Sponsored Post | Meet the Folk Behind Osea Leisure

We catch up with Janie Robinson, owner of Osea Leisure, to find out why her little stretch of the Essex coastline inspires so much of what she does and how she uses it to help others

Hi Janie, tell us a little bit about Osea Leisure

I grew up on a farm beside the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, helping my mother and grandmother at
Osea Leisure Park, a five-star holiday park and glamping site. In fact, my first jobs included painting toilet blocks and planting hedges before moving into the office. I’m the fourth generation of my family to care for this coastline, so welcoming people here has always been part of my life.

Wow, the business must have changed so much since the early days

It has – what was once just Osea Leisure Park now offers many more ways to enjoy our stretch of coast. We’ve added The Osea View Café, the VITAMIN SeA Sauna and The Lighthouse Studio, which is dedicated to creativity and wellness.

You must have lots of stories!

Far too many memories to share, however, one of my favourite moments along the way was buying back my great-grandmother’s home, Vaulty Manor, just over ten years ago. We’ve since built an award-winning wedding venue and wellness retreat there, so we’re now helping others to make memories that will last a lifetime.

You must have grown with the business, too?

I really have. Having grown up helping with the practical day-to-day jobs, I now spend much more time shaping the experience that we offer. Bringing together my love of hospitality, creativity and the coast, while keeping the personal, family feel that I grew up with really is a dream come true.

So it’s a real passion project?

Absolutely. I love helping others to reconnect with nature and find a little breathing space. That might be a holiday beside the water, a quiet moment enjoying the estuary views from the VITAMIN SeA Sauna, a delicious lunch at The Osea View, a restorative yoga class in the studio or time out at a Vaulty Manor retreat. The sea has always given me perspective, and I love sharing the sense of calm and belonging that I find here.

What makes you most proud of the business that you’re running today?

It’s definitely carrying forward the work of previous generations while creating places people can enjoy in their own way. Osea Leisure, The Osea View Café and Vaulty Manor each offer something different. Bringing my great-grandmother’s home back into the family was especially meaningful, as is seeing others develop their own connection with our coastline.

What is it that makes your business so distinctive?

We care for just over a mile of coastline, which is surrounded by salt marshes, wild samphire, sea lavender and oystercatchers. That landscape and our family history shape the experience across the park, café and wedding and retreat venue. My background in art also brings a creative eye to everything I do, too – our location is a constant source of inspiration.

So you’re an artist, too?

Yes, alongside running the business, I’m an artist, photographer and printmaker, with the sea inspiring much of my work. I’m also passionate about the benefits of swimming in the sea, having done so throughout the year since childhood. What people now call “cold water swimming” has always been simply swimming to me!

So what’s next for Osea Leisure?

I’d love to keep building on what each place offers: holidays at Osea Leisure, welcoming moments at
The Osea View Café, and celebrations, creativity and retreats at Vaulty Manor. Throughout, my aim
is to help people enjoy this coastline while caring for the landscape entrusted to us.

For more information, inspiration and to book, visit: osealeisure.com

Careers | Could I be a Shepherd?

If you fancy yourself as Little Bo Peep… you might want to have a career rethink. Here are some of the skills and characteristics you need to become a shepherd

1. High tolerance for bad weather

Could you dig an animal out of the snow in minus 40-degree wind chill? Carry sodden bales of hay miles across fields in driving rain? Or cope with shearing a wriggling sheep in 35-degree heat? Sheep never stop so you need to be ‘outdoorsy’ to say the least. If you’re already a bit weather-beaten, so much the better. 

2. Speed and agility

Most jobs as a shepherd begin ‘first catch your sheep’ so you’d better be fast. Chase it into a catch pen first, or you will find yourself dashing comically around a field and possibly drawing an amused crowd. Once in a small pen, the job is easier as there’s nowhere much for the sheep to go. Cup one hand around the sheep’s jaw and place the other on its neck. If a sheep has its head up it’s easier to control. You can grab a back leg to help you get a purchase on its head if you need to. A shepherd’s crook can be used if you need a longer ‘reach’. We were surprised too! Turns out they’re not just used in panto!

3. Excellent observation skills

One of the main tools a shepherd has for managing her flock is known as Body Condition Scoring. It means looking at an animal and being able to size up its health and nutritional status, but it’s much more than a visual check. Most of the information is gleaned by rubbing your hands along the backbone, ribs and loin to feel for fat and muscle. A bit like a pat-down at the airport. But woolier. And more aggressive.

4. Not being scared to be hands on

If you thought the Body Condition Scoring was a bit personal, wait till they tell you what other jobs you might have to get hands on with. But first you have to get the animal into a compliant position by ‘tipping’ her. You start with the sheep in a standing position, then put her on her rump. From there, jobs like giving vaccines and ear tagging are a lot easier. NOT ‘easy’, we hasten to add. Just less terrible. 

5. A strong stomach

Sheep poo really is the least of your worries. Once you have tied string around a womb prolapse bare-handed you’ll feel differently about a) your lunch. And b) other nasty jobs like unblocking a drain. 

6. Patience. Lots of it

Like the Supremes said, you can’t hurry sheep. OK, that was ‘love’ but the principle is the same. Sheep work on their own timeframe, particularly during lambing season. You will spend many hours standing in a field, but even on days when nothing much is happening, you learn so much from standing in that field. Watching your sheep is how you get to know them and know what their ‘normal’ is, so it’s always time well spent. If you’re the sort of person who works to a timetable, don’t work with sheep. 

