Mindfulness | Colour therapy

There could be thousands more colours than your standard rainbow seven, if you take a moment to consider how you might name them.

Anyone who’s ever had to choose a paint for a wall or a piece of furniture will have found themselves immersed in colour charts and sampler pots where there’s more to colour than their product codes or Pantone reference. Every shade, tone, and hue comes with its own name– chocolate comtesse, mineral grey, crushed oregano, millennial pink. In a description of just two or three words, a whole world can be conjured up or reimagined.

But what about all those colours yet to be given names? What would you call the blue the sky turns 20 minutes after a summer sunset, for example? Or the particular grey the clouds look when half the sky’s about to storm and the rest is brilliant sunshine? How should you describe the colour of your mother’s eyes, or define the shade you like your tea? Don’t let the paint companies have all the fun. It’s a mindful practice to look carefully at the colours around you and really see them.

ART PROJECT

Start a colour experiment to recreate colours you love in paint in a journal, logging what you mixed and in what proportions, and then name your colours however you like – striplight yellow, garden shed brick, bank holiday traffic. Baby’s comfort blanket, granny’s dining table, mum’s golden flecks. Colour can capture moments, memories and places as well as words or pictures.

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How to improve your frisbee

Give these techniques a spin to improve your summer sporting chances

There are more than 100 possible frisbee throws (see YouTube to learn a few more), so a few sessions in the park will not a pro make. These tips, however, will teach old dogs and humans alike a few new tricks.

Master your spins

Bend your wrist, then snap it quickly to give lots of spin. The more spin, the more stable it will be and the more control you’ll have on its flight.

Elbows out

Bend your elbow during your throw to add power and increase accuracy.

Do the twist

When throwing, step towards your target, or at least shift your weight from your back foot to the front foot. Twist your shoulder, hips and legs through to the point of release.

Strong and stable

Stable throws are more accurate throws. Aim to keep the frisbee level and throw from just above your belly button for optimum stability.

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Play | August cover reveal

Remember the excitement of the summer holidays when you were a child? It wasn’t so much where you were going but the fun you were anticipating having. That ‘school’s out’ urge is too feelgood to be just for kids. And the beauty is that you can capture it anywhere; a backyard party, ball games in the park, silly stories around the campfire, enjoying a poptail or making something funny. There’s a creativity that springs from messy play; think of it as your sunshine time. 

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July issue: One day left to buy!

Yes, there's just one day left to buy the July issue of The Simple Things! And it's a cracker.

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View the sampler here or head out to get your copy TODAY!

Want a look at what you're missing? Here's some of what you can expect to find inside the pages of our WANDER issue:

Competition | Win a year’s worth of cheese

To celebrate their new range of clothbound cheeses made with Cornish sea salt, Quicke’s have come up with an irresistible prize

Calling all curd nerds! This summer, Quicke’s are excited to announce a new partnership with Cornish Sea Salt. With only four ingredients involved in cheese making, Quicke’s believe each one should be the very best. Cornish Sea Salt is both low in sodium and rich in natural sea minerals. Its purity adds a rounded brightness to the complex flavours of Quicke’s award-winning clothbound cheddars.

Enter our competition for a year’s supply from their artisanal range and see for yourself. The winner will receive a box of cheesy goodies monthly for a year. You’ll be spoilt with a selection of award-winning Quicke’s clothbound cheddars, as well as accompaniments such as delicious crackers and handmade chutneys, all delivered directly to your door.

How to enter

For your chance to win a year’s supply of Quicke’s cheese, enter below before the closing date, 13 September 2017. The winner will be chosen at random and notified after this date. The prize will be cheese-based and delivered monthly, but subject to change, as stock allows. You can’t swap it for cash either. You can find full terms and conditions on page 129 of August’s The Simple Things and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

Enter now

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Listen | Latin fever

Tunes to make your hips swing and your summer sizzle.

Listen to our latin playlist now

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Recipe | Campari orange poptails

There’s something a little mischievous about turning a childhood treat into something strictly for grown-ups. Poptails – or alcoholic lollies – are summer cocktails, only cooler; delicious, playful and quirky. 

