I'm quite keen on the phrase 'life hack', although I like to think I use it in a slightly ironic manner. Anyway, toddler painting life hack coming up...

If it's raining and you are stuck at home with your toddler, and you fancy doing some painting, but it's too wet to even make the trip out to the garage to get a non-spill paint pot, simply cut a hole in the lid of a ricotta tub. Or any plastic tub you can find in the recycling. It worked pretty well - he only managed to dribble a small amount of water out of it, and he got on well dipping his brush in.

Incidentally in the photo he's using Ikea's coloured pencils that turn into watercolour paint when you brush over them with water. They are popular in our house at the moment - a good, fairly unmessy alternative to full-on painting.

I took my one year old to see Richard Long's Boyhood Line last week. It's perhaps not the most visually exciting piece of work but I thought it would be a good one to go and see with a small child, especially a contagious but not that poorly one. I was also quite keen to have a wander round the Downs just because I hadn't been before, although that didn't really happen because aforementioned small child was too tired, and upset I didn't have a second banana for him.

It was a drizzly, slightly misty day, so quite atmospheric. One interesting aspect of the work is that it's not signposted so you have to wander around and ask people where it is. I think that is what makes a piece of land art in a semi-urban area unique; although it looks like countryside, it's actually quite a busy spot with lots of dog walkers, joggers and there was even a buggyfit type class going on while we were there.

We asked a very pleasant elderly couple of directions when we got out of the car, and they pointed us in the right direction with no discussion of the work itself, but had a little chat with my son. We got as far as a outdoor gym which he was reluctant to leave, and then we had to ask a dog walker for further directions. She was very interested to know more about the work, and the artist and questioned me for quite a while about it. I felt like I should have read up a bit more before coming. She then showed me some examples of lichen and told me about her lichen tour of the Downs.

By the time we found the work, I felt like I had had quite an interesting introduction to a new place though interactions with a few local people and short-ish wander round, which may not have happened without the artwork being the focus of our journey. Richard Long is quoted in an article the Guardian as saying the stones will probably end up in rockeries. I might pop back and get a few to turn into Happymess stone creatures ;-)