I'm really lucky at the minute as I've been asked to help out at a 3.5-acre community garden. When I'm not painting walls and helping to get the place ready for an open day next month I'm keeping an eye out for what's blooming and blossoming as the light returns. It's such a privilege to be able to use my nature journaling to notice and record what's going on as the wheel of the year turns.

Late February's nature journaling page. I am currently working for two days a week at Green Futures in Grimsby, a 3.5-acre site that's run mostly by volunteers with a woodland and nature walk. I love this place, I volunteered here years ago when my son was little, and now I'm back I want to document what's growing over the course of a year in my sketchbook. My nature journaling is normally inspired by my garden, or the beach near my chalet on the Humberston Fitties, so I'm

On Saturday 7 March 2026 I was working with artist Anna Bean and Our Big Picture 's Saturday morning art club on the last of my engagement workshops around Grimsby's mounds and marshes. This activity involving creating an island and then a collaborative mural has been really popular with children, and it's been a great way to tell my stories about the marshes and how we moved Grimsby's river. This session fitted in well with the children as they are working with Anna on a fut

Some of the photos, research and illustration from my We Are Marshy project is up at the Fishing Heritage Centre in Grimsby. Some of my We Are Marshy Folk research has gone up at the cafe in the Fishing Heritage Centre . I've been working with Louise and Dave for several years now and I'm always happy when my work is up in their brilliant centre. I did an artist in residence there a while back and it was great to be able to draw the exhibits and learn more about the fishing i

A large-scale piece inspired by a canoe trip on the Freshney. One of the things that I have really enjoyed about this We Are Marshy Folk project is the large-scale collage and calligraphy brush pieces I created after some of my field trips. They capture a sense of place for me in a way that a plain sketch wouldn't have done, for example in the ripples of sunlight on the water and the marsh irises along the banks. I hope to do more of these pieces in the future, as I also enjo

Between Monday 16 and Fri 21 February my illustrations and research went on display at the newly refurbished Our Big Picture in Grimsby last week - one visitor even came all the way from Spilsby to see it! Some of the work will be in the Fishing Heritage Centre during March as I pull the project to its conclusion. Talking with people over the last few weeks as I did public talks and put the work on display has prompted some great discussions and given me lots more information

On Tues 27 January 2026 I took my art materials and some really big sheets of paper to join a class at Littlecoates for a lovely afternoon with students who really engaged with the workshop. They each drew their own island, imagining what life would be like for early residents of Grimsby, before working on large collaborative pieces creating seascapes. They really seemed to enjoy the freedom of mark making. We were really pleased with the outcome, what a lovely school!

Gave the third of my talks on We Are Marshy Folk on Wednesday 28 January, as part of James (canoe river cleaner) and Eve's Winter Warmers. The room was packed, some people had biked. So grateful for people making the effort to come along and listen to my tales of Grimsby's marshes. @CreateNEL (Thanks also to James for the photos as I'm rubbish and didn't get a picture of the room full of people, as I was a bit distracted with the technology which was displaying everything pin

As part of my We Are Marshy Folk project I visited Yarborough Academy Year 5 on January 22nd. I talked to the students about Toothill, a huge Ice-Age mound that once acted as a look-out tower and would have been directly opposite their school. It was great to be able to talk to a class of eager and interested students about an area of town that doesn't normally get much attention. They went on to create their own mounds and islands thinking about what they would need to live

The reeds remember... Ask most people what comes to mind when we talk about the East or West Marshes of Grimsby, and what's likely is a row of terraced housing or statistics about areas of deprivation. An image of salt marsh or sheep grazing is unlikely to be the first thing you think of. We Are Marshy folk is a CreateNEL-funded project that aims to change that view with illustrated research into what our landscape looked like before the coming of the railways and the docks.

This illustration is talking about how we don't associate Grimsby with sheep, but that we definitely did have them! Over the last year I've been doing reserach for my We Are Marshy Folk project, and busily turning what I've found out into meaningful illustrations to make the story simple and engaging. My years in journalism taught me how to craft data and information into stories that people can catch onto and take away with them. This project has always been about creating a

I gave the first of my We Are Marshy Folk talks to the Civic Society in the Town Hall on Thursday night (15th January 2026). It was an amazing turn-out for such a dreary and wet January evening. I've been working on this project for nearly a year and it was so amazing to be be able to talk about all of my findings about sheep, the Fitty land and how the mounds and marshes in this area shaped the town. I'm giving another talk today at Grimsby in Bloom 11am if you want to know

Blow wells are part of our area's unique features. I'm still researching for my We Are Marshy Folk project, but until the main body of work goes up at Our Big Picture in February 2026 some of the illustrations and art can be seen at Freeman Street market, and also the cafe in the Fishing Heritage Centre, until the end of 2025. x

In 2024 I was supported by a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England. As part of this project I was inspired to handmake a book of C words, that would be a sort of bible to consult my my mental health struggles threatened to overwhelm. It's amazing just how many C words I was able to come up with and illustrate for this little leather-bound book. This is just three pages, Cherish, Community and Creativity. Pages and ideas to turn to when days can be a s

Busy hands making a sea-themed mural. On Saturday November 1 I was asked by Our Big Picture to deliver a session as part of their Heritage Explorers project. I used this opportunity to spread the word about my We Are Marshy Folk research and worked with the children to produce a marsh and mound themed mural that got them looking at what life might have been like for the early inhabitants of our area and how important the water and marshes would have been.

Rosie basks in the sunshine. This weekend brought the first of my winter rituals. Bringing in my pots of pelargoniums from the garden. Although we haven't had a frosty start to November for a few years, these plants aren't frost hardy, so each year they see out the winter in the garden room, forming a backdrop to the midwinter decorations. They are still in flower, such dense pinks and reds that they resist any attempts for me to commit their gaudy beauty to my sketchbook. In

My third newsletter went out at the beginning of the month. I sent out my third newsletter, A Slice of Niceness, at the beginning of October. I was inspired to do these as the world can seem a bit grim at the minute, and I wanted to send something bright and cheery to people's inboxes. Each newsletter is designed to give an overview of what I've been up to, what's happening with the chalet, and what workshops or activities might be available. If you'd like to add your email t

Nature Noticing in Town Holt. This year I've been lucky enough to be funded to do some research into Grimsby's historic landscape from CreateNEL and Paul Henderson's Yarborough ward funding . As part of this, I've put on some Nature Noticing walks. Yesterday myself and the Canoe River Cleaner took some home ed students out to Town's Holt. We had a really informative afternoon looking at nettles, drawing leaves and clouds and talking about phragmites and water levels. This is

Doggerland. When we were conncted to mainland Europe via one great marsh! Where east meets west. Until Christmas I'll be displaying a project called of Mounds and Marshes at the Fishing Heritage Centre cafe in Grimsby. It's a collection of my ongoing research into the Seven Hills of Grimsby thanks to ward funding from Paul Henderson, and my We Are Marshy Folk work funded by CreateNEL. As I do more illustrations I plan to put them up in the cafe, so it will hopefully be quite

Mums and kids worked together to create a watery, marshy background using lots of materials. Children put their islands onto their 'sea' and made ways to connect. This week I worked with a group of some homes-schoolers to create a collaborative piece of work as part of my engagement for my We Are Marshy Folk project. We talked about how special our local landscape is, and we looked out of the Waterworks Offices window to the street down below to where the Haven once rang. It