While I admit to really being more of a summer person, I don’t think January’s really as bad as we all like to make out. You just have to look at things the right way. Accentuate the positive. So here are my reasons to be cheerful this month…

The smell of wood smoke
For me one of the loveliest aspects of living out in the sticks is the smell of wood smoke emanating from across our village on a winter’s day. It is the most perfect smell imaginable and one that makes me smile inside.

A roaring fire
Of course there’s no smoke without fire and who doesn’t love to sit in front of a log fire when it’s cold and damp outside?

Curled up on the sofa with a good book. And a large glass of red wine. It just doesn’t work in the summer.

Comfort food
Cold winter days are the perfect excuse for big hearty pot roasts, warming soups and slow-cooked stews. I recently made a mutton and prune dish, which was just what I needed at the end of a miserable grey day. The recipe’s on my Bangers & Mash blog.

Or how about this tempting beef and barley soup from Karista’s Kitchen? In her blog Karista says:

“Winter is a time of renewal. A time to reflect, a time to rejuvenate, a time to recover. A very wise lady once told me, everyone needs a season of winter.”

It’s true. Winter is the perfect time for a little space to take stock. And make stock.

Cuddles
Of course there’s no reason not to have cuddles all year round but a big bear hug is an ideal way to keep warm.

Feed the birds
My daughters love to put food out in the garden for the  birds in the winter. We love to watch our little feathered visitors from the warmth of the living room, while Jessie ticks them off in her bird spotting book.

Knitting
I’m not really a ‘make do and mend’ sort of woman, but there is something very satisfying about spending a winter’s evening knitting up a funky little number with fat chunky needles and thick fluffy yarn.

Even if it is only a scarf. Like I say; very satisfying.

Good telly
Winter was invented to allow us to watch brilliant dramas on the box. TV is dire in the summer. I loved Sherlock earlier in the month (no idea how he faked his own death), can’t wait to watch Hustle (recording as I write) and there’s Birdsong at the weekend. Yes I do watch a lot of BBC. One of my first jobs after university was with TV Licensing. I like to get my money’s worth.

Breathing dragon smoke
Children are mesmerised by their ‘smoky’ breath on a cold day. And I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of finding it fascinating either. It’s just quite magical.

Jack Frost
The world is transformed with a sugar frosting.

My daughters love to hear stories of Jack Frost being busy that night. They love crunching across frozen lawns and scratching pictures on frozen car windows. And so do I.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
We all return to childhood again when it snows. You must know that sensation of opening the curtains to see a beautifully clean white world; your heart leaping with excitement? When you can’t get to work and school and you’re forced to stay at home, well what else can you do but head outdoors for snowball fights or a spot of sledging.

Welly walks
However January is generally more about rain than snow. As a Brit it’s hard to be positive about rain. Unless you’re a gardener. But when it’s stopped raining for a bit, pull on your wellingtons and go out for a walk. Preferably with kids if you have any to hand. Think Peppa Pig and jump in muddy puddles. Utterly fantastic.

Hot chocolate
Whether you’re coming indoors from the rain or snow, there’s nothing finer to warm the bones than a big steaming mug of hot chocolate.

My mum lives in Cordoba in Spain and she supplies us with the best drinking chocolate ever. You simply melt the bar in a pan of hot milk, maybe adding a little grated nutmeg. Drinking liquid chocolate is the most sublime experience I can imagine.

If chocolate’s not your thing (and what planet are you from by the way?), a hot toddie or Irish coffee have similar warming properties.

Chinese New Year
In a few day’s it’ll be Chinese New Year. My mother is half Chinese so I’ll be using this as a very good excuse to celebrate and scoff all my favourite Chinese dishes. Even if you’re not Chinese, get in a takeaway anyway. Gong xi fa cai everyone!

Get baking
I don’t know about you but I can’t really face baking in the summer, so make the most of the winter and go baking crazy. Cakes, pies, tarts, bread – bring it on!