7. A big heart and also a hard heart

To handle sheep you need to love them, each and every one of them, for their funny ways and quirky personalities. By the time you’ve stayed up all night with them in a hail storm because they’re ill, sat with them while they laboured bravely in lambing season, and teared up as you’ve seen their babies into the world, you’ll love them like your own children. And then you need to know when it’s time to call the vet one day and say goodbye as they are seen off over the woolly rainbow. And after that you just have to pick yourself up and get on with the next job. Because there are more sheep that need you and will break your heart into pieces all over again. 

In our November issue we meet some of the artisans from Dartmoor, including a pair of rare-breed sheep farmers, Flora and Lewis. Turn to page 78 to read all about them.

More fun from the farm…

More from our November issue…

Life Lessons | From the Hundred Acre Wood

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book and to mark it, we’ve learned some life lessons from our favourite Hundred Acre Wood friends.

Practise the art of quiet optimism, like… Winnie-the-Pooh

A closet philosopher, Pooh has his moments of self-doubt, and while he may be described as ‘a bear of very little brain’, he regularly makes the sort of insightful comments that just lift your soul a little. Simon Beecroft, author of The Disney Winnie The Pooh Centenary Book (DK), points out that “Pooh approaches the world with curiosity and trust, often reminding readers of the value of simple joys.” In chapter four of The House At Pooh Corner, Milne tells us: ‘The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning.” What a life!

Pooh also uses his gentle optimism to encourage others around him. Here he is, comforting Piglet in chapter eight: “‘Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?’ ‘Supposing it didn’t,’ said Pooh, after careful thought.”

In a world where we could worry all day long that bad things might happen, like Pooh, try thinking simply: ‘but maybe they won’t.’

Take pleasure in home-making like… Kanga 

There are notably no adults among the Hundred Acre Wood crew, but Kanga (and her joey, Roo) represent the parental love that is otherwise missing from the stories. Kanga is a maternal presence for all the other characters, while Roo’s stories demonstrate the value of security: knowing where your roots are, but still reaching out to grow. 

“Kanga is kind and calm, with a quiet strength. She is also practical and nurturing, always looking out for Roo’s safety and well-being,” notes Beecroft.  

Milne tells us in The House at Pooh Corner: “Now it happened that Kanga had felt rather motherly that morning, and Wanting to Count Things - like Roo’s vests, and how many pieces of soap there were left, and the two clean spots in Tigger’s feeder.” 

These are important things Never underestimate the pleasure that pottering, ‘counting vests and soap’ and making our homes feel like a nest, can bring. Like Kanga and Roo, when your home is comforting and orderly you’ll want to head out for more adventures… if only for the pleasure of returning to the safety of home once more.  

Enjoy simple pastimes like… Eeyore 

Eeyore is generally pictured as the ‘gloomy’ one, which he is in many ways, but what people often miss is the way in which the donkey’s low expectations allow him to enjoy what he has.  

Simon Beecroft points to “Eeyore’s birthday, in chapter six of Winnie-the-Pooh, when he is given an empty honey jar by Pooh and a burst balloon by Piglet. [This] illustrates the interactions between the characters, highlighting their well-intentioned efforts, the unforeseen consequences of those efforts, and Eeyore’s ability to take pleasure in unexpected outcomes!” 

While Pooh and Piglet worry that their gifts are not what they might have been, Eeyore is delighted to discover simply that he has ‘a pot to put things in’ and a burst balloon that can be put in the pot. Milne tells us: “But Eeyore wasn’t listening. He was taking the balloon out, and putting it back again, as happy as can be.” 

Eeyore expects little from life, but when your pleasures are simple (such as a thistle crushed by the weight of a friend’s bottom), there are plenty of pleasures to be found. 

Bounce back like… Tigger 

In a world where it feels as if we are constantly told to ‘be more resilient’, we can learn from Tigger’s boundless enthusiasm. His resilience is about pure joy, rather than strength in the face of adversity and he meets each new challenge with excitement. When we first meet him in The House at Pooh Corner, we learn that “Tiggers like everything!” Tigger gamely tries honey (but “Tiggers don’t like honey”), then haycorns (but “Tiggers don’t like haycorns”) and even Thistles. You’ve guessed it – “too hot!” Tiggers don’t like thistles. Tigger simply tries whatever is on offer, has enough self-knowledge to happily declare that he doesn’t like it and moves on to try the next thing with the same unimpeded energy. 
Later in the book, Rabbit announces his intention to ‘unbounce’ Tigger. “There’s too much of him,” Rabbit complains. But suddenly the idea of him being ‘unbounced’ feels very sad indeed. And in the end the lesson that is learned is not learned by Tigger at all. Rabbit learns that being ‘bouncy’ can be a wonderful thing... “And the small and sorry Rabbit rushed through the mist at the noise, and it turned into Tigger; a Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce.” We all need a Tigger in our lives. 

You can read life lessons from some of the other characters, including Piglet, Rabbit and Owl, in our November issue.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More lessons to learn from children’s books…

More from our blog…

Recipe | Upside-Down Pear Cake

A topsy-turvy cake that makes the most of the season’s pears, turning them into a slice of afternoon joy.

