How to | Have a Holiday Feeling Every Day

Blurring the lines between home time and holiday time is a wonderful way to feel more relaxed every day and to make the very most of your summer

Taking a little of your ‘normal life’ with you on holiday is a simple way to get more from a new destination and see life there as the locals do rather than as a tourist would. Spending your time on holiday more as you might spend a day off at home is a great way to do this, shopping, exercising and generally living as a local. And there are equal benefits to bringing some of your holiday habits back to your ‘normal’ life… helping you to see things with fresh eyes and make the most of the everyday. Here’s how to do both, and maximise that holiday feeling whether you’re home or away. 

Hobbies to take on holiday

Using your everyday hobbies can be a great way to discover another side to a new location, whether you’re in another part of the UK or a more far-flung location.

1. Go for a run

It’s the easiest way to get to know a new area. Many cities both here in the UK and abroad now have park runs, which are fun to join in with and then meet some locals afterwards with a coffee. But all you have to do is pack your trainers and you’re off exploring. 

2. Visit the cinema

See if there’s a nice picture house within striking distance of your holiday destination. You might just find you can catch a film in a lovely 1930s cinema, or an outdoor cinema, even, bringing a whole new perspective to your movie-watching. If you’re abroad, watching a film in another language is a great way to immerse yourself a bit more in the culture. 

3. Mooch around a book shop

A new book shop is always a delight, and going to one you don’t know throws up all sorts of treasures. You might find local interest books that will give you some new ideas for things to do while there, or perhaps will find a book by a local author to take home as a souvenir. A foreign language novel may get you fluent by the time you leave (or will at least make you look cool while sitting and reading in a cafe back home).

4. Have a swim

Take the chance to explore the scenery on a wild swim somewhere beautiful or simply find a nice pool and enjoy a few lengths with no job or chores to rush home to afterwards.

Habits to bring home 

Make yourself a promise to keep doing some of things that make you happy on holiday when you get home. 

1. Have evening drinks

It doesn’t have to be Negronis on the terrace every evening. Just sitting down with a glass of wine, or juice to enjoy the last of the daylight as you prep the veg for dinner is a lovely way to say ‘that’s the day done, now let’s relax’. 

2. Breakfast well, too

When you’re away, breakfasts are somehow more of an event. Eggs Benedict and fresh fruit salad every morning is lovely, but you can get that holiday feeling (and set yourself up well for the day) just with some decent coffee and a nice granola or sourdough toast, all enjoyed in a bit less of a hurry. Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier to do breakfast properly and you won’t regret it. 

3. A daily walk

On holiday, it feels so easy to fall in love with the local area. How often have you had a favourite promenade by the end of the week that you know you’ll miss when you leave? Why not find a ‘favourite walk’ at home, too, and make a few daily steps into a simple pleasure and a moment to reset?

4. Immerse yourself in the local culture

If you were on holiday in your hometown, what would you do? Well, do it at home, too! Visit your local museum, buy that local wine and read up on the history of the streets where you live and you’ll suddenly see it all in a new light. 

Our hobbies to take on holiday and habits to bring home were inspired by our feature Slow Summer in our July issue, which includes advice from Jo Mattock on blurring the boundaries between home and holiday, as well as other ideas from Rebecca Frank on taking your summer a little slower. 

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Recipe | Gooseberry, Thyme & Almond Galette

Photography by Kirstie Young

There’s something so free and easy about a galette. Effortless, generous and welcoming of almost any fruit. Once you’ve tried this version with gooseberries, try rhubarb, plums, apples, apricots, blackberries, cherries and so on. The quantities below are enough for two pastry bases, so freeze half the batch for your next fruit glut.

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the pastry:
325g plain flour
100g icing sugar
175g salted butter, cold and cubed
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp cold milk

For the Filling:
1 tbsp thyme leaves
3 tbsp caster sugar
300g gooseberries
1 egg, white and yolk separated
2 tbsp semolina
1 tbsp demerara sugar

To make

1 Start by making the pastry. Mix the flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until sandy. Add the egg yolk and milk and whizz until just combined. Shape into two discs and wrap. Freeze one for next time and chill the other for at least 30 mins.

