Chez Hanny

5 days ago | chezhanny.substack.com | Hannah Ashe

I bought a pond. Well, a galvanised steel tub that is going to become a tiny pond once I’ve finished researching how to set it up and which plants will work best to attract the wildlife I want to encourage in my garden. Two things inspired this. Firstly, I recently read ’s excellent new book One Garden Against the World and in case you don’t know Kate’s work, she is passionate about encouraging people to install ponds in their gardens.

1 week ago | chezhanny.substack.com | Hannah Ashe

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -39:16Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Helen Ridley is an illustrator, specialising in live illustration, who has carved out a successful career by following her instincts and doing what feels right. I found Helen’s mindset to be inspirational and I hope that, you too, will be interested in her methodical, yet highly creative approach to freelance life following redundancy.

1 week ago | chezhanny.substack.com | Hannah Ashe

Time is a gift. I learn this to be true more and more as I get older though it is fair to say that as a 39-year old, child-free woman I have a reasonable amount of it. Especially since leaving a full-time job (despite now having my finger in all of the pies, work wise). But, that said, I have come to a point in my life where I prioritise gifting myself pockets of time. It allows me to be me.

2 weeks ago | chezhanny.substack.com | Hannah Ashe

Former teachers’ career change stories will always be of special interest to me due to my own educational background. For Hannah Miller, it has been more than 10 years since she left the classroom to become a coach and I was delighted to have the opportunity to discover more about her career journey. Hannah and I talk about the challenges of leaving teaching, bizarre transferable skills and Hannah’s path to shaping a career that works for her current season of life.

2 weeks ago | chezhanny.substack.com | Hannah Ashe

I’m away for a long weekend with my husband to celebrate his birthday. We’d read and heard lots of good things about Lille but had never visited despite it being easy for us to get to via a direct Eurostar train from London. I’m struck once again by the positive impact travel can have on us. Only 90 minutes by train from London and we are in this city which provides so much to learn about, experience and challenge us culturally.