Get involved in a bake-off. I’m thinking of joining in Amy’s Weekly Bake-Off.

Or how about this? The recipe for probably the best carrot cake in the world.

So there you have it. My list of reasons to keep smiling this month. Don’t just grin and bear it while you wait for things to get warmer. Embrace and enjoy.

Earlier this year I changed the way I shop for food and cook for my family, and pretty much halved my grocery budget in the process, simply by putting a bit more time into planning our meals.

Sometimes it can be quite hard work taking an old fashioned approach in the kitchen while living a very modern lifestyle, but most of the time I’m enjoying my kitchen adventures.

So this new blog, Bangers & Mash, will be my way of sharing my experiences with anyone else who is interested in recipes and ideas for cooking good food on a budget. What do you think?

I’ve worked in ‘traditional’ PR for years and I’ve always loved being the person writing or speaking on behalf of someone else. I don’t really like talking about myself that much. I hate writing CVs and attending job interviews. I can big up other people, but loathe having to do it for myself.

When I was younger I wanted to be an actor and was very involved in a number of youth theatres, going on to study drama at university. Again people assume you must be an egotistical extrovert to want to perform on stage. But I have always been quite shy at heart and acting for me was the perfect way to stop being me for a while and to step into another’s skin. The transition into PR after university was, I see now in hindsight, quite an obvious one.

I think this reticence to put myself forward coloured my appreciation of the importance and usefulness of social media. Until very recently I was incredibly sceptical about channels like Twitter and Facebook.

I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but it all seemed like noise to me; loud people vying with each other to see who could shout the loudest. Like the title of Dom Joly’s pseudo autobiography, it felt to me that social media was designed for people who want to say to the world: “Look at me! Look at me!”

Who’s got the best job? Who’s having the most fun? Who’s the most interesting? Who’s living the best life?

For someone who prefers to be in the background, social media therefore held no interest for me.

But slowly, slowly I’ve been pulled in. I first ventured onto Facebook simply to see photos of my sister in Australia. Gradually I’ve discovered it’s an amazing tool for sharing with friends and family across the world, and keeping an eye on the activities and campaigns of the organisations I care about.

It was Twitter however that I resisted for much longer. I just didn’t get it. Indeed you can’t get it until you try it for yourself. Which I did a few months ago. Now I worry that I spend too much time on Twitter. It has opened me up to so many possibilities and opportunities.

With both Facebook and Twitter I was worried that no-one would want to hear what I had to say when I was speaking as myself, rather than someone I represented.

It turns out that when you’ve got a whole world out there, someone somewhere will be interested in what you’ve got to say. The worst that can happen is people ignore you. I’ve never known anyone be openly critical and certainly never abusive.

I just write about the things that interest with me, both professionally and personally. And it’s lovely to have people notice you and want to hear more from you.

It surprised me that my tweets about food get the most positive responses. My obsession with food is apparently something I share with a lot of people. This has led to me setting up my own food blog – coming soon so watch this space!

I recently signed up for the 365 Project for which I have to take a photograph every day for a year and post it online. At first I dismissed the idea with the usual “who would be interested in my photographs?” Then it occurred to me it would be a neat way to share aspects of my life with family abroad. But like Twitter it’s resulted in me being ‘discovered’ by strangers across the world who seem to like what I say in my pictures and a whole new passion is being nurtured.

So social media has managed to give me a new confidence in myself. It turns out that if you’re honest about what you post and tweet, you’ll find people who want to hear more.

And so my opinion of social media has changed quite a bit. It’s not just about who can make the most noise. It’s about sharing and connecting. It’s actually about being nice to each another; finding something interesting or useful or funny and passing it on. While I’m definitely still learning its potential, I’ve realised it does indeed have potential and I’m looking forward to where this journey might take me.

For those who still have an abundance of apples, I thought I’d share some of my family’s favourite recipes this year.

