Kate Claxton

Beltane in Highworth ☀️ What an absolute joy to celebrate this ancient festival in Highworth. If you’ve never been before, I’d really recommend experiencing it at least once. There is nothing like community, celebration, and wonderfully eccentric British traditions (especially when they’re full of love!) ✨ Exploring these seasonal festivals and forgotten traditions is something I love weaving into my Wheel of the Year circles too. Our Summer Solstice gatherings are coming soon, held at Berry Farm on 21st June and Ashra Wellness on 26th June 🫶🏻 Look forward to seeing you there, Love Zoe x Beltane Festival Highworth | May Day | Summer Solstice Events Swindon | Morris Dancing Celebration | Cotswold Living | Pagan Traditions | Seasonal Living

THE GOOD SHIP BED by Kate Claxton and Angela Mayers // [Ad] If you’re familiar with Kate’s brilliant work, you’ll know she’s an author with a catalogue of beautiful books with lots of heart! She also does lots of amazing things in her community advocating for a love of reading in schools, libraries and her local area. This, her latest publication, she kindly sent to me as I have been a supporter of her work. But no one needed to twist my arm to review this one as it is truly a delight! The Good Ship Bed is a dreamy book which centres around bedtime and co-sleeping. It captures the chaos and (sometimes) calm of this daily moment between a mother and child. I am sure any parent will relate to this one, whether you bed-share or not, from sharing worries, reading a story or simply toys everywhere and no room for daddy! I love the comparisons to pirate life, imagining that the bed is a ship on a journey to sleepy lands… but will they ever get there? Hopefully soon. Gentle, sweet and with stunning illustrations and full page scapes, The Good Ship bed is a rhyming book that is a perfect bedtime story. 📕

“Benim annem bir kaplan.” 🐅🤍 Eliz bunu herkese söylüyor. Çünkü annesinin çizgileri var. Ama annesi bir kaplan gibi yaşamıyor, sivri pençeleri ya da kuyruğu da yok. Sonra yavaş yavaş anlıyoruz… Bu hikâye aslında bedenimizi sevmek, bizi farklı yapan şeyleri utanmadan taşıyabilmek ve kendi izlerimizi güzellik olarak görebilmek üzerine sıcacık bir hikâye. Eliz’in annesinin çizgileri, hamilelikte oluşan çatlaklar. Ve kitap bunu öyle doğal, öyle sevgi dolu bir yerden anlatıyor ki… çocuklara beden farklılıklarının utanılacak değil, insanı özel yapan şeyler olduğunu hissettiriyor. En sevdiğim kısmı ise şu oldu: Hayvanların desenlerini nasıl hayranlıkla izliyorsak, kendi “desenlerimize” de aynı sevgiyle bakabilmeyi hatırlatması. 🦓🐆🦒 Çocuklarla beden algısı, farklılıklar ve kendini kabul etmek üzerine konuşabilmek için çok kıymetli bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum. 🤍 📌 Sizce bizi özel yapan şey, tam da farklılıklarımız olabilir mi? 📌 Sizce sizin ruhunuz hangi hayvana benziyor? 🐆🤍 #çocukkitapları #bedenalgısı #ebeveyntavsiyesi #kitapönerisi #çocukkitapları

Happy birthday to David Attenborough!! 🦍an absolute national treasure 🤎 He has been an inspiration to myself and many. I think it’s important to remember he’s not only a fantastic source of entertainment and education, but he has been trying to teach the world for a century now about the role humans have to play on this planet. And whilst British politics is currently at its most bleak, it’s vital we not only celebrate sir Attenborough, but to uphold his values and be part of the change we desperately need 🤍 Thank you so much to @ivo_graham @reallyratherwild @createstudiosdigital and everyone else involved, for hosting such a fabulous evening in his honour. It was a real fever dream that’s for sure 🐯💭 #davidattenborough #nature #conservation #wildlife

Celebrating @davidattenborough 100th Birthday with @ivo_graham and @reallyratherwild last night! Wonderful to see everyone who came and got involved with all the fun!

I said maybe

Grace & Ivy | Shop Opening 🌷 I’m so excited to be opening the doors to Grace & Ivy for the first time on Thursday 23rd April, 6-8pm🍾 A chance to have a look around the space, enjoy a celebratory drink and see everything come together🥂 The shop will be a welcoming place to plan your wedding flowers, discover beautiful UK made products and shop from other lovely local businesses. 📍 13 High Street, Shrivenham, SN6 8AN (just below The Treatment Rooms) I’d love to see you there 💐 Emily #graceandivyflorist #oxfordshiresmallbusiness #ukmade #weddingflorist

As someone who doesn’t have a relationship with their own mum, I’m aware that Mother’s Day is a tricky one for many people, for many reasons. After years of trying to ignore it (up to a few years ago when my older two became more aware) I’ve started to embrace it in a low key kind of way. Here are some of our favourite books featuring all kinds of fabulous mums. Some of these make me want to high five the mums, or give them a big hug and say, “You’re doing great!” (IYKYK), or just hang out for a bit because I think I’d get along with them. That’s the power of books. Always, IMO, the best choice of gift for just about any occasion.