Serves 8-10

3 tbsp unsalted butter

50g dark brown sugar

4 tbsp orange juice

4 ripe medium pears, halved lengthways and cored

For the sponge:

120g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

200g golden caster sugar

150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

60ml buttermilk

30g walnuts, roughly chopped

1 In a pan, heat the 3 tablespoons of butter and brown sugar until melted, then stir in the orange juice. Add the pears, cut-side up, and cook gently for 3-4 mins more.

2 Grease a 25cm cake tin and dust with flour. Remove the pears from the syrup and arrange, cut-side down, in the tin. Gently bubble the syrup for a further 5 mins, or until reduced, then pour over the pears. Cool in the fridge.

3 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Combine fully before adding the eggs, one at a time, mixing well before each new addition. Stir in the buttermilk and walnuts.

4 Pour the cake batter over the pears, then transfer the tin to a baking tray, in case the syrup leaks. Bake for 30–40 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

5 Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin, before inverting it onto a cake stand or serving platter. This is delicious served warm with plenty of vanilla custard.

Recipe & photography by Catherine Frawley.

This cake featured on our November issue’s front cover. Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More cakes for your tin…

More from our blog…

Make | Acorn Projects

Acorns are everywhere! Here are a few things you can make with them this autumn

Ink

Break up acorn caps in a pestle and mortar. Soak in water overnight. Drain and simmer covered in water for an hour. Filter through a muslin or coffee filter. Find full instructions in issue 160 of The Simple Things. 

Dye

Cover acorn nuts with cold water and steep for 24 hours. Simmer in water on a low heat for 20 mins. Discard the acorns then put your fabric into the liquid and leave overnight. Rinse and hang to dry. Find complete instructions for this make on page 15 of the November issue. 

Coffee

Ripen green acorns in a paper bag before boiling them for 30 minutes. When cooled, remove shells, cut the acorns in half and blitz in a food processor. Spread the tiny pieces on foil on a baking tray and roast at 200C for 30 mins. Grind in a coffee grinder and use as any coffee. 

Flour

Shell brown acorns and soak overnight to release the bitter tannins. Drain and then blend the acorns with fresh water to the consistency of a thick milkshake. Put in a jar in the fridge. Each day the acorns will settle to the bottom and you can pour off the water on the top and refill with clean water. Repeat for five days. Strain the mixture through a muslin then spread the wet flour on a baking sheet and dry it in a very low oven for a day. Once dry, blitz in a blender and store in a clean airtight jar.

Floating candles

Place clean, dried acorn caps cup side up in a bowl of rice to keep them steady. Melt some beeswax according to the instructions. Pour it carefully into the acorn cups. Once slightly dry, press in a cotton wick (try craft shops for these and the wax). Once completely dry, float in a bowl of water for safety and light. 

Wreath or garland

Make an autumnal wreath by using a hot glue gun to attach acorns in their cups to a wreath base. Decorate with a ribbon or fairy lights and hang from your front door. You can paint the acorns first if you prefer but they look lovely in their natural state. 

Find more inspiration in our feature ‘Gathering Acorns’, in the November issue. It’s taken from Gathering Days: A Collection Of Things Foraged And Found by Ellie Evelyn Orrell (Calon, University of Wales Press)

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More natural makes for autumn…

More from our blog…

Fun | People Who Did Their Best Work In Bed

Photograph by Rachel Bottomley

If you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning, perhaps you’re doing it all wrong. Here are ten famous people and characters who did some of their best work in bed.

Ernie and Bert (Sesame Street)

These two puppets shared a home and bedroom, in which they had single beds, each displaying their initial. Most of their most famous scenes took place in these beds where their escapades, from Ernie dropping cookie crumbs in Bert’s bed, to Bert putting up with Ernie’s ever louder attempts at drowning out the sounds of a dripping tap, helped teach pre-schoolers the value of compromise and getting along.

The Grandparents (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Charlie Bucket’s four grandparents, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina, share one bed in Charlie’s parents’ house and have done for 20 years. They exist entirely in that one bed, enjoying Charlie’s visits and living vicariously through him… until Charlie wins the golden ticket and Grandpa Joe immediately and miraculously leaps out of bed, despite his apparent immobility. So in fairness, they didn’t get a lot done but it’s a pretty iconic bed… possibly even magical!

Truman Capote

Best known for In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffanys, Truman Capote did all his writing lying down, with coffee and a cigarette always to hand. He described himself as “a completely horizontal author” and always wrote the first and second drafts of his novels lying down surrounded by pillows before typing them up on a typewriter - also in bed. 

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

OK, probably not Lennon’s ‘best’ work, but he and Yoko certainly made their bed in the Amsterdam Hilton famous when they took to it for a week in March 1969 in a non-violent protest for peace and an end to the Vietnam war. It was such a success that just two months later they did it all again in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal. At the end of the second bed-in, they made a spontaneous recording of ‘Give Peace a Chance’, right there in room 1742.

Tracey Emin

Possibly her most famous installation, Emin’s ‘My Bed’ was originally installed in the Tate gallery in 1999 when it was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. The bed was one she had stayed in for four days, consuming nothing but alcohol during a dark time in her life, and infamously featured bloodied underwear, condoms and various other edgy detritus. Safe to say it was pretty divisive. It was at one stage owned by Charles Saatchi and sold at auction in 2014 for more than £2.5 million. While many feel it could be the most important installation ever to hit the art world, others were less impressed. When critics pointed out that “anyone could exhibit an unmade bed”, Emin said simply “But they didn’t, did they?”