Makes 8–10
60ml water
110g granulated sugar
600ml freshly squeezed orange juice (from 6 or 7 oranges)
80ml freshly squeezed lime juice (from 3 or 4 limes)
90ml (6 tbsp) Campari
Sliver of orange, to garnish (optional)

1 Heat water and sugar in a pan until sugar has dissolved. Mix with the orange and lime juice and Campari. 
2 Fill the moulds, leaving a little space at the top. If you like, put a sliver of orange into the top of each. 
3 Freeze until slushy (60–90 mins), then insert the sticks and freeze until solid, at least five hours.

Note: the alcohol content makes poptails more fragile than their booze-free cousins. For best results:
* Leave a 5mm gap at the top of the mould for expansion.
* Poptails take longer to freeze because of their alcohol content – about 5–8 hours or overnight.
* Metal or rubbery silicone moulds work best. Leave sitting at room temperature for a while before unmoulding (unless using silicone when you can just push them out) and take care – they’re more delicate than lollies.
* Serve as soon as possible after unmoulding, but if you need to store them, wrap in cling film and store in the freezer in an airtight bag. Best eaten within a week of making.
* Make bite-sized poptails in silicone ice cube trays, skewered with cocktail sticks.

Recipe from Ice Kitchen: Poptails by Cesar and Nadia Roden (Quadrille).

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Miscellany | Jane Austen special

Today marks the bicentenary of Jane Austen's death (18 July 1817). In the July issue, The Simple Things presents Miscellany: a curious combination of the practical and the playful, circa 1817. Buy July here.

Learn how to make small talk at a ball, make us giggle with a caption for wet-shirted Colin Firth as Darcy, and learn an Austen word for a noble or young gentleman. 

Discover a fab gadget (Austen was reportedly a dab hand at this cup and ball game), cast aside your cocoa in favour of a much nicer nightcap, and take a household hint from Northanger Abbey. 

Shop three beautiful editions of Austen's classics, learn a classic 18th century card game as played in Emma and Pride and Prejudice, and discover how hard it can be to be an accomplished lady. 

Finally, get to grips with Austen's homes in our identifier and learn how to improve your garden, Austen style. 

Find out more about talks, walks, exhibitions and performances at janeausten200.co.uk. 

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Escape | Outing to the sea

For a truly nostalgic day trip to the seaside, track down a steam train special. On page 60 of July’s The Simple Things, Travis Elborough takes a train to the sea.

‘As someone who grew up by the seaside but has lived in two landlocked cities over the past three decades, I need few excuses to head to the
coast on a whim or having spotted a decent weather report. Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, I am occasionally gripped by an almost uncontrollable urge to ‘get to sea’. And my preferred means of reaching these longed-for shores is invariably a train.

‘Although railway stations can be the stuff of humdrum commutes,disruptions
and disputes, I treasure the possibilities they offer as means of escape to coastal adventure. The destination boards at Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Chester, London’s St Pancras and Fenchurch Street proffering the options, respectively, of visits to Blackpool or Morecambe, Scarborough, Llandudno, Broadstairs and Margate, Southend and Leigh-on-Sea.

‘Here a railway ticket can serve as a passport to a place of sights (if not actually sun), sea and vinegary fish and chips, where parking is no concern of mine. Travelling light on these occasions only helps to add a certain devil-may-care air of fleetfootedness to the whole affair.’

Read more in July’s The Simple Things.

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Recipe | Halloumi fries

Coated in sesame seeds and served with soured cream, honey and fresh pomegranate – what’s not to love?

