Book review - How It All Works by Adam Dant and Brian Clegg

I received a copy of this book to review. Amazon links are affiliate. 

This week Harry and I have been reviewing a fascinating book by Adam Dant and Brian Clegg - How It All Works - All Scientific Laws and Phenomena Illustrated and Demonstrated.

This large hardback book shows us as readers how science in action affects our daily lives. The book reveals how the most interesting and complex scientific laws and phenomena crop up in everything that we see around us.

Each chapter begins with an illustration, beginning in the kitchen before zooming out to twelve other locations. We start close by with the House and the Garden, then continue on to places found on the same street like the Hospital. We then travel much further afield, including among other places the Coastline, the Earth and the Solar System, before concluding with the Entire Universe. 

Adam Dent's large illustrations are incredibly detailed. Each location covered is one that you can relate to, and has many things to spark your interest. Hidden within each illustration are 46 different laws and phenomena, and when you spot an interesting detail you are eager to find out more.  

Turning the page you can find a selection of close ups taken from the original illustration accompanied by a description by science writer Brian Clegg of the law or phenomena which is being shown. The descriptions are simple and quite brief, but make a great jumping off point for further research on the topic. 

As Brian Clegg says, "What these illustrations and their short descriptions will show is the way that in everything we do, in everything we experience, we are witnessing and taking part in scientific phenomena, guided and linked by scientific laws. Science is not just something we do at school or that professionals undertake in laboratories, it is at the heart of how everything works." 

Harry is 12 and is used to reading non-fiction books aimed at adults, and as I expected he loved this book. He enjoys books that he can browse through as and when, and this one fits the bill perfectly. You can either start at the beginning and work your way through it, or you can flick through until something catches your eye that you want to know more about. 

Although the principles covered are undoubtedly complicated, the descriptions are simple and easy to understand. If there's something that particularly catches your eye then you can easily do some further research to find out more about the topic.

I'd definitely recommend this book for adults and teenagers alike, and even younger children would enjoy looking through the illustrations and hunting for the details that are hidden in the larger picture.

How it All Works: All scientific laws and phenomena illustrated & demonstrated (Amazon affiliate link) will be published on 28th September 2021.

Getting the summer back on track

I mentioned in my last post that I'd been letting the poor weather this summer get to me a bit. 

It all started off so well, and at the beginning of the year I was making great plans for the garden. I ordered my seeds and had them all planted out on the windowsill. But it took ages for the weather to warm up enough to plant them outside, and they went spindly trying to reach the sunshine through the window. Then the weekend that I did plant them out we had such awful cold winds that the poor surviving plants had most of their leaves blown off. 

We did of course have a lovely heatwave in July which coincided with our week away, and that was amazing. It really felt like a proper summer holiday and we were so lucky. But then I came back and found that most of my plants in the garden had died due to the lack of water.  

I found it all a bit depressing and so I've hardly been out in the garden this week. I ventured out today and it's such a mess. The grass and the front hedge desperately need a cut, but our garden waste collections have stopped due to a shortage of drivers, and I don't want to create piles of garden rubbish everywhere. 

I'm stuck in my head thinking that it just hasn't felt like a proper summer this year. We've hardly had any outdoor pizza or barbecues, we've barely used the firepit and we've not even been out in the hot tub because it always seems to be raining in the evening. Even when it's not raining it's just not pleasant sitting outside when the sky is grey. 

But I need to keep reminding myself that it's only just the beginning of August. There is plenty of summer left, over a month of school holiday to go, and there's every chance that we will have some warm and sunny weather over the next few weeks. I need to work on appreciating what we do have, instead of mourning what we don't!

I've made it one of my goals for this month to get out in the garden every day and try and bring things back under control. I was heartened to see my first sunflower in full bloom today, and I have a few others that have managed to survive and will be flowering soon. A couple of my tomato plants are thriving, and my sweet peas are looking lovely. 

So it's time to think positive. I'm making the most of exercising outdoors as it's the perfect temperature - not too hot and not too cold. Last week I went to the gym and swam in the outdoor pool, perhaps it wasn't that warm but it was really refreshing. We've been having fun doing indoor activities like baking and playing with the forgotten Nintendo Labo sets. It's also nice not to have to trek around watering all the plants every evening, I just wait for the daily rain shower. 

Fingers crossed for just a few more warm days to come before the schools go back!

Goals update and August goals

A new month is underway, and once again it's time to set myself some goals!

You can see the goals that I set myself for July here and I'm pleased to report that I did very well with them. I achieved some tasks that had been sitting around for far too long.

