Finding HopeMarch 2026 in Photos
I really enjoyed doing my photo challenge in January and although I tried to do it again in February, my brain was just too full of other things to keep up with the prompts and so my post became sparser and sparser. But this month started out more calmly and I felt a little less burned out and so I felt like I could actually hold the prompts in my brain.
I found the January prompts were more interesting but I was game to give it a go and so here we are…
Day 2 – A Toy
These are some of my favourite fidget toys: my turquoise tangle, which I actually got a tattoo of to celebrate ten years of my autism diagnosis; my spiky hand-roller (I have no idea what its real name is), which is particularly helpful if my hands feel desperate to do something destructive, like pull at my hair; my box of little magnetic pebbles, which are so satisfying to mould between my hands; my Stimagz set, which are kind of like a tangle but with magnetic rods that you can pull apart and snap back together; my little click-y keyboard keys gadget (again, no idea what it’s called), which I love because I’ve always found keyboards really sensorially pleasing.
Day 4 – A Cloud
The clouds were particularly pretty on this drive back from London.
Day 6 – A Street Sign
I forgot to take a photo of a street sign but I did take this picture of the sign for the Marble Arch tube station to send to a group chat, since it references two Erin LeCount songs: ‘Marble Arch‘ and ‘Mind The Gap.’
Day 7 – A Flower
I spotted these flowers at a service station and they were just too pretty not to capture. It would’ve been a waste to buy them – they likely wouldn’t have survived the car journey – but I loved the colour combination and pattern of the petals.
Day 8 – A Drink
I recently discovered the White Peach flavour of Red Bull and I am a huge fan! I love both the Juneberry (the matte blue can) and the Grapefruit & Blossom (the matte purple can) but this is my current favourite. Caffeine doesn’t seem to affect me but the fizz gives me a boost and I think I’ve developed a vaguely Pavlovian response to the flavours: I feel more awake, even if it isn’t actually caffeinating me. Red Bull should really be sponsoring me at this point, given how much of it I drink and therefore how often it appears on my social media.
Day 9 – A Car
There’s a Tesla on my street and at some point last year – I honestly can’t remember when, given how many scandals Elon Musk was involved in – the owners added a ‘Buyers Remorse’ sticker, which I find endlessly funny.
Day 12 – A Book
I’ve just started reading this, having had it recommended to me by multiple people. I can’t say much about it yet but I do like the conversational writing style…
Day 13 – A Pet
Izzy and her cushion. And it is her cushion. She looks (and behaves!) decidedly put out when anyone else uses it so we’ve taken to using different ones and letting her curl up on this one. She looks so cute and content and the colour compliments her fur – somehow it seems like every colour compliments her fur!
Day 14 – A Pair of Shoes
Although I’ve been wearing my trainers a lot more – to help with my stability and chronic pain – I still absolutely adore these boots; I used to wear them all the time and I still would if I could. I call them my ‘Daisy Johnson Boots’ because a version of these boots were part of Chloe Bennet’s first Quake costume in Agents of Shield; I thought they looked so cool and since Daisy Johnson is my all time favourite, special interest character, I was so excited when I found a pair online for a not eye-watering price. They’re surprisingly comfortable and I feel so cool and confident when I wear them. I actually bought a second pair when I realised how much I loved them, even though the first pair is holding up pretty well, but the brand doesn’t sell them anymore and it’ll be a sad day when I eventually wear through them. I definitely need to get back to wearing them when I feel up to it because they are such a good mood boost.
Day 15 – A Window
After a bad night’s sleep, when I finally did sleep, I slept late. When I finally managed to get up and get myself sorted, my Mum had already pulled down the blinds but I didn’t mind: I was a bit migraine-y and bright sunlight would not have helped with that. This is my view from the sofa – with my little sofa desk – day and night and it’s a very soothing backdrop to work to. I love having fairy lights up all year round; using them as a source the ambient light compared to the bright, overhead light has been a real revelation for both my migraines and from an autistic, sensory perspective.
Day 17 – A Game
I am an avid Duotrigourdle player and you can usually catch me playing at 12.01am; I am that keen. I’m not particularly good at it: I’m just as likely to run out of guesses as I am to complete it in under 37 but I really like the puzzle and I like that you can keep playing regardless of whether you’re going to ‘win’ or not.
Day 19 – A Pattern
This is the pattern of my current notebook, the one I’m trying to practice journalling in. I love the ocean pattern; I’ve always found the sea to be very calming so it seemed like a good choice for somewhere to try and work out what’s going on in my head.
Day 21 – A Tree
This is one of my favourite trees in Brighton. It’s near my old therapy office and I used to sit underneath it after my sessions. Even though I go somewhere different for therapy now, I still like to visit this tree every year when the magnolia flowers bloom because it’s just so beautiful.
Day 25 – A Stick
Izzy is so funny with sticks, balls, toys, etc. She’s so proud of herself for collecting them and then so proud of herself for bringing them back to us. She doesn’t hold on when we try to take them; it’s like, by taking them, we have acknowledged how clever she is for finding and bringing us whatever the thing is (my favourite thing she does this with is socks).
Day 27 – A Street
In the final week of March, I was going to see Maisie Peters in London, sightsee in London with some friends who were visiting, and attend the Together Alliance protest march in central London so I was using a wheelchair on and off; I don’t need it all of the time but when I’m doing a lot – especially things that involve standing or walking – I need the extra support at the moment. I’ve never had a motorised wheelchair before and it was honestly so freeing. When I turned onto a street that had a really wide, empty pavement, I couldn’t resist zooming around; it was so fun and I just wanted the street to keep on going and going. For the last few years, walking around London has been exhausting and painful and it has stopped me from doing things that I really wanted to do. Using a wheelchair isn’t a perfect solution but it has given me a lot to think about in regard to my abilities and my independence and my freedom.
Day 28 – A Happy Place
It may not be my beloved hydrotherapy pool of the last five years but the new pool I’ve been going to is nice and it feels so good to be in the water, to be weightless, to feel my joints truly relax; I think it’s the only time they really do. When I swim and when I do my hydrotherapy exercises, my body actually feels strong and capable and that’s not something I feel very often so it’s kind of magical when I do.
Day 29 – A Plate
One of my best friends gave me this cute little plate recently, knowing how important daisies are to me. I love it but I haven’t quite figured out where to put it. I want to have it somewhere where I’ll see it so maybe I’ll use it for keeping my everyday jewellery (since I cannot sleep with jewellery on) and then I’ll see it every day when I put my jewellery on.
Day 31 – A Square
I’m drawing up my bullet journal and this spread is a new one for me this year: a monthly bingo board with goals to cross off. One of my friends showed me her bingo board for the year and I liked the concept but with my ADHD, I knew a year was too long for me to try and stick to a goal, particularly a bigger goal like reading 12+ books. So I broke it down to a monthly board and it seems to be pretty effective so far.
I didn’t find this challenge quite as enjoyable or quite as creative as the one I did in January. January’s prompts were more open to interpretation and I really liked that, whereas the prompts for this month were more specific and I found myself spending more time thinking about what I could take a photo of that I would’ve liked. What I like most about these challenges are how creative or weird or funny you can be without it being a big commitment of time or energy. It’s a fun way to be creative day to day; I like that it keeps that part of my brain running in the background, even if I have a very uncreative day. So I didn’t find this one as fun as previous ones because I felt like I spent more time thinking about it than doing it. I’m sure I’ll do another one in the future because I do like doing them but I’m not sure when it will be; it will definitely depend on the prompts.
Finding Hope 