Morecambe and Wise

Much like Ernie and Bert, some of the most loved skits from ‘The Morecambe and Wise Show’ featured Eric and Ernie sharing a bed. Eric Morecambe was at first said to be uncomfortable with the idea, but the writer of the sketches, Eddie Braben, convinced him to do it by reminding him that the tradition of comic partners sharing a bed had started with Laurel and Hardy. Morecambe agreed, reluctantly, but insisted on smoking a pipe throughout the scenes “for the masculinity”. 

Florence Nightingale

Proving that not being able to leave one’s bed is no indicator of being workshy, Florence Nightingale spent many years of her life bedridden, particularly after she returned from Crimea, having contracted disease. From her bed she wrote some 200 books, reports and pamphlets and 12,000 letters, driving reform for healthcare and military sanitation. 

Frida Kahlo

Following a near-fatal bus accident and many operations, which meant months at a time spent in bed, Kahlo’s mother set her up with a custom-made easel and mirror canopy to enable her to paint in bed. That famous bed featured in her painting ‘The Dream’ and became a central part of her work. Just a few months before her death, she was carried to the opening of her own exhibition in that four-poster, which she had decorated with pictures of her political heroes. Friends and fans encircled the bed and sang Mexican ballads with her till past midnight. Less than a year later she died in that same bed.

Edith Wharton

A famous ‘bed-writer’ Edith Wharton is said to have worked in bed because it enabled her to take off her corset, and therefore free her thoughts. It’s said she wrote mainly in the mornings, working in long hand on paper, and dropping each sheet on the floor for her secretary to collect and type up.

Mae West

Mary Jane (or Mae) West wrote several of her own screenplays, including ‘Diamond Lil’ from her bed and claimed her bed sparked her creativity. Known as a sex symbol and for her love of double-entendres, West famously declared that “Everybody knows I do my best work in bed.” 

If you’re tempted to take to your bed for a day’s work - or even just enjoy a duvet day - you might enjoy our My Place pages this month, which focus on beautiful bed nooks, such as the one pictured above belonging to Rachel Bottomley.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More from our blog…

More things to enjoy about your bed…

Recipe | Mini Pumpkin Creme Brulees

Fire up that blowtorch. These unique crème brûlées taste just as good as they look.

Serves 4

4 mini pumpkins, tops sliced off (keep) and insides scooped out
300ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
3 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp light brown sugar

1 In a large pot of simmering water, add the prepared pumpkins (keep the lids in the fridge ). Simmer for about 10 mins, or until soft but not mushy. Remove , allow to cool a little and place in the fridge or freezer (you want them to be very cold when you pour in the custard) .

2 In a saucepan , add the cream and vanilla . Heat up, but do not let boil.

3 Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Still whisking , pour this into the warm cream and stir continuously over a low heat for about 10 mins, or until the custard starts to thicken.

4 Once it’s thick and your pumpkin bases are chilled, spoon in the custard , filling the pumpkins to the top. Leave to cool and then chill in the fridge . This can be done a few hours before your guests arrive.

5 Before serving, sprinkle each pumpkin with sugar, then grill for about 4 mins or use a blowtorch until the top is blistering but not burnt. Allow to cool a little , so the sugar creates a shell over the custard .

This recipe was originally published in our October 2021 issue. It was just one of the ideas from our Trick and Treat menu, which also featured also includes Black Widow cocktails, Halloween Chicken and Leek Pie, Chestnuts wrapped in bacon and more autumnal ideas. You can buy the back issue via our online store.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More from our October issue…

More pumpkin makes…

Autumn | Capture the Moment

Autumn’s turning leaves are nature’s own fireworks display at this time of year. Just like any other firework display we want to record these brief spectacles to remind us of the beauty of the season. Here are a few ways to capture this briefest of beautiful moments outdoors…

Set yourself a photo challenge: choose a particular colour, or texture, and only snap images of that.

If you usually take landscape photos, try only taking close ups and vice versa.

Take a sketchbook with you: you might choose to do line sketches, or try and capture just the colours of the landscape without forms.

According to folklore, it’s lucky to catch a single falling leaf before it hits the ground. Why not try and catch your own?

Fill your pockets with fallen leaves and use them to make a firework-themed sun-catcher, arranging them in a clear frame so they catch the light.

Head out with a journal and make notes about the scene: what can you smell? What can you hear? Are the leaves actually gold, or are they a mix of amber and ochre? Write it as if you’re watching a firework display.

The ideas above are taken from our feature ‘Nature’s Fireworks’ in our November issue. You can read more about where and how to appreciate autumn colours from page 60.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More ways to celebrate autumn…

More from our blog…

Make | A Ginger Beer 'Starter'

This easy-to-make starter will set you off on your ginger beer brewing journey

Root ginger has vivacious populations of yeasts and bacteria on its surface, which make for a thrilling bubbly brew. Surprisingly easy and satisfying, it takes about a week to ferment.

MAKES 6 TBSP OF STARTER

100g fresh ginger (ideally organic)
35g raw, organic caster sugar

1 Finely grate 1 tbsp fresh ginger, skin still on, into a small bowl. Add 1 tsp sugar and 1-2 tbsp filtered water and mix to a moist paste; it should not be too watery. Cover with a clean cloth and leave to ferment at room temperature for 1 day.

