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It's a Gas: Why Getting a Smart Meter Made Me Anxious (But It's All Right Now)

But it’s all right now, in fact it’s a gas. — Mick Jagger / Keith Richards. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” It took Barrie the British Gas engineer forty minutes to fit the new smart meter at my house. Forty minutes of work for him. Six weeks and forty minutes of anxiety for me. Earlier this year I described how anxious I get ahead of social occasions such as my friends’ wedding. I guess Barrie qualifies as people; our brief conversations as he worked a social event. But that’s not what put me so much on edge this time. It was the intrusion of someone from the Outside into my home environment. The temporary relinquishing of control to Someone Else, albeit a skilled and practiced professional. It was the uncertainty of what the appointment might herald. What if the ancient gas cooker failed inspection and was disconnected as being unsafe? What if the meter proved too awkward to get at or impossible to replace? I felt much the same last year when the electricity meter was replaced wit...
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Our Top Posts of the Month (October 2026)

Check out our top blog posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first.
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Fearless and Full of Faith: A Postcard from Up on the Roof

When I come home feelin’ tired and beat I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof) — Carole King / Gerry Goffin. “Up on the Roof.” Beep Beep Beep The messages arrived late afternoon my time. Three photos. Two of a canted shingle roof strewn with dried leaves and other garden debris. The third showed a steel ladder leaning against the side of a house I recognised immediately. “Gary’s going up on the roof. He will wear the life alert. He cleaned the gutter yesterday.” Gary is Fran’s stepdad. “Fingers crossed,” I replied. “That looks like a decent ladder but I wouldn’t want to be on the roof itself.” “He is fearless and full of faith.” My mind went back some thirty-five years. A friend’s house in Nottinghamshire. An invitation to help repair the roof of an outbuilding. It was an invitation I felt incapable of declining. It was ever that way. Gary might be fearless and full of faith but I was neither. Not then, not now. I climbed the ladder and shifted myself...
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How Losing Tillie Helped to Create a Brand-New Resource: Trust Tillie

By Aimee McCarthy, Project Lead of Gracie’s Way Turn your wounds into wisdom. — Oprah Winfrey A few weeks ago, on September 28th, I launched the newest resource on Gracie’s Way: Trust Tillie, which now has its own page on the website. On seeing and supporting this, as well as the entire heartache around the loss of Tillie, Martin Baker (co-Creator of Gum on My Shoe) offered me a chance to write this guest post with some additional insight into the resource and how losing Tillie inspired each of the parts or pages. So, before I run through each of the sections in the resource and discuss how each was inspired, informed, and influenced by what happened to Tillie, I’ll talk about the largest influence on Trust Tillie; losing Tillie. Losing Tillie On August 31st 2026, I realised that the last time I’d seen my five-month-old bunny; Tillie, eat had been the previous day and after she passed some soft stools in front of me (if she hadn’t, because I have another rabbit — Luna — I m...
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"I Know They Saw Me!" Rooftop Stories from the Jersey Shore

By Andrea Marie For most of the first decade of the new millennium I lived a short block from the beachfront in a small borough on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, called Surf City. Having grown up just a few miles from New York City I visited the Jersey Shore countless times but never dreamed I’d be offered the opportunity to live “down the shore” as we called it. Surf City is roughly an hour and half from NYC, without traffic, which MUST be said. I lived in a single apartment above Island Earth, an art gallery storefront on Long Beach Boulevard, next to the bright yellow laundromat. The entrance to my apartment was around back, up a well-aged wooden staircase the top of which looked out over the flat roof extending over the gallery to The Boulevard. The small wooden deck led to the left to the entrance of a great little apartment. There were windows on all sides of the apartment making for great light and great ocean and bay breezes. The mighty Atlantic Ocean lay a short block e...
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Love Is Like a Butterfly: A Rare and Gentle Reminder to Keep Going

By Sophie May Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing. — Dolly Parton. “Love Is Like a Butterfly.” I’ve always loved butterflies (although I was afraid of them flapping near me when I was young) — the beauty, symmetry and even throughout my Mariah days (if you know, you know) 🦋 Throughout the hardest times of my life, butterflies have always appeared and taken me to a place of calm, most poignantly when my grandad was in hospital for the last time and there were two that just wouldn’t leave where I was sat 🤍 A butterfly tattoo later and they’ve become even more important. Whenever I’m struggling they appear. Not just that but when Bloomin’ Mindful hadn’t even reached social media, I got a message from a shop to say they wanted to stock my Butterfly watering stations (now the Bug Oasis) 🐝 🦋 That day I cried as it was the lifeline and boost of confidence I so needed! All of a sudden I felt my grandad with me and it w...
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Choosing to Show Up, Choosing to Care: A Celebration of Friendship and Shared Humanity

By Lisa Judson Sometimes, the people you never expected to meet become the people you can’t imagine your life without. Friendship is a funny thing. We spend our lives collecting people. Some stay for a season. Some for a chapter. Some disappear for years and somehow walk back into our lives as though they’ve never been away. And then there are the ones who become your people . Friendships are the lifeblood of life. They bring laughter, tears, support, comfort and solidarity. They bring a kick up the backside when you’ve wallowed for long enough, or a good-natured correction when you need one. Honesty, reliability and love bring it all together. I often wonder how I’d manage without my tribe. You see, I know lots of people. From all kinds of times and places in my life — school, work, church, the lake where I swim. And yet, I’ll admit, my inner circle is small. You know what I mean. Those friends who are your ride or dies . The ones you can call at any time of the day or ...
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