I was born in London in 1982, however as a family we moved around quite a lot because of dad's jobs.  We spent a few years in Cambridge, but settled for the majority of my childhood in Cardiff.  Even though I was born in England, I consider myself to be Welsh (so much so that I even support the Welsh rugby team!).  I speak poor conversational Welsh, and am doing my best to keep it up even though I now live back in England.

I met my husband, James, while I was studying for my masters at the University of Kent, through the University canoe club.  Ironically, neither of us canoes much anymore!  We bought our cocker spaniel, Barney, in September 2005 and he has kept us busy ever since.  Following the completion of my PhD in May 2008, we got married in London in September 2008. 

Both James and I are very keen walkers which obviously keeps Barney happy!  We also both thoroughly enjoy DIY and our latest project is the renovation of our house which we moved into in May 2008.  We are making slow progress due to both holding down full-time jobs, however all of our spare time is spent plumbing in a kitchen or slapping paint on the walls.  Having said that, we have recently decided to start growing our own vegetables, and so some time has been taken away from the house work to clear some space in the overgrown garden.  I am sure our enthusiasm will subside once our first set of seedlings fails to sprout!

I adore cooking and I enjoy experimenting with new recipes on friends and family and I am looking forward to using some of our homegrown produce in the kitchen.