2 Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 and place a baking sheet in the oven to get hot (which will prevent the notorious soggy bottom).

3 Next, for the filling. Put the thyme leaves and caster sugar in a pestle and mortar and give it a good bash. Mix this sugar with the gooseberries so that each one is coated.

4 Take the chilled pastry disc and roll it out into a round, about 3mm thick. I do this between two sheets of baking paper to avoid sticking.

5 Place the rolled pastry on a sheet of baking paper (if it isn’t already on one), and brush the middle of the pastry with the egg yolk leaving a 3-4cm border of un-egged pastry at the edge. Sprinkle the semolina over the eggy middle. Now pile the sugared gooseberries on top and fold the border of un-egged pastry up around the sides. Don’t fret if it creases, cracks, or looks messy – it’s all part of the charm.

6 Brush the folded pastry with the egg white and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Transfer to the preheated baking sheet and bake for 40 mins. Leave to rest for 15 mins before serving so the pastry can firm up, then drown in custard or cream… or both!

This galette is from our ‘Tales From The Veg Patch’ feature in our July issue, which is bursting with ideas for cooking and eating seasonal fruit. The recipes are by Kathy Slack.

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July | Things to Appreciate

A few things to see outdoors this month and a thing to do, too…

With more than 11,000 miles of coastline, some of the UK’s most beautiful walks are along its coastal paths, exploring pine forests and clifftops and wandering past sand banks and sweet-smelling hedgerows. From them, you can spot some pretty amazing wildlife, too, both on the path itself, and out at sea.

On the South West Coast Path alone you might encounter wild goats, ponies and hares and spot dolphins and basking sharks. While up on the Fife Coastal Path, you could spot anything from seals to puffins to sea eagles, depending on the time of year. Sightings of are never guaranteed but you can always take a boat trip out to sea if you want to get up close and personal with dolphins, guillemots and other coastal creatures.

Choose a stretch of coast near you, pack a sarnie, a map and binoculars, then take in the view, and maybe steal a picture of a seal, too.

This outing idea was featured on our Almanac Pages, where each month we collate a few seasonal things to note and notice, plan and do. The nature table image above was taken by Alice Tatham of The Wildwood Moth who takes a photograph for our back cover each month, featuring things to appreciate in nature. She also runs workshops on seasonal photography and publishes seasonal journal stories from her home in Dorset.

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Games | for campervans, caravans and tents

Gather round the foldy-up table and join us for some fun and games for small spaces

If you’re heading off camping this summer you’re probably planning a few games around the campfire. There’s nothing like staring into the flames over a hand of cards with a steaming mug of tea (or a whisky) by your side. 

But the reality of British weather means you need a back up plan, too, and we’re all about embracing the back-up plan. While basking in the great outdoors, under the stars on a warm night is a wonderful thing, we love just as much the cosiness of playing a game, crammed happily around a tiny table with hot drinks on the Primus and rain battering the roof (or canvas) over your head. 

Camping accommodation wasn’t built for large board games with many pieces. So here’s our round-up of games for small spaces that require few props, or nothing at all, and won’t end with someone’s tea being spilt during a particularly riotous round of charades. 

Monopoly Deal
Monopoly without the board and, better still, without the commitment of hours! This tiny travel version of the classic board game can be played in around 15 minutes.. Buy Monopoly Deal. 

Mini Jenga.

As much fun as the giant, building and balancing game, but fits easily into your rucksack and can be played on the teeniest of caravan furniture or on a fold-up camping table. Buy Mini Jenga.

