater (Greater Manchester), Harlow Carr (North Yorkshire) and Hyde Hall (Essex).  But it also has over 240 partner gardens across the UK and overseas – there’s free entry for RHS Members at selected times* during the year. And don't forget their Flower Shows!  There are new ones this year at Badminton and Sandringham (find out about those here.) You can become a member or give a gift membership to the RHS here.

Happy National Gardening Week!!

Emma Bridgewater has just produced a really pretty new collection - it's called Tits & Roses because it incorporates both flowers and garden birds in the same design.  

But the products I liked best of all were the Granny Rose goodies - a beautiful tea-pot, plates (8.5 inch and 10 inch each in diameter and a lovely French bowl.  There's also a small oval platter in the collection.  You need to be a Collector to have early access of a couple of these (£10 for lifetime membership).  

This is the Granny's Roses Medium Dinner Plate, 8.5 Inch for £25.00

 
Here's Emma Bridgewater's Granny's Roses French Bowl
for £25.00

This is the Granny's Roses 3 Mug Teapot for £60.00.
You need to be a Collector to get early access! 

They would all make a wonderful edition to a table, providing cheer and bright colours.  See the range here.