Serves 2

4 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 x 250g pack of halloumi cut into chunky chip ‘fries’
Vegetable oil for deep frying
1 tsp honey
Seeds of 1⁄2 a pomegranate
Bunch of flat-leaf parsley
4 tbsp soured cream

1 In a bowl, combine the flour and sesame seeds. Coat the halloumi fries in the mixture until covered.
2 Place a small, heavy-based pan over a medium-high heat and pour in 2–3cm of vegetable oil. Test to see if the oil is ready by dropping a small piece of halloumi into the pan – it should immediately start sizzling.
3 Carefully place a few halloumi fries in the pan and fry for a couple of minutes on each side until crunchy and golden. You’ll needtodothisinbatchesof4or5soas not to overcrowd the pan. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the fries and drain on kitchen paper.
4 Drizzle the fries with honey, scatter with pomegranate and parsley and serve with a dollop of soured cream on the side.

From Milly’s Real Food by Nicola Millbank (HarperCollins)  

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Escape | How to be a fearless traveller

Life coach Lou Hamilton offers the following advice to take the stress out of solo travel

1 Have a sense of purpose. A reason you want to do it that’s bigger than your fear.
2 Be prepared. Double-check everything.
3 Walk yourself through the trip in your mind’s eye and imagine success.
4 Organise the first few trips with a reason to interact with people, such as a retreat or creative course or a family-run B&B or homestay.
5 Don’t spend your time staring at your phone – look up, make eye contact, introduce yourself, and smile.
6 Take safety precautions but don’t let fear stop you taking calculated risks.

Things to read

Roam Alone, Inspiring Tales by Reluctant Solo Travellers (Bradt)
40 tales of adventure by people who took the plunge and never looked back.

Solitude by Michael Harris (Random House)
Get inspired to set off.

Without Reservations: The Travel of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach (Bantam).
An US journalist travels Europe alone after her kids have flown the nest.

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Things to download

Zipskee
The app that connects you with like-minded locals around the world.

Triplt
This clever app replaces the travel companion who reminds you to pack your passport, book that transfer, and so on.

Google Translate
Will encourage you to interact with locals and decipher menus. 

Turn to page 87 of July's The Simple Things for more on how to travel alone - buy your copy now (it also makes for an excellent holiday read).

 

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Escape | A rustic hideaway in Cornwall

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Charmaine Beaumont-Hammond heads to Bude for a beachy retreat 

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 68 of the July issue for more of this seaside adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Charmaine Beaumont-Hammond is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and is a writer, photographer and co-owner of wealdstore.com. She blogs at wealdblog.co.uk; follow her on Instagram @wealdblog. 

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A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face

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Pomegranate cake

This traditional Iranian cake has all the moreishness of a drizzle cake, topped with an indulgent cream-cheese frosting, carrot cake-style. Doubly delicious

POMEGRANATE CAKE

200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 1⁄2 lemon
240g self-raising flour mixed with 1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
50g fresh pomegranate seeds

for the syrup

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Freshly squeezed juice of 1⁄2 lemon
80g granulated sugar
1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
150g fresh pomegranate seeds for the frosting
250g full-fat cream cheese
50ml double cream
80g icing sugar

1 Preheat oven to 160C/Fan 140C/325F. Grease a 23cm round loose-bottomed cake tin and line with baking parchment.
2 Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of the food mixer and beat on a medium speed until fluffy. With the speed set on slow, add the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go. Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour/baking powder and blend until just mixed. Add the pomegranate molasses and pomegranate seeds and carefully mix until just combined.
3 Spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 45–50 mins until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin slightly while you make the syrup.
4 For the syrup, place all the ingredients except the seeds into a small pan along with 80ml water. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat to high and boil for 5 mins until slightly syrupy. Spoon half of the warm syrup over the warm cake and set aside to cool completely in the tin. Add the fresh pomegranate seeds to the remaining syrup and set aside to cool fully.
5 Place all the frosting ingredients in a large bowl and beat using a balloon whisk or hand-held electric whisk until thick and creamy.
6 Turn out the cooled cake onto a plate. Spoon over the frosting and use a palette knife to smooth it to the edges in rustic style. Carefully spoon the remaining syrup and seeds over the frosting and allow it to drip down the sides of the cake. Slice and enjoy!

Recipe from Lola’s: A Cake Journey Around the World by Lola’s Bakers and Julia Head (Ryland, Peters & Small).

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