I recently watched a TED talk by Angela Duckworth. A teacher turned researcher who wanted to find out which traits made some children more successful than others. She quickly found out IQ or genes were very poor predictors. What Angela found was that "grit" - the perseverance and passion to achieve long–term goals - makes the difference. It's about putting in the hours when we'd rather be doing something else. Sustained input over long periods of time. Putting in the extra bi

I'm always caught out with this every year. I don't know if it's because elderberry time is at the end of the summer and I can't bear the thought of coughs and colds. Or it's because I'm caught up with the children going back to school. Or I just can't face autumn coming. But either way it always ends with a last minute dash around our orchard scrabbling for anything the birds have left behind. Come October I'm starting to hear at home about sore throats and runny noses and I