Hello,

 

We hope everyone is keeping safe and well and send a warm welcome to our new followers.  Here’s our monthly selection of small steps for living life well, even as we’re all enduring this strange time together.  We’ve collected some cheering ideas, links and images which we hope you will enjoy.

Something to do

April 23rd is Shakespeare’s birthday.  If you feel like watching something uplifting when you take a break from the news, there is a plethora of Shakespearean content available online, from productions at The Globe Theatre here to Sir Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet every day on Instagram – find him @sirpatstew.

 

April’s Food for Thought

Who else but Shakespeare could we turn to this month? Here he sums up how many of us are feeling about friends and family,

“When we do meet again, why, we shall smile”

Did you know?

Two of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, have been translated into Klingon, the language created for Star Trek. No doubt Sir Patrick would approve. And, as we’re finding today, the lockdown is no bar to creativity: Shakespeare started writing sonnets when all theatres had to close because of the plague.

How to make a difference

The internet has really come into its own during this crisis and is offering us ways of working, shopping, connecting, keeping fit, playing and even travelling, albeit virtually. If you’d like to give back during your time online, you can use search engines that support good causes like Ecosia or everyclick.com   If you enjoy playing games, try Free Rice which supports the World Food programme.

 

Reasons to be cheerful

Nature is carrying on as normal and spring is putting on a spectacular show of beauty.  In the UK, in particular, the weather recently has been glorious and the daffodils, tulips, forget-me-nots and fruit trees are in full bloom. Garden birds are busy nesting and, if you’re lucky enough to have some outside space, you might like to try some of these ideas for making feeders from the RSPB Scotland’s Allie McGregor – click here for full details .

 

We can also look forward to all the things we’d like to do in the future. One way to keep track of this is to use a jar – or perhaps one for each member of your household – and write your ideas on slips of paper, to be retrieved and put into action when better times come. What are you most looking forward to doing? You can let us know in the comments box below.

 

Look after yourselves, stay well, and we’ll be back here in May.

Claire and Sam