Wink Murder

An oldie but a goodie. Take as many sheets of paper as you have players. Write ‘potential victim’ on all but one. Write ‘murderer’ on the last one. Chat, eat, drink and go about your business as usual. The murderer must secretly wink at others to ‘murder’ them without being spotted. If you are winked at you must silently count to five then enact a grisly ‘death’. If you think you have spotted the murderer you may accuse them by ordering them to turn over their card. 

Balderdash

All you need is a pen and paper for this. A dictionary is useful but you can also look up ‘Balderdash free words list’ on your phone to get you started. Take it in turns to choose an unusual word and secretly write down the definition. The other players make up their own plausible definitions. The person who picked the word then reads out all the definitions including the real one and everyone votes on which they think is the real word. Players score points for every person who votes for their ‘definition’. You get a point if you guess correctly, too. 

Bulls and Cows

For the mathematically inclined… One player writes down a secret 4-digit number. The other players take it in turns to guess it. Player one tells them how many they got right or wrong and how many were in their correct position. (Clue: it pays to write down each guess and how many were correct or incorrect and how many were in the right positions). By process of elimination someone will eventually work out the correct number. Good for anyone who has ever felt the pain of forgetting the combination to the padlock on the shed. And no, we’ve no idea why it’s called bulls and cows either.

Bananagrams

This is basically Scrabble but faster and with no board. Even more fun when camping and you have no access to a dictionary for anyone to check if you’re cheating or not. Buy Bananagrams. 

Find me on a Map

OK, we’ll admit we just made this one up but it’s great for when you’re in an area you don’t know well and want to know better. Get out the OS map. One person chooses a square and everyone takes it in turns to ask a question. Is there a church in your square? Is it close to water? Is it on a fold? You get the picture. The first person to get it goes first. Bonus points if you choose somewhere with a rude place name in. 

Ultimate Werewolf

Our favourite game of the moment, again in a very compact little cards-sized box. You need at least five players and are all given roles - as seers, witches, werewolves and more and you have to work out who the werewolf is amongst you. There’s an excellent app to make it more atmospheric but you can just play it with one of you as the ‘moderator’. Lots of fun and excellent for nights when there’s a storm howling outside your campervan. Buy Ultimate Werewolf. 

The After Eight Game

You will need a box of After Eights. Everyone sits around a table, tips their head back and places and After Eight on their forehead. The aim of the game is to move the After Eight down your face towards your mouth using only your facial muscles and gravity (no hands), and then eat it. Delightfully silly and immature and lots of fun. 

Pub Cricket

This is one for the way home in the car. You can play in teams or as individuals. Team one or person one goes in to bat. Every time you pass a pub you get a run for each leg in the name of the pub, so The Dog and Duck scores 6 (4 for the dog’s legs and 2 for the duck’s). The Coach and Horses would be 8, though you could probably argue for more horses based on the painting on the sign. You keep batting as long as every pub you pass has legs in. If you score no points (The King’s Arms, The Crown etc) you head back to the pavilion and someone else goes in to bat. You keep your score as it is for your next turn in to bat. 

If you’re inspired by the idea of living a campervan life, don’t miss the feature in our July issue about people who’ve adopted the campervan lifestyle in a more permanent way.

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Puffins and puffineers

Illustration: Zuza Misko

We have always thought there’s nuffin like a puffin and, like Kelly Keegan, who wrote our Magical Creatures feature about puffins in our July issue, we attribute much of our love for these birds to their association with Puffin Books, which were such a big part of so many of our childhoods. If you were a big fan, you might even have been a member of The Puffin Club, aka a Puffineer.

The club was founded in 1967 by Kaye Webb, then editor of Puffin Books and in its first year more than 16,000 children joined. At its peak it had some 200,000 members. The enamel puffin badge was a big draw, if we remember correctly, but we stayed for the excitement of receiving a copy of the Puffin Post through the letterbox regularly and being invited to VIP Puffin parties, colourful, grand affairs attended by some of the day’s most famous children’s authors and illustrators. Whether you were a proud Puffineer or not, here are a few facts you might like to know about the Puffin Club…

1. There was a secret Puffin Club greeting for members: “Sniffup”, and a response: “Spotera”. (Try reading them backwards).