Of course juicing is an option too if you still have apples to spare and can’t bear to see them rotting in the grass. It takes a while, especially if you have an ancient juicer like ours, so try to get hold of a proper press or bring your apples along to the Kilmersdon Apple Day on Saturday 15 October. There will be a press for all to use and lots more apple-related activities, stalls and competitions.

If you’re actually short of apples, why not take a walk along the beautiful Colliers Way cycle path, a disused railway between Shoscombe, Radstock and Frome. Sustrans planted apple trees every half mile or so along the 15 mile path as well as a few pocket orchards; 108 trees in all. The inspiration for the linear orchard came from all the apple trees which used to grow here before the cycle track was created, thought to have grown from the discarded apple cores of railway passengers. It is now a reminder of the thousands of ancient orchards felled to make way for roads and development, and the varieties in danger of disappearing.

Anyway back to the recipes…

Apple crumble muffins

These are a big hit in our house; the taste of a pudding in a cupcake. Taken from Linda Collister’s excellent book ‘Baking with Kids’.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

Topping:
50g butter
50g sugar
50g plain flour
50g ground almonds

Cakes:
275g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
1 lemon
150g butter
2 eggs
100ml milk
2 eating apples

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) Gas 5.

To make the topping, cut the butter into small pieces and put in a mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Work them together until it looks like crumble mixture.

For the cake mixture, sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl and mix in the sugar. Stir in the zest from the lemon and make a well. Pour the melted butter, beaten eggs and milk into the well, and mix gently. Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cases in a 12-hole muffin tray. Core and roughly chop the apples and scatter on top of the muffin mixture, then sprinkle over the topping.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy with a cup of tea!

Spiced apple chutney

I make this warming chutney from Nigella Lawson every year. It’s gorgeous with cheese on toast.

Ingredients

500g apples
1 medium onion
2 bird’s eye red chillies
250g demerara sugar
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp sea salt
black pepper
1 tbsp chopped or grated fresh ginger
1 tsp turmeric
350ml cider vinegar

4 x 250ml jars

Peel and roughly chop the apples, and finely chop the onion. Seed the chillies and finely chop. Put all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil. Cook over a medium heat for 30-40 minutes until the mixture thickens. Spoon into the cleaned jars and place in your store cupboard.

Eve’s pudding

My Nana Barbara from Lancashire gave me this recipe. It’s an old family favourite.

Ingredients

1lb apples, peeled and cored
3oz demerara sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp water
3oz butter or margarine
3oz caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
4oz self raising flour

Oven temperature moderate, around 170°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Slice apples thinly into a greased ovenproof dish and sprinkle the Demerara sugar and grated lemon rind over them. Add 1 tbsp water. Cream the fat and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the egg a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon and spread the mixture over the apples. Bake in the centre of the oven for 40-45 minutes until the apples are tender and the sponge mixture cooked.

Apple sauce

We’ve been eating lots of roast pork for Sunday lunches as an excuse for apple sauce. It couldn’t be easier to make.

Simply peel, core and chop your apples. Pop in a pan with a knob of butter, put the lid on leave for 10 to 15 minutes until the apples are tender. And serve. Our apples are sweet enough so we don’t add sugar, so you may need to. Sometimes I add lemon juice and a little cinnamon. My children love it served with yoghurt and honey as a dessert.

Dried apple rings

Our friend Mikey came up with this suggestion for a tasty apple snack, great for school pack lunch boxes.

Peel and core your apples and cut into rings. Sprinkle with cinnamon (or leave plain if you prefer). Spread out on a baking tray and put in a very very low oven for a few hours. If you have an Aga you could put in the bottom oven or do what we did and tie with string and hang in bundles above the Aga. They’re ready when they’ve gone wrinkly and have a lovely chewy consistency.

Lemon and apple tart

A light and zingy tart. Eat warm or cold. To make life easier, you could always use ready-made shortcrust pastry. Another recipe from Linda Collister’s ‘Baking with Kids’

Ingredients

225g plain flour
Salt
160g cold butter
Iced water
1 large or 2 medium apples (about 300g)
3 tbsp golden syrup
50g fresh bread without crusts
1 lemon

Shallow pie plate or tart tin, 26cm diameter

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) Gas 5.