2 Uncover the bowl and add another 1 tbsp grated ginger, 1 tsp sugar and 1-2 tbsp water to the ginger paste.

3 Repeat for another 4-5 days, topping up your mix each day with the same ratio of ginger, sugar and water, until it starts to fizz a little – if you dip a spoon in you should hear a little snap, crackle and pop, and there will be bubbles. There should also be a ring of yeast on the base of the bowl. Once you have bubbles and yeast, your ginger bug is ready to use.

Cook’s note: It’s better to use organic ginger, as the chemicals involved in conventional farming tend to disrupt the natural balance of bacteria and yeasts on the surface of ginger.

Storing your ginger beer starter

Store your ginger bug, covered, in the fridge for up to 2 weeks between batches. If you plan to brew ginger beer regularly, keep a little bit of your ginger starter back and store it in the fridge until you’re ready for your next brew. Top it up with a paste of 1 tbsp grated ginger, 1 tsp sugar and 2-3 tbsp water to feed it, ready for brewing. You can do this before storing in the fridge, or a few days before brewing.

Once your starter is ready to use, you can make your own homemade ginger beer with the addition of only some sugar and water. Turn to page 43 of the November issue to find the instructions on how to make your finished ginger beer.

Making it fancy

If you want to get fancy you can make your ginger beer with different flavours. Try these additions…

Apple & rosemary (good for sore throats)

Plum & wood avens (or clove)

Pear & star anise

Lemon & thyme

Cranberry (or hawthorn berry) & cinnamon

The starter above is from our November Home Economics feature, ‘Stir-up Sunday’, which includes lots of recipes to share and store. The recipes are by Rachel de Thample and the photography by
Ali Allen.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More drinks to make this autumn…

More from our blog…

Reading | Whimsical Ways to Arrange your Books

Photograph by @pigeonpostbooks

Alphabetically? Far too boring. By colour? So ten years ago. Bamboozle visiting guests and perplex your family by arranging your books in some of these niche ways

Geographically

This is fairly straightforward but not many people do it. You arrange your books according to where they are set in the world. First by continent, then country and, if necessary, by county or city. You might find you have so many British novels, for instance that you need a section for Edinburgh to include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Trainspotting and a section for Devon to include The Hound of the Baskervilles and Tarka the Otter. Fancy reading A Suitable Boy again? Head to your ‘India’ section. Want to lend a friend Big Little Lies? That’ll be nestled next to Rabbit Proof Fence under ‘Australia’.

By Size

We feel like this is the new ‘by colour’ arrangement which all felt very quirky (and still does look pretty good, we’ll grudgingly admit). This is self-explanatory really but if it feels a bit boring, you should know that it’s how Samuel Pepys arranged his personal library so you are in good company. He allowed himself to keep precisely 3,000 books at a time and numbered them in order of size: 1 was the smallest and 3,000 was the largest. 

By Mood

We like this because it invites discussion: you arrange your books by how they make you feel. So obviously most horror and some fantasy will fall under ‘Scared’. But while some crime novels will also be in this section, others will fall into ‘Cosy’. Chick lit might go under ‘Amused’ or ‘Comfort Reads’. The sections are entirely up to you and whether anyone else can find a book in your library will depend on just how well they know you. Very satisfying.

By Personal Chronology

This is a bit like the system described in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, where books are arranged according to your life experiences, sort of autobiographically. But here, it’s done purely by date read. You might have to go through some old diaries and calendars to work it out but you’d be surprised by how easy it is eventually when you start to remember that your dad gave you this novel the Christmas after you finished university and you read it in your childhood bedroom or that you took that play on holiday the year you stayed in a caravan in the Lakes because it rained all week and you’d finished it by Sunday afternoon. Your bookshelves become a sort of map of your life’s reading, which is very pleasing. 

Six Degrees of Separation

This is fun because only your cleverest friends will guess what you’ve done and you can feel rather smug about it. You do need an encyclopaedic knowledge of who is who in the world of writing, however. Ready? Each book is linked by its author to the one next to it. For instance, AS Byatt might sit next to Margaret Drabble (because they are sisters). Drabble could then sit next to the biographies of Michael Holroyd (because they were married) or to Thomas Hardy (she edited a collection of critical essays about him). How you link them is entirely up to you. 

Spine to the wall

If you want to be completely mysterious, you could turn all your books ‘pages out’ and spines to the wall. On the plus side, people won’t be able to easily borrow your books without permission as they won’t be able to find what they are looking for. On the downside… Neither will you.

The bookshelves above belong to Amy Bethel (@pigeonpostbooks) and are one of the ‘little libraries’ featured in our October My Place pages. Turn to page 110 to see more of them.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More reading matter…

More from our October issue…

Nature | Why You Should Never Cross a Raven

Illustration by Zuza Misko

Ravens are pretty impressive creatures - clever, cunning and physically powerful. Here are six reasons why you should never upset a raven.

1 They hold grudges. Studies into experiments with ravens show that they can remember whether the human doing the experiment with them was fair or not in a reciprocal exchange and remember that information for anything up to a month or more.

2 They are VERY big, on average two feet tall, about the size of a buzzard. You wouldn’t want to meet one down a dark alley.

