We live in the normal, chaotic way that most families do, forgetting stuff, breaking and making things, debating stuff, laughing, singing, annoying each other, and muddling through one day to the next dropping all the important stuff and accumulating extraordinary amounts of useless clutter. And in the middle of all that, we try to live using less stuff, buying less stuff, and generating less bad carbon. And making sure we're as sorted, gracious and as resilient as possible. And ensuring every day involves as many hugs, laughs and cake as we can fit in. Cake's awfully important. We should never underestimate cake.

(We, by the way, is me, Manda Brookman, my son Louis, my daughter Ruby, my mother Beryl and her remarkable tree-planting husband, Alan. )

​And while you're munching your slab of chocolate loveliness, have a look at this. It's sort of inspiring, and says exactly what we have in our tin. As it were. :)