To make the shortcrust pastry, put the flour and a pinch of salt into a food processor and add 160g of cold butter cut into small pieces. Process until you have fine crumbs. Add two tablespoons of iced water and process again until the dough comes together in a ball.

Roll out the pasty and press into the buttered pie plate. Keep back some scraps for decoration. Put into the fridge while you make the filling.

Peel, core and grate the apple into a mixing bowl and add the golden syrup. Turn the bread into fine crumbs in the food processor and add to the apple. Add the lemon zest and juice. Mix the ingredients well and gently spoon into pastry base. Don’t press down too firmly or it might lose its fluffy texture. Decorate the tart with pastry strips to form a lattice pattern. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Delicious with yoghurt or ice cream.

Apple and blackberry charlotte

Here’s another old fashioned apple classic from my Nana Barbara. You can use any other stewed fruit in this recipe.

Ingredients

1lb apples peeled, quartered and cored
1lb blackberries
Rind and juice of ½ lemon
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
2oz melted butter
6 slices white bread
6-8oz sugar
2tbsp bread or cake crumbs

Oven temperature fairly hot 190°C (375°F) Gas 5.

Stew the fruit in a pan with the lemon rind, juice and cinnamon. Brush a charlotte mould or basin (5 inches) generously with melted butter. Cut the crusts off the bread. Trim one piece to a round the same size as the base, dip into the melted butter and fit in place. Dip the remaining slices in the butter and arrange round the sides of the basin, reserving one piece for the top. Add the sugar and crumbs to the stewed fruit, mix well and fill the basin. Cover with the last slice of bread, trimmed to fit the mould. Cook in the middle of the oven for about an hour, turn out and serve with custard or cream.

Basil and apple jelly

My friend Matt sent me this recipe which comes from ‘Jams Pickle and Chutneys’ by David and Rose Mabey. It goes very well with pheasant.

Ingredients

2lb apples
1 pint water
Sugar
Lemon juice (2 tbsp per pint of apple jelly)
Fresh basil (6 sprigs per pint of apple jelly)

Chop the fruit roughly, no need to peel or core it. Put into a saucepan with the water and simmer until soft; stir and press the fruit with a wooden spoon while it is cooking. Then put the pulp through a jelly bag and let is strain until no more juice drips. Measure the volume of juice and for each pint take 1lb sugar. Return the juice to the pan; stir in the sugar, lemon juice and basil. Boil to set, and remove the herbs before pouring into jars.

Spiced apple and raisin crumble

Everyone has their own crumble recipe, but I couldn’t write a piece on apples and not include my favourite crumble from Delia Smith. I love to eat this cold the next day with yoghurt for breakfast.

Ingredients

8oz plain or wholewheat flour
3oz butter at room temperature
3-4oz soft brown sugar
2lb apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3oz raisins
1oz soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
2tbsp water

Preheat oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

To make the crumble topping place the flour in a large bowl, add the butter and rub it lightly into the flour using your finger tips. When it looks all crumbly and the fat is dispersed evenly, add the sugar and combine well. Place the sliced apples, raisins, sugar and spices in a saucepan, sprinkle with the water, then cook gently until the apples are soft and fluffy. Spoon the mixture into a 3 pint pie-dish and sprinkle with the crumble topping. Use a fork to even it out, but don’t press it down. Cook for 30-40 minutes until the topping is tinged with brown. Serve with cream, ice cream or yoghurt.

Baked apple and almond pudding

Another old fashioned pud from Delia, along the same lines as Eve’s pudding. I find I don’t need to bake for nearly as long as she says in the recipe, so keep an eye on this one.