3 Ravens are incredibly skilled aerialists. They’re able to turn upside down in mid-flight and lock talons with another raven in incredible courtship displays. Imagine getting into a fight with one of those!

4 Ravens can mimic human voices better than parrots. They’ve also been known to make the sounds of other animals in order to lure prey. We really don’t want to hear a raven calling our name, thank you. 

5 They’re collectively known as a conspiracy, an unkindness or a treachery. That can’t be for no reason. 

6 Ravens are generally a portent of bad news or even death. Okay, mostly in fiction we will admit but still. We’d rather not take the chance. 

Ravens aren’t all bad, we promise. In fact, if you’d like to read about what makes ravens one of our favourite magical creatures, turn to page 35 of our October issue, which is on sale now. 

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More magical creatures…

More from our October issue…

Sponsored Post | Meet the people at Merry People

We meet Dani Pearce, founder and CEO of Merry People, in the UK to launch her latest collection, meet customers and brighten the every day with her joyful waterproof boots

Hi Dani, welcome to the UK. Tell us a little bit about Merry People

Thanks, we’re so excited to be over here, launching our latest boots. Merry People is an Australian brand that launched in 2014. We make stylish and colourful wellingtons – known as gumboots in Australia – that can be worn every day, from muddy country walks to the city-centre commute. No need to wait for the rain.

How did you come up with the idea?

I grew up on a farm in one of the wettest parts of Victoria, and lived in gumboots as a kid. However, the seed didn’t form until I was in my 20s and at a festival. At that point, gumboots in Australia were typically only made for children. It got me thinking whether there was a way to create something similar that was comfy, warm and waterproof, but with an on-trend silhouette so they could be worn as an everyday boot. There was also a gap in the market for an ankle boot. I remember opening my laptop, bringing up a blank Word doc and typing ‘Gumboot ideas…’

And Merry People was born?

Yes! Gumboots reminded me of my happiest childhood memories, pulling them on to get outside, whatever the weather. I wanted to build that positive, joyful feeling into my brand and the word ‘merry’ just felt right. I want to inspire people of all ages to pull them on and discover what makes them feel happy and alive, whether it’s being in the garden, getting creative, at a festival, walking the dog or at the park with the kids. I just want people to feel merry in them. We now have six styles of boot in ever-changing colours, plus sandals, kids’ boots and accessories.

So how did you turn your idea into reality?

It hasn’t always been easy. I felt really vulnerable at the start. I had a secure career in banking and many people thought it was too high risk, especially with no experience in fashion or business. However, I’d just come out of a relationship and while a lot of my friends were settling down and moving up the career ladder, I figured that I was young, free and wasn’t chained to a mortgage, so I ploughed all my savings into Merry People. I sketched out my ideas and made a solo trip to China to find a supplier.

Wow, you really jumped in with both feet!

Absolutely. During the early days, I travelled far and wide selling my boots at weekend markets. I had weeks where I would sell out and weeks where I didn’t sell a single boot. It was a roller-coaster and money was often tight, but I always believed in the brand. It’s been over 12 years of hard work, but it’s paid off. I now have a team of over 35 and Merry People is sold in Australia, the UK and the US. I think of Merry People as my first baby, but I’ve since become a mum of two and juggling the business with young children now feels extra rewarding.

You must be so proud

Totally. I’m so proud of my team and the brand that we’ve created together. I love the creative process and bringing new products to market, doing things the Merry People way, but we also strive to be as eco-conscious as possible. All our rubber is FSC certified and we surround ourselves with experts to help inform us on our environmental impact and where we can improve. For example, old boots are sold to support an Australian charity or they get chipped up for school mats. Most importantly, in almost 13 years, I’m proud that we have never gone on sale or discounted our boots, staying true to our values and providing transparency to our retailers.

What’s next?

We recently launched our Tully boot in chocolate and pink in a collaboration with Oliver Bonas in the UK, and we have a few more ideas up our sleeve to brighten up rainy days, so watch this space. But most of all, after a long work trip, what I’m really looking forward to is getting home to my kids and an extra big snuggle.

For more information and inspiration, visit uk.merrypeople.co or follow on Instagram at: @merrypeople

Fun | Conker Records

Photography by Jonathan Cherry

It’s conker season again! We’re celebrating some of the conkering heroes who have smashed records as well as conkers on strings

Most matches played at once
Record held by the pupils and staff of King Edward’s School in Birmingham who played 388 games of conkers (with 776 players) for five minutes on 28 March 2012.

Most victorious untreated conker

The record is held by a conker that won the BBC Conker Conquest in 1954, winning more than 5,000 matches. However, botany experts have their suspicions that the conker might actually have been an ivory or tagua nut and not a standard horse chestnut.

Most conkers hit in one minute

Sam Thompso and Pete Wicks hold the joint record, each hitting 31 conkers in a minute (just under one every two seconds) in a record made on 2 December 2024.

Longest chain of conkers
Brad Malone became the proud owner of this record on 16 May 2025 with a chain of 21,755 conkers measuring 447.78 metres (1,469 feet 1 inches).

Largest collection of conkers
Guiness World Records does not officially recognise this record as they have concerns that people might ‘overpick’ horse chestnuts, but in 2023, Brian Mountford, a retired inventor from Leek in Staffordshire claimed to have the largest collection at more than 10,000. Smashing!

