three kinds of sunshine   

Remember when you were a child and summer was about turning on the sprinkler and running around the garden with nothing on? Remember the way the soggy grass squeaked under your feet and how wonderful it felt dashing from the warmth of the sun into the shade of the trees? Remember how happy and free you felt? Because it was summer and the sky was blue and it felt better to be naked than have clothes on your body. Well that's how my children feel most days. Because where we liv

This morning I swam a mile in the Caribbean sea. Through clear shallows over white waves of sand and into the deep blue, gliding over a silent coral world. There was a small group of us today and as we stood on the sand looking out at the horizon where the sea darkened and white stripes of surf merged into the sky, I had that sense of being on the edge of the world. Where I'm marooned, island-ed, and being able to swim is hope. Wading into the sea, it felt cool at first and t

52 Barbados: a weekly photographic record of each of my children in 2015, the year we're living in Barbados. Week #8 The atmosphere has been very different this week with Alex travelling and our visitors gone. When I'm on my own with the kids I find that we slip into a different rhythm. The routine changes partly out of necessity - I have no back up so I suddenly become much more efficient and organised. But things aso become a bit calmer. A bit more subdued. Mornings are the

Being on a small tropical island, the sea has become a big part of our family psyche. It's at the end of our road, just a minute's walk from our door and it's not like a sea any of us has ever known before. From a distance it's bright turquoise, clear when you're in it looking down at your toes on the white sandy sea bed. Sometimes we want to be in it. Drifting around in the shallows of our local rock cove - a natural pool of sparkling blue water sheltered by a semi circle o