August is a different month to the rest of the year, because it's taken up entirely with the school summer holidays. So my goals need to be ones that work around the family, and also focus on spending time with the family and not having as much time to myself. 

So here's what I want to achieve this month:

* Spend time in the garden every day and get it sorted. The weather has been pretty rubbish this summer hasn't it? Apart from that lovely heatwave when we were away which killed most of the plants in my garden as I wasn't there to water it.

With that, along with the current disruptions to our green waste collection service, our garden is looking a bit of a mess. I want to get out in the garden every day this month (assuming of course that it's not torrential rain all day) and spend some time sorting and some time just sitting and enjoying it. There must be some good weather still to come this summer, surely?!

* Work on my cross stitch map. This is a very long term project, and I'm ready to make some really good progress with it. As you can see from the picture below I'm doing well at filling in the background but there's plenty still to work on. It's a lofty goal, but this month it would be fantastic if I could finish working around the edges of all the countries with the blue background, leaving neat square spaces for more of my pictures. At the very least I'll aim to finish the edges of North and South America (around the Philippines, Malaysia and so on it will get quite fiddly!) I'm blocking out areas with different shades of blue, then when that is all done I'll balance out the colours by adding detail using contrasting shades.

* Write more in my journal. I started writing in my journal in March and I've found it really helpful as a way to clear my head. But lately I've got out of the habit and I want to pick it up again. Perhaps not everyday, but certainly a few times a week. Perhaps I can do this while I'm sitting in the garden with a cup of tea!

* No phone at the dinner table. I'm embarrassed to write this down as it's a terrible habit and I know that. But I don't enjoy making dinner and it's often quite a rushed affair. By the time I've got everyone's dinner on the table I just want to sit down and zone out, as do my family members. But it's not good and it needs to stop and I need to set a good example.

* No phone after dinner either. After dinner and in the evenings I'll still use my phone, but only for messages and calls, or actual tasks like taking photos, banking, checking library books and so on. No mindless scrolling.

Finally I want to make sure that we all enjoy this summer. I've been letting the poor weather get to me a bit and I need to reset things. I've found it difficult because I've been trying to do a few hours work every day, but if I get myself organised and get up at a reasonable time then I can easily get my work and other tasks done by lunchtime, which leaves the afternoon free for family time. 

Where I spent most of last week

We have just returned from an amazing week away at Westward Ho! in Devon. We returned to the same apartment that we stayed in this week last year as we loved it so much, and this time we couldn't believe how lucky we were with the weather. It was hot and sunny every single day, not a drop of rain and barely a cloud, and warm enough to walk around in shorts and T-shirts late into the evening. 

Even though it was a little busier than last year it still felt incredibly safe. It's a small town but there are plenty of takeaway venues so we were able to either collect food or have it delivered almost every evening and enjoy it sitting on the balcony in the early evening sunshine. When the tide is out there is masses of space for everyone on the beach.

And the balcony in the apartment was where I spent most of the week. 

The balcony looked out over a wide promenade with the rocks and sea beyond, and over to one side is the enormous beach that disappears almost completely at high tide. I spent hours at a time just sitting there watching the sea, the sky, and all the people walking past. I had my books with me but I couldn't concentrate on them, what was in front of me was far more interesting.

We watched the sunset from the balcony every single evening and were lucky enough to be treated to clear skies each night. On our final night a few clouds just made the sunset even more spectacular. As the sky turned orange the rockpools reflected pink. 

We've only been back a couple of days and I'm really missing my balcony! Please enjoy the timelapse video that I made one afternoon - here is two hours condensed into thirty seconds as the tide comes in on a sunny afternoon.

Taking the First Trip with Your New Campervan

Whether you’ve started from scratch and renovated the entire thing yourself (bravo!) or you’ve just bought yourself a new campervan, taking it out on its first trip is an adventure full of excitement and possibilities. You get to test out all its features, see if anything needs tweaking, and then you are ready to set off whenever and wherever your heart desires. Soon enough, you will be living the dream. But before you set off, here are a few things to consider when planning that first, long awaited outing. 

The Basics

Before you go anywhere, you need to make sure that you and your campervan are road legal. These are all the technical and boring, but essential, bits and bobs. Make sure that your driving licence covers the size and weight of your van. Your MOT needs to be up to date, and you need to have paid the road tax and got the correct insurance. So that you can spend your time doing more exciting activities, use a simple comparison sites to compare insurance prices from different companies all in one place. Comparison sites do what they say. They provide an unbiased comparison of all types of campervan insurance, from self builds to VWs and under 25s. This means you can get the best deal on insurance that is perfect for you and your van in a quick, easy and secure way.