Information courtesy of guinessworldrecords.com. In our October issue, we paid a visit to Peckham Conker Club and met some of their contestants in our ‘Modern Eccentrics’ pages. The words are by Iona Bower and photography by Jonathan Cherry. The issue is on sale now.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More Autumnal fun…

More from our October issue…

Playlist | By the numbers

We make a playlist for each issue of The Simple Things, and for our November HEARTY issue, we’re doing it by the numbers.

You can give it a listen on Spotify here. Or have a browse of all our playlists here.

Our November HEARTY issue is on sale from 23 October. You can order a copy here.

Sponsored post | Room to Grow with Rhino

Rhino greenhouses are built to last, giving you a space to sow, grow, tend and enjoy your garden for years to come

As the year draws to a close, now is the time to do a little garden housekeeping in preparation for all the new planting to come. You can look back with pride on all your growing successes, as well as the lessons learned. If you had fruit, veg or plants that didn’t thrive as you’d have liked, perhaps a greenhouse is the answer, especially during the colder months. A Rhino greenhouse not only
looks beautiful but it can provide a space to nurture and grow your seedlings, sheltered from the wind, rain and frosts, meaning that you can look forward to a bountiful year of colour, flavour and satisfaction.

Designed and manufactured in Norfolk, Rhino greenhouses are made to be part of your garden for life. Built to last with a 25-year warranty, they’re a thing of beauty with solid aluminium frames and precision-engineering.

If you’re hankering after a Rhino greenhouse of your own, now is a great time to turn your dreams into reality. Whether you’re after something compact for a smaller plot or a serious growing space that you can really stretch out in, there’s an option to suit every garden size and growing ambition. Rhino greenhouses, designed and made by gardeners, for gardeners.

For more info, visit: rhinogreenhouses.co.uk, call 0800 6941929 or give Rhino a follow on Instagram at: @rhinogreenhouses

Competition | Win a year's supply of Naked Paper

Naked Paper is making toilet paper that’s true to its natural colour, and you could win a year’s supply. It’s brown because it’s greener!

What if loo roll could be a little more thoughtful? Founded by Tom and Leila, Naked Paper started with a simple question: why is toilet paper white? The answer is because someone, somewhere, decided it should be. It’s bleached, processed and treated to achieve that pristine white look – not to make it any cleaner, but simply because that’s what we’ve come to expect.

So Naked Paper left it out. Its toilet paper is naturally brown because nature made it that way. No bleach. No harsh chemicals. No plastic. No fuss. Just thoughtfully made paper that is soft, uncompromising and does its job. Kinder to your bum and to the planet.

Naked Paper also makes other everyday essentials, including kitchen roll and tissues, in the same low-impact way. Sustainability runs through every part of the business, from the unbleached paper to the factory that makes it, which is completely fossil fuel free, running on the sun, wind and biofuel instead. In fact, Naked Paper was recognised with a King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2025, showing it’s serious about doing things differently.

If you’d like to join this quiet revolution, then The Simple Things is giving one lucky reader the chance to win a year’s supply of loo roll, plus a whole lot more, while four runners-up will each receive a pack (24 rolls) of toilet paper. So enter today for your chance to enjoy paper, as nature intended.

For more info, visit uk.nakedpaper.com or follow on Instagram: @naked_paper

The prize

One lucky reader will win… • 4 packs of toilet paper (48 rolls per pack), in recycled or bamboo • 1 pack of kitchen roll (6 rolls), in recycled or bamboo • 1 pack of tissues (12 boxes), in recycled or bamboo • 1 roll cosy

How to enter

To win a year’s supply of toilet roll and other Naked Paper products, enter our competition by clicking on the button below and answering the following question by the closing date of 4 December 2026.

Q: Naked Paper is naturally what colour?

Terms & conditions

The competition closes at 11.59pm on 4 December 2026. One winner and four runners-up will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. Subject to availability. The winner cannot transfer the prize or swap it for cash. Details of our full terms and conditions are on p125 and online at: icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

Art | Get your Daily Dose

Treat your consumption of art the way you treat your consumption of food and you’ll soon see how a diet of music, art, theatre or literature can make you feel happier and healthier

Work out your 5-a-day. Decide on a simple rule you can apply to your life to make sure you engage with the arts every day. Maybe it’s 10 minutes of creative writing or sketching, or listening to a new audiobook or piece of music. A daily creative practice will activate some of the core mechanisms like stress reduction, self-esteem boost and give you a cognitive workout.

Plan your art treats like you would a restaurant. Set aside the time to go to a gallery or museum once a month. Book tickets for a show or play as a treat to look forward to. These activities will bring important ingredients like socialising and novelty that are beneficial to health.

Experiment with flavours. Try to mix things up with diverse activities that will give you the greatest possible exposure to the different benefits.

Be mindful. Take time out to savour even the background arts experiences. When you switch the radio on, sit down and listen for a few minutes, when you’re making art, spend at least some of the time being entirely present, thinking only of what you’re creating.

Avoid the UPFs (ultra processed foods). Screen-based arts are proliferating but the evidence base for them has been weaker. Use them strategically but try to make your art engagement real not virtual where you can.

Identify your chicken soup. We all have a food that we believe will get us better – work out what your equivalent is for when you’re stressed, tired or unwell and use music, books, arts or craft activities to look forward to and lift your mood.