2. Each month, Puffin would hide 50 coded messages in new books all over the country but only members had the code to decipher them.

3. The Puffin Club’s ‘computer’ was called TOMCAT (Totally Obedient Machine Cannot Actually Think) though all the admin was done with good old-fashioned paper and pencil in reality. 

4. The last Puffin Post was printed in 1989 but there was a brief revival in 2009 when The Book People took it over. Puffineers will tell you it wasn’t a patch on the original, however. 

5. As well as a love of reading, Puffineers joined in with acts of charity, including raising £3,000 to buy a stretch of Yorkshire coastline as a puffin sanctuary in 1972.

6. Puffin Post always featured a joke. The first one being: “Do you get fur from a skunk? Yes, as fur away as possible.”

7. Virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin was the second president of the Puffin Club.

8. Founder members received the gold Puffin badge, but if you weren’t an early adopter (or weren’t born) you would be awarded the black Puffin badge for four continuous years of membership.

9. To encourage younger members, the Junior Puffin Club was founded with its own mascot, a baby puffin called Smudge, and its own magazine, The Egg.

10. Puffin Post included regular writing competitions, but in typical seventies educational style, if entries were not considered to be good enough, the Editor would let members know and there would be no winners announced. Harsh, but we like to think that’s what gave us early Puffin Club members the backbone we still enjoy today!

You can read more about puffins (of the feathery variety) on page 15 of our July issue.

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Make | Grown-up ice lollies

Give the classic lemonade lolly a refreshing twist, and add a cheeky shot of gin if you like, too

Make your own sophisticated lollies and you’ll never again need to wait for the cacophanous tinkle of the ice-cream van, and be disappointed by its saccharine-sweet, slightly melty offerings. Fill your freezer instead with raspberry, bee pollen and honey yoghurt or mango, ginger and lime lollies, chunky orange dark chocolate ice cream or spiced berries sorbet. All the recipes, by Cathy Pyle, are in our July issue, which is on sale now. And because we can’t bear to see any grown-up without a lolly, here’s a recipe from the feature to whet your appetite:

Cucumber, mint and lemonade lollies

Makes 6

350ml traditional lemonade (use a brand that contains real lemons if possible)
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
25g fresh mint leaves

1 Pour the lemonade into the moulds until they are half full.
2 Drop in 3-4 cucumber slices per lolly and some torn mint leaves.
3 Top up the moulds with lemonade and freeze overnight.

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How to | Hula Hoop

Because it’s a skill everyone should be able to surprise their friends with

Our July cover photo had us all wanting to invest in a hula hoop and rotate our hips like hula-pros. So we thought we’d put together a short guide on how to get started with hula hooping.

1. Invest in the correct-sized hula hoop - you need one that comes up to your belly button when it is standing on the floor in front of you.

2. Once you have your hula hoop, hold it in front of you and step inside the hoop with your feet towards the back. Bring the hoop to your waist level with two hands and stand your feet shoulder width apart. 

3. Keep your body long and give the hoop a big flat spin and then start to push forwards and backwards. If you’re right-handed spin it anticlockwise. If you’re left-handed spin it clockwise. Keep your knees, chest and hips still and just move the belly and back if you can. 

4. Move your waist in a circular motion, moving your belly froward as it crosses your front and pushing backwards as it crosses your back. You need to move the part of your body you want the hoop to sit on and keep the other areas still as much as you can.

5. Put one foot in front of the other if it feels easier. If you feel the hoop starting to drop, go faster, or turn your body in the same direction as the hoop is moving while pushing faster. 

6. Once you’ve got the momentum and you can do a few hoops, you can start being fancy. Try taking a step forward and back or moving across the room. Try these tricks for beginners if you like.

