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One of the joys of having kids is getting enjoyable and beautiful things for them to play with. And there is always the vicarious pleasure you get from seeing them engage with their world and having a ball with their toys and craft activities. And often, it's not at all vicarious ... Who hasn't felt the urge to explore their own creativity as their kids get drawing or creating? Or joined in with them? I know at least two adults/parents who have embarked on art courses after encouraging the creativity in their kids sparked their own creativity into action. Maybe...

"There was a new world. Everything was white, and somehow still. Everything was holding its breath. The field stretching down to the lake was like a brilliant white counterpane without a crinkle in it." - Swallows and Amazons I only discovered the joys of Swallows and Amazons when my own boys were small, and we read the series to them. The books magically capture that joy and mystery of what it is to sail on the water. There's something almost primeval about the gliding of a boat over the surface of the water, powered only by a breath of wind....

"Awesome." While that word had become cringe-worthily overused, we can still, nevertheless, fairly apply it to the power of volcanoes. Volcanoes hold a place of reverence in the human psyche. Most of us have grown up reading about Pompeii or Krakatoa, or remember Mt Pinatubo or that unpronounceable Icelandic Eyjafjallajokull, which threw European airways into chaos a few years ago. Our kids are soon aware of the awesome power of volcanoes.  In the Hawaiian tradition Pele is the Goddess of volcanoes, who could cause volcanic eruptions by digging with her Pa'oa, or magic stick. Many of the stories associated with...

By Andrew McKenna Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. Alfred, Lord Tennyson Advent, where we now find ourselves in the Christian calendar, in part honours the hard journeys we experience in our lives. They may be a metaphysical journey to God, or a more physical journey we make on the surface of the earth. All journeys can be made easier by cultivating reverence, forgiveness, joy and gratitude - qualities we could no doubt work on year-round. I always...

There is something special about prising treasures from the earth. Miners, of course, know it, and so do archaeologists and palaeontologists. The earth continues to yield treasures from the past, whether they be early settlers' pitchforks or ancient fossils from the bottom of the sea. And without archaeologists and palaeontologists we would be limited to knowing about only the cultures that had a written language or were written about. There would be a body of oral history, but no way to check its validity. We would be limited to around the last 3000 years of the human past. Many of the...