The above blog is an extract from our feature ‘The Art of Living’, which is all about how the arts can help you to survive and thrive. You can read the rest of the feature in our October issue, which is in shops now.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More art to improve your wellbeing…

More from our October issue…

Recipe | Homemade Pretzels

Photography by Ula Soltys

Soft, chewy and great with a beer, homemade pretzels are the best way to kick off an Oktoberfest-at-home celebration

Makes 10

Ingredients

7g yeast

1 tbsp sugar

14g butter, melted

1 tsp salt

500g flour (approx)

120g baking soda

Coarse sea salt, for topping

To make

1 Whisk the yeast and sugar into 360ml warm water in a bowl. Cover and rest for 1 min.

2 Whisk in the melted butter and salt, then add 375g of the flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Add 95g more flour (if necessary) until the dough is tacky and pulls away from the side of the bowl. If still sticky, add up to 30g more flour, 1 tbsp at a time.

3 Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for around 5 mins. If the dough gets too sticky, sprinkle
1 tsp of flour on the work surface to make a soft, slightly tacky, dough. Your dough will be ready to rise when it slowly bounces back when you poke it.

4 Shape the kneaded dough into a ball and return to the bowl, then cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise for around 30 mins.

5 Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

6 Use a sharp knife and divide the dough into 10 sections, roughly 80g each.

7 Roll each section into a 50cm-long rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down the centre of the circle towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.

8 Bring the baking soda and 2 ltr of water to the boil in a large pot. Drop one pretzel at a time into the boiling water for 20-30 secs. (Any longer and the pretzel will have a metallic taste.) Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzel out of the water, allowing excess water to drip off, and place on the baking paper. Repeat this with the remaining pretzels.

9 Sprinkle the top of the pretzels with the sea salt. Bake for 12-15 mins, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Recipes and styling by Anneliese Klos and Liz Boyd. Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More from our October issue…

More loaves to make…

Home | Famous Fictional Kitchens

The kitchen represents the heart of the home for most of us but some kitchens just stay in our hearts for ever. Here are a few kitchens from books, film and television you might recall…

The Darling Buds of May, 1990s

Is there a more quintessentially country kitchen than that of Ma and Pop Larkin? A baby blue and maroon 1950s post-war kitchen (in a 18th-century farmhouse) and a table laden with Ma’s freshly made pies and Pop’s bottle of whisky. Perfick.

Amelie, 2001

The mismatched, oh-so Parisian kitchen of Amélie Poulain in this cult French film is as idiosyncratic as the main character herself. Note the red and minty green palette, checkerboard tiles, formica table, vintage posters and traditional French cookware.

Ozark, 2017

An authentic mid-century galley kitchen with fluted glass cabinets, stainless steel sink and huge hatch to the living room, where the Byrde family conduct hushed rows and hatch money laundering plans over enormous glasses of wine.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, 1948

This novel throws us straight into the 1930s kitchen of a tumbledown castle. Cassandra Mortmain tells us “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. The rest of me is on the draining-board, which I have padded with our dog’s blanket and the tea cosy,” as she writes in her journal. 

Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2017

What you make of Bridget’s kitchen in the original novel is of course your own business but that super cosy kitchen from the original film is the kitchen we all wanted to own. While Bridget was lamenting her blue soup we were all planning to repaint our cupboards light blue, invest in a red worktop and add fairy lights to recreate that fun, bohemian kitchen. V good. 

Downton Abbey, 2010-2015

Stepping into Mrs Patmore and Daisy’s below-stairs servants’ kitchen is like a tour of a National Trust property. Copper pans glimmering on the shelves in the half-light, huge flagstone tiles and that enormous range cooker. Who wouldn’t want to steal five minutes for a cup of tea at that wooden prep table?

The Tiger Who Came to Tea, 1968

The backdrop for the story of the Tiger who popped in for a snack and then drank all the water in the taps and all of Daddy’s beer is based on children’s author Judith Kerr’s real kitchen. A section of it is now housed in the Seven Stories museum in Newcastle. The yellow worktop, white Formica cupboards and blue and white tiles are iconic now and featured in several of her books, including Mog the Forgetful Cat. 

If you’d like to step back in time into some more iconic kitchens, you’ll want to read our feature ‘What’s Cooking’ in our October issue, which looks at the fascinating history of the kitchen.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More wanders back in time…

More from our blog…

Project | Make a Sauna Hat

Looking like a Victorian candle snuffer, bell-shaped sauna hats protect hair and prevent overheating, so you can spend longer in the sauna.

You will need:

Thick 100% wool felt sheets, heavy-duty needle, strong cotton thread, paper

Pattern: Measure your head circumference and divide by four. Add 2cm for seams. Draw a 24cm-high petal shape on paper matching this band width.

Cut: Pin the pattern to the felt. Cut four identical panels as well as a 2cm x 10cm loop strip.

Pin: Align side edges of two panels, right sides inward, and pin the curve. Repeat for the other pair.

Sew: Stitch the pinned edges with a 1cm seam. Open both halves, then place them face toface, matching the top.

Finish: Fold the loop strip, tucking it inside the top peak. Pin and sew the final curve. Turn right-side out, leaving the bottom edge raw.

This project is from our October ‘Almanac’ pages, which each month suggests things for you to note and notice, plan and do.

Buy this month's The Simple Things -buy, download or subscribe

More projects for weekend days…

More from our blog…