More skills to learn…

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July | a final thought

This post is our last for the July ‘embrace’ issue. Hopefully you’re fully embracing summer now, relishing every moment and looking forward to some slow time just for you over the next few weeks.

Above is the illustration from our back cover. We hope it made you smile. And here’s a haiku we penned as an ode to June. As always, we would love to hear yours. Write your own in the comments below or leave it for us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Five, seven, five, remember. We’ll send a lovely book to the author of our favourite.

New books to be read, 

Sands to tread, tastes to try.

Holidays are here.

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Reader offer | The Simple Things Holiday

Make your own way on a food-themed walking tour from The Simple Things and Inntravel

You’ll follow scenic self-guided walks, meet award-winning producers on guided visits by local food experts and eat dinner at some of the area’s best restaurants. This short break from ‘slow holiday’ company Inntravel is rather special, featuring a mixture of leisurely discovery, beautiful scenery, welcoming accommodation and regional cuisine. It savours all that is great about the North York Moors and Howardian Hills – the corner of the county that Inntravel is proud to call home. A group holiday this is not – the four-night itinerary is self-guided, meaning you can book, tailor and enjoy this short break with the companions and dates you choose. Your bags are transported for you, leaving you free to enjoy the delights unencumbered.

WHAT’S THE PLAN?

DAY ONE Rievaulx to Harome: 13km (8 miles), 3.5hrs From The Pheasant Hotel in Harome, visit the village of Rievaulx and its magnificent ruined abbey, then strike out along part of the Cleveland Way to Helmsley. This market town, with a ruined medieval castle and pretty, walled garden, also boasts some excellent indie shops, tearooms and pubs. From Helmsley, a riverside path and short uphill section lead you back to your comfortable hotel in Harome.

DAY TWO Harome to Hovingham: 11km (7 miles), 2.5hrs Sue and Aidan of Yorkshire Food Finder collect you for a scenic drive through the North York Moors National Park, before a behind-thescenes tour of Botton Village Creamery. You’ll be back in Harome before lunch, ready for a walk, picnic included, to your next hotel. Nunnington Hall and Gardens (a National Trust property) is en route, along with spectacular scenery along the way, to picturesque Hovingham, home to the Worsley Arms Hotel in the centre of the village.

DAY THREE Hovingham to Malton, via the Yorkshire Wolds Today you meet up once again with your guides from Yorkshire Food Finder for a day of gastronomic visits and exclusive tours at Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil and Ryedale Vineyards. A transfer to your hotel takes you past the beautiful ruins of Kirkham Priory, and through the Castle Howard estate, to The Talbot in Malton – the self-styled Food Capital of North Yorkshire.

HOW TO BOOK

From £835 per person including four nights’ b&b, all tours, transfers and most meals. To find out more and to book, visit inntravel.co.uk and search for ‘A Yorkshire Gastronomic Celebration’. You can also book by phone during office hours by calling 01653 617001. Either way, use code TST-01 to receive a goody bag of The Simple Things treats, including postcards, our bumper anthology, The Best of The Simple Things, sew-on happiness patches and more.

Terms & conditions This offer, only available with completed bookings of ‘A Yorkshire Gastronomic Celebration’ through Inntravel, is valid for bookings made before the closing date of 31 October 2019. The Simple Things goody bags cannot be exchanged for cash and, like the holiday itself, are subject to availability. Inntravel booking conditions also apply and can be found on their website.

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When St Swithin met Billy Bragg

‘St Swithin’s Day if it doth rain for 40 days it will remain.

St Swithin’s Day if thou be fair, for 40 days it rain na mair’

You can read more about St Swithin, the Michael Fish of the ninth century, in our July issue. But put briefly, if it’s damp on the day, invest in a good umbrella; you’re going to need it.

If you didn’t know that 15 July is St Swithin’s Day, you might know it as ‘Dex and Em’s Day’, the protagonists of the novel One Day by David Nicholl. The novel begins on 15 July as Dex and Em graduate and revisits them each St Swithin’s Day for the next 20 years. 