WORLD BOOK DAY 🌍📚✨ with our wonderful friend @reallyratherwild we read Kate’s book, The Good Ship Bed, played pirates, saw some magic 🪄✨ rhank you so much Kate!! And to @swindonlibraries and @booktrust for pre school reading kits that went home with families. Happy @worldbookdaysocial 🧡

A little shelfie of LOVE to celebrate Valentine’s Day 💗 Stories that explore love in all its forms — family love, self-love, community love and the quiet everyday ways we show we care. Top shelf 🐯Love the Skin You’re In ✍️ Kate Claxton @reallyratherwild 🎨 Angela Mayers @angelamayersillustration 👶🏽How Big Is Love? ✍️ Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler @carlandhakeaauthors 🎨 Jade Goodwin @jadey.draws 🪴Love Makes a Garden Grow ✍️🎨 TaeEun Yoo @yooillustration Middle shelf 💗My Heart Goes With You ✍️🎨 Sophie Beer @sophiebeerdraws 🥰You Are Loved ✍️ Jess Sanders @iamjesssanders 🎨 Anna Quaranta @annacquareart 📋Little Love List ✍️ Bethany Clark @bethanyclarkbooks 🎨 Summer Macon @summermaconart Bottom shelf 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 How My Family Says I Love You ✍️ Yvonne Sewankambo @ysewankambo 🎨 Aurore McLeod 💕Heartfelt ✍️ Elaine Vickers @elainebvickers 🎨 Samantha Cotterill ❤️👀What Love Looks Like ✍️ Laura Obuobi @lauraobuobi 🎨 Anna Cunha @anna_cunha Books are a mixture of bought, borrowed from the library and #gifted by publishers 💕📚

INFLUENCER CALL OUT 🚨 I’ve just realised I never got around to sharing a snippet of the incredible family influencer collabs we did for The Littlest Yak’s Autumn 2025 tour, with @lastheatre ! 🤍🐮 This was super sweet connecting with so many passionate families and coming up with some really creative ways of getting their little ones all Yak’ed up! 🤓 And now I’m back on the lookout to work with some more for a very Egg-stravagant Easter tour of Robin Hood! 🏹 So if you’re based in any of the below areas or know some amazing family influencers that you follow, please put them in touch 🤩 📍Harlow, Kettering, Rotherham, Crewe, Southend, Bromley, Grays, Dunstable, Southport & Stafford Also, any Polish influencers in the areas of Guildford, Lytham St Anne’s, Buxton, Cambridge & Malvern for an incredible international classical music quartet with a hilarious spin! 🎼🎻🪉 Thank you! 🤍

The theme for #8brilliantbooks with @mrsbrownsbookbox is books to read aloud, so I thought I would share the books the children have been listening to at home recently. * AD PR PRODUCT Hen in the Bed * by Katrina Charman and Guilherme Karsten from @nosycrow - a long term favourite we've read a million times, always accompanied by the actions of rolling out of bed. Pablo and Splash: Roman Holiday by Sheena Dempsey from @bloomsburychildrens - our love of this series was reignited with the new book last year Detective Stanley: Mystery at the Museum * by Hannah Tunnicliffe from @flyingeyebooks - we are very excited to read a new Detective Stanley book, this one is read often as it's short enough to read in one sitting. Dogman and Cat Kid by Dav Pilkey from @scholastic_uk - we recently bought the last few we were missing and are having a great time revisiting. Top tip, there's loads in Asda on 2 for £7.43! Pugicorn and Hugicorn by Matilda Rose and Tim Budgen from @hachettechildrens_pr - we bought a bundle of these off Vinted for Thea at Christmas! The Good Ship Bed * by Kate Claxton and Angela Mayers from @reallyratherwild - a new addition to our shelves, a wonderful bed time story featuring pirates. Auntie's Bangles * by Dean Atta and Alea Marley from @hachettechildrens - another new read, very poignant but full of hope and love. Investigators: Class Action by John Patrick Green from @macmillankidsuk - another favourite series that we enjoyed together and Noah reads independently too.