Where to Go?

For your first ever trip, it’s usually a safer bet to stay fairly close to home just in case anything happens. Of course, you still want that authentic van life experience, but choosing somewhere that isn’t totally off grid would be sensible, for now. It’s easy to find a campsite or caravan park that hosts campervans, since there are several apps and websites where you can check the facilities available to you. In the UK, it’s rare and expensive to find sites with pitches that have fresh water and waste services but there will be at least some to choose from. Now you just need to decide what sort of landscape you wish to have your first campervan experience in. Do you want to be close to the sea for a daily swim, or up in the hills and mountains so you can go out hiking every day? The freedom of the campervan gives you the freedom of choice!

Photo credit Sébastien Goldberg via Unsplash

Packing Essentials

You will need the usual camping essentials: a first aid kit, pots and pans, a washing line, and toilet roll. But there are a few other items that you will probably need at some point when travelling or holidaying in a campervan, like levelling ramps, a water hose and an extension lead. But do not fret, the point of this first trip is to find out what you do and don’t need. Start a list to note down all the things that you’re missing on this trip, so you can get them ready for the next one. Of course, plastic wine glasses should definitely be added onto that list.

By following this guide, your first trip in the campervan will be as smooth as possible. Expect the small hiccups, since it is only the first time, but take them in your stride and have the best time.

This is a collaborative post.

My goals for July

I'm a little bit late committing my goals for this month to blog post, but I made it in the end! This month things are a bit more mixed up, we have the countdown to the end of term, hopefully we'll be spending a few days away, and then we have a few social activities too. So instead of lots of things that I want to do every day, there are a few tasks that I want to make the effort to work on and complete.

* Sort out and delete old e-mails. I have been using the same e-mail address for a long time now and I have e-mails going back years. I'd like to have a bit of a clear out and come up with a better filing system for the e-mails that I want to keep.

* Update my household notebook. I started my household notebook when I learned about the FlyLady system years ago (she calls it a control journal), but I've been very bad at keeping it updated. I;d like to have some current notes about the children for potential babysitters, important contact numbers and so on, and there are also some new pages that I want to add. 

* Type up and laminate my recipes. Last month I challenged myself to sort through all the recipes that I'd cut from magazines, try out some and cull the rest. Now I want to take the ones that I will actually make again, type them up and laminate them to fit in to my recipe box. 

* Write a summer bucket list of things to do with the children over the long summer holiday.

* Take part in our village garage sale trail and find a way to dispose of everything that doesn't sell. I will be having an enormous 'free' pile outside our house!

* Swim in the sea pool that is in walking distance of our holiday AirBnB. I saw it last year and regretted not having my swimming costume, so I promised myself that if we made it back then next time I would swim in it (or at least get in, and jump out very quickly afterwards!).

* Work on my cross stitch map. My cross stitch map is a very long term project. It's a cross stitch canvas with a map printed on, and the idea is that you stitch in the countries that you've visited. But even if you are pretty well travelled, there is still quite a lot of white left over. So I'm intending to fill the entire canvas with little pictures that represent my travels, then fill in the other areas with different shades of blue. This month I want to add as much blue as I can, so that it starts to look a bit more finished!

End of term anxiety

It's finally the last week of term, after a very strange year. But one thing the same is how anxious I am finding myself feeling as the school year draws to a close. It's heightened this year by the fact that school bubbles across the country are closing left right and centre - fingers crossed that we can actually make it to the end of the week!

I always find this week stressful because the usual routines have come to an end and there are extra activities and events taking place. Admittedly not so many this year, but we have a summer 'bubble' fair, transition days and a themed day, as well as a half day on the final Friday. There are lots of things to remember each day and probably some school run juggling to make sure I'm in the right place at the right time.

Then there are the teacher gifts and thank you cards to worry about, I never know what to get and usually just go with a gift card (although I have upped the value since covid hit, I think they deserve it!). 

It's also my last chance to get hold of any second hand uniform directly from the school, which has already been trickier than usual due to the lack of the proper second hand uniform sale. I've managed to get most things but I still really need a bigger blazer for Harry, he has taken me aback this year with how much he's grown!

Finally there's the panic about trying to fit in everything I want and need to do at home before I have everyone at home again for eight weeks. I do some transcription work which is only limited by the amount of time that I can spend on it, and with everyone at home that time really does become limited! 

I will have such a sense of relief come Friday lunchtime when I can pull the car onto the driveway, get the final school uniform washing load on and pack away the schoolbags and lunchboxes ready for the summer! 

Image credit Element5 Digital