Ingredients

1lb apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2oz soft brown sugar
4oz butter at room temperature
4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
4oz ground almond

Preheat oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

Place the apples in a saucepan with the brown sugar and a spoonful of water, simmer gently until soft, then arrange in the bottom of a buttered 1½ pint pie dish. In a bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy and then beat in the eggs a little at a time. When all the egg is in, carefully and lightly fold in the ground almonds. Now spread this mixture over the apples and event out with the back of a tablespoon. Bake for one hour. Serve warm or cold with cream.

If you have an apple recipe to share, I’d love to hear from you. I need to start gathering new ones ready for next year…

So here, in no particular order, I present to you a list of some of my favourite, everyday, simple things…

Kaleidoscopes
Boston cream donuts

Reading in the bath
Licking the bowl clean
No Surprises by Radiohead
Knitting
Doodling
Singing in the round
Smells – frying bacon or onion, coffee brewing, baking bread, freshly picked basil, Play-Doh, my mum’s perfume
French kissing
The double bass
Bod
Uno
Tate Kids website
Whoopee cushions
Bubble wrap
The glug, glug, glug as you pour a new bottle of wine
Shooting stars
Bitly
Just a Minute & I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue
Bedtime stories
Wordle
A full moon
Freshly laundered cotton sheets
My Nana’s cheese and onion pie
The London Tube map
My Baby Just Cares For Me by Nina Simone
Pickled onions
Twitter
Hot toast and butter
Farting
Jumping in puddles
Shooting stars
Boiled eggs and soldiers
Crunching in autumn leaves
Rainbows
Poohsticks

Just by typing out that list I instantly feel more smiley. How does your list compare?

Pretty much the same thought came to me last month while on holiday with my husband and daughters down in Dorset in a friend’s caravan.

We usually go abroad in the summer but decided to stay a bit more local this year in an effort to keep costs down. In the run up, part of me was dreading it. What happened if we had bad weather and we were stuck in the caravan for days on end?

As I’d feared, we ended up having a very typical British August weatherwise. While we had some glorious sunny days on the beach, we also had as many wet days spent in the van playing endless games of cards and consequences and watching old movies.

I can’t deny there weren’t a few arguments resulting from cabin fever, yet I was genuinely surprised at just how enjoyable, and indeed relaxing, it was to be sharing a small space with my loved ones. We were forced to stop and slow down and do simple things. Together.

Even on the days when we were able to venture out, the best bits were the simple bits. Sitting for hours on a beach just throwing pebbles into the sea for an hour or so, seeing who could hit the seaweed. Or an afternoon idly spent catching crabs off the quay at West Bay with a simple line and bait. And then throwing them back into the sea again at the end of the day.

So I’m trying to apply this lesson to my everyday life, and my work life too. As an annoying colleague used to constantly say: “You need to kiss – keep it simple, stupid!” But I guess he was right.

In an age where we think we want everything to be exciting and all bells and whistles because that’s what we’re told we should want, it is rather lovely to come across something in life that’s just simple.

I’m just starting a fascinating but challenging project to design materials for use in schools to aid discussion about violence against women and girls. The resource pack has been developed by young people for young people supported by staff from Off The Record, a local counselling and support service.

The intro to the pack lists some of the findings from a recent survey by the NSPCC and Bristol University. It discovered:

• a third of teenage girls have experienced sexual partner violence
• a quarter of girls have experienced physical partner violence
• three-quarters of girls have experienced emotional partner violence.

There is a range of evidence which indicates young people do not feel they are given sufficient information about sex, relationships, and violence. Which is hopefully where this resource pack will come in. The aim is that by opening up frank discussions with teenagers about violence against women and girls (domestic abuse, sexual harrasment, pornography, trafficking), we can change attitudes and behaviours.

I know women who have suffered domestic violence and I’ve been wondering whether things would have been different if they’d had the chance to talk about these kinds of issues in the classroom. I’m not sure it’s that easy. But we’ve got to try. And if we can help just one girl or young woman avoid a violent relationship as a result of this project, surely it’s been worth the effort?