But what was the significance of the day for the author? A mixture of very little and random interest, it turns out. Nicholl says that he had to pick a day that would work as a graduation date and British universities tend to hold these in mid July. He wanted a day that wasn’t a ‘big date’ such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas: “St Swithin’s Day felt suitably random,” he told the Oxonian Review. But he needed a date that would resonate with the characters and act as a plot hook, too. “I liked the mythology of St Swithin’s Day, which is about our desire and inability to predict the future. Thematically that seemed right. And there’s a song about lost love by Billy Bragg that is called 'St Swithin’s Day'. To me, that song was the unofficial soundtrack to the book.” What St Swithin would have made of Mr Bragg we’re not certain, but suitably random it certainly is. We’ll be picking up our copies of One Day again to mark the date.

Read more about St Swithin’s Day in our ‘Stories Behind Superstitions’ slot in the Miscellany pages of our July ‘Embrace’ issue.

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Hive mind | reviving a bee

Spotted a bee that’s more bushed than busy? Here’s how to give him a boost

We’ve all heard the advice about reviving bees that are grounded in hot weather but there’s so much conflicting advice buzzing around, sometimes it’s hard to remember what the best thing to do is. Here’s The Simple Things’ truly simple guide to reviving a bee.

If you find a bee on the ground (not on a flower - those ones are just having a well-earned sit down), here’s what to do:

1. Mix two tablespoons of caster sugar (not demerera*) with one tablespoon of water. 

2. Place the solution close to the bee so it can have a drink. A spoon will do but most bees find it easier to get the sugar solution off a flower head, such as a chive or dandelion flower, or from a flat surface, so if it’s on hard ground just put a blob of the sugar solution on the ground next to it. 

3. Back away and give the bee some space but hover nearby to see off predators.

4. Eventually watch it fly away and feel the glow of having done a kindness for a small beast.

*And definitely never use honey. Honey can kill wild bees as you could be introducing a virus to the bee.

Other bees in a tight spot.

Damp bees

If you find a bee soaked after a heavy downpour and unable to get off the ground you can bring it inside overnight to dry off. A box with plenty of ventilation holes is a good spot for it. Don’t be tempted to keep it for any longer than necessary. Bees are not pets.

Damaged bees

Sometimes a bee that is old or has been attacked can look pretty scruffy. It’s worth trying the sugar solution trick. However, try not to get too attached. If the bee is missing wings, limbs or other bits of its body it’s probably not a good prognosis and it’s best to just let nature take its course. 

Dead bees

Are you sure? People often assume a bee is dead when it’s simply exhausted. Give the sugar solution a go and see if you can breathe new life into it before writing it off.

If you’d like to learn even more about bees, buy our July ‘Embrace’ issue, on sale now, which includes a comprehensive primer on all things bee. 

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Tutorial | herding sheep

Come-bye, and we’ll tell you a little more...

We loved chatting to Amanda Owen (aka The Yorkshire Shepherdess) for our Wisdom piece in our July issue. (You can find it in the shops or buy it online using the link below if you’d like to know more). By the end, we were all imagining ourselves giving it all up and heading off to  enjoy the peace and quiet of a hillside somewhere green and silent. (We’re sure it’s definitely all as simple as that sounds.)

So in case you fancy a career change, too, we’ve collated a short guide to sheep dog commands to get you started.

Come-bye Go to the left around the flock (clockwise)

Away (or away to me) Go to the right around the flock (anticlockwise). Remember A is for ‘away’ and ‘anticlockwise’ and C is for ‘come-bye’ and ‘clockwise’

Lie down Lie on the ground

Steady Slow down a bit

Walk on Approach the sheep (often used at the start of herding)

On your feet Stand up and be ready but don’t move yet

Look back Check your workings! Used if they’ve lost a sheep or if the dog is working part of the flock and he needs to go back for the other part

That’ll do It’s clocking off time

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How to | work a canal lock

Learn a niche skill that looks ever so impressive

It’s always a joy to be able to step up at moments of group panic and confidently and smugly say ‘I’ll take care of that’. Should you find yourself navigating a narrow boat unexpectedly (it could happen) you’ll need to be able to work the canal’s locks in order to pilot the boat up or down the water. While all about you spill their Pimms and flap their hands in despair at the paddles, here’s how to calmly and collectedly navigate a lock. Ahoy!

