Compostable Kate

I unexpectedly ended up at the Sporting Wheelies gym the other day, after avoiding it for about a year. I was going out to breakfast with a friend who also used to work there, and she detoured us on the way to drop in and say Hi to whoever was there. It was pretty early in the morning, so only the gym was open, so we went in and chatted to a few people. It was actually quite painless, despite my fears of humiliation and mortification. The Gym at Sporting Wheelies (that's not me!) The main reason I've been avoiding the gym there is not that I used to work there, but that I've put on so much weight over the past couple of years I'm too embarrassed to show myself there. I've also been avoiding other situations, because of feeling insecure about my weight and how I look.  I've been steadily gaining weight for the past few years, and one of the reasons for that is that I've been trying to work more on my health than my weight.  Since I was about 15, un...

It will be 2 years in November since my Dad died. I think of him every day, but there are some things that bring him to the fore more than others. In particular, ugg boots, Sudoku and crossword puzzles (he taught   tried to teach me how to solve cryptic clues) and growing veggies. Dad, my sister and brothers, and little Darren (who is now 11).  Dad's hand-built greenhouse is in the background. The space  behind Dad got filled up with Josie's flowers and Dad's herbs  and veg. As I'm embarking on my first veggie garden in nearly 8 years, thoughts of Dad are inevitable. He used every inch of his tiny back yard to grow herbs and veggies, in amongst my step-Mum Josie's flowers, and even some trees, and made a tiny greenhouse out of reclaimed materials that looked like something out of a fairy story. He had a compost heap and a worm farm, and there were a couple of tortoises in there somewhere (I think there's only one now, thou...