I love our life out in the sticks in deepest, darkest Somerset but whenever I return to London I realise how much I enjoy city life. As they say, you can take the girl out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the girl. I spent my teenage years in London, until I left home and moved to Bristol for university at 18. London was an amazing place to spend those formative years.

A longing began to ache inside me as I remembered what this place does to me. Driving through old haunts I could feel my heart racing with excitement and anticipation. The promise of London on a Friday night. So much colour and sound and buzz and energy and heat and flavour and scent on all sides. I love the people, the buildings, the places. I enjoy the contrasts between the ultra modern, the ancient and traditional, and the shabby and decaying. For someone who adores words and pictures, the potential for stimuli is incredible. From billboards to bus destinations, there’s so much to absorb and I have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road.

Continuing on through places like Camden Town and Holloway Road, I’m transported back to my teenage years, to school friends and boyfriends, favourite shops and cafes, pubs and clubs.

It’s rather strange remembering my adolescent self with my own children sat behind me in the car. It doesn’t feel so very long ago but it feels like a completely different me. A me full of ambitions without plans. There’s a blank canvas stretched out in front of me – I can be whatever I want to be, I live in the moment and for the moment because there is so much time ahead for me to do everything. Whereas life now can seem to be all about the planning without the enticing possibilities of unfettered ambition. Action plans and to do lists are the order of the day. Always looking ahead and forgetting the here and now.

Is that what makes London feel so exciting? Am I seeing things through the eyes of an 18-year-old girl? It’s certainly part of it. But it’s not all about nostalgia.

I love the way London makes me think. There’s so much here to feed the mind. Wherever I look my head is taken off on new journeys and tangents. Thoughts jump, switch, merge. There is so much inspiration here.

But perhaps there’s too much. Could I live in London now? You know what, I don’t think I could. I’d enjoy all the inspiration, but I think I’d find it just too overwhelming. I’d never have the time to develop ideas into something tangible. Where would they go? I’d be on to the next thing before I had a chance to do anything with the first.

Here in Somerset I have the space to develop my own unique thoughts, rather than bounce off others’. They have room to bloom, swell and mature. I’m working on my first children’s novel at the moment – I haven’t started writing it yet, it’s still in the incubation and research phase – and I don’t believe it would go anywhere if I lived in London. Before I’d worked out the plot for my first novel, I’d already be hatching ideas for novels two, three and four!

So all in all I feel pretty lucky. I get to live in one of the most beautiful counties of England, where people come for holidays and long weekends, and can call on the old folk in the big smoke whenever I need a new dose of re-energising inspiration.

And how did Jessie and Mia enjoy their London weekend? They loved it. But what they enjoyed most of all was climbing trees and building dens in Highgate Woods, the same things they love doing here. So I know that Somerset is a good place for all of us to call home.

Judith Kerr's charming but greedy Tiger

Lucky old Mia managed to get five bedtime stories out of me tonight. Her choices were all quite different and all quite brilliant. So of course I didn’t mind too much. We read:

• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
• The Tiger Who Came to Tea
• Each Peach Pear Plum
• Monkey and Me, and
• Mister Magnolia.

What makes them all so great is their deceptive simplicity. I love the language of a good children’s book. The rhythm, the rhyme, the repetition. The way every single word is carefully selected for its exact sound and meaning.

I heard one of today’s best children’s authors, Julia Donaldson (we didn’t read any of hers tonight, but she’s a big hit with my girls) recently talk on the radio about just how long it takes her to write her stories. She works and works and works at getting the words just right. Until it’s perfect and you couldn’t imagine it being written any other way. That’s what beautifully crafted copy is all about. It looks easy to do but it isn’t.

We should approach all copywriting in this way. I don’t necessarily mean writing with young children in mind – although sometimes the best way to write about complicated concepts is to imagine explaining it to an eight year old child. It’s to do with honing your words until it all seems so simple you couldn’t imagine another way of saying it.

Oh, and try reading it out loud as well. That always helps. As would pictures by Quentin Blake or Emily Gravett. If only clients would let me commission illustrators like these to spice up their annual reports!