1. Put down your beer, like a hero.

2. For the purposes of these instructions we’re going to assume you are travelling upstream. You need one person at the tiller (the steering pole) and one person operating the lock (that’s you). Check the lock. It should be clear with no boat approaching the other way. The water in the lock has to be at the same level as you are before you can open the gates and enter it. As we’re assuming you’re travelling up the canal, if the lock is not empty when you arrive, empty it by opening the paddles on the bottom gate. Once the water is at the same level as you, you can open the gates. 

3. Open the gate nearest the boat and ask the person at the tiller to take the boat (carefully) into the lock. It is traditional to shout ‘left a bit, left a bit, NO! YOU PUSH IT RIGHT TO GO TO THE LEFT!. That’s right… No TOO FAR NOW. Lawks! You nearly had the front off it then!’ as they steadily pilot the boat into the lock. Close the bottom gate behind the boat.

4. Open the paddles in the top gate and let the water into the lock. The paddles are the big Victorian iron cog shenanigans either side of the lock. Take your special key (called a windlass), place the hole in your windlass over the sticky-outy bit on the paddle and turn it to open. Stand to the side and keep your knees out of the way. If you accidentally let go of a windlass while the paddle is raised it can drop fast and the windlass can fly off and the paddles drop suddenly, causing horrible damage to the lock or you. It is permissible to swear colourfully if this happens. As the paddles open, the boat will rise slowly in the lock like well-proved loaf.

5. When the lock is full and the levels inside the lock and in front of you are level you will be able to open the top gate. Do so by putting your back against it and slowly leaning back to push it open, rather than bending over and pushing with your hands. This ‘pushing with your back’ manoeuvre prevents injury but more importantly will help mark you out as a canal know-it-all and impress any passers-by. 

6. Let your tiller person know to bring the boat out of the gate. If you want to sound smug and irritate the person at the tiller, shout casual and unhelpful commands like ‘take it to starboard a little’. No-one mortal can remember which way starboard is when under stress and in charge of a 60ft boat. Call them over to the bank with a louche wave of the hand, then step casually back on board and resume your position at your beer.

7. Graciously bask in the admiration of your crew and never tell them that it’s actually much easier to work a lock than it is to pilot the boat through one. Ahem.

In our July ‘Embrace’ issue, which is out now, we tried out a canal boating weekend courtesy of ABC Boat Hire. They are currently offering discounts for 202 and have a few last minute deals on breaks this year, too. Pick up a copy of the July issue in shops now for more details.

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Recipe | Watermelon lollies

A simple idea for a pretty and cooling treat

Serves 6

½ small watermelon

6 wooden lolly sticks (recycled from ice lollies)

1 Cut the watermelon in half and cut into slices. Cut out 6 triangle shapes with the watermelon skin at the bottom.

2 Make a small inch-long incision into the middle of the skin and insert the wooden lolly stick.

3 Lay the lollies on a pretty plate and put in the fridge to keep cool. Serve as a refreshing bite any time of day or as a casual palate cleanser between a main course and dessert for a supper in the garden.

This idea is just one of the recipes in our July issue for a celebratory gathering for a special day. The menu includes chilled cucumber soup in tea cups, beetroot and horseradish bites, spanakopita, a delicious fig salad and a showstopper of a sponge cake decorated with berries and edible flowers. It’s a lovely menu for a birthday party, get-together of old friends or simply to celebrate summer having properly arrived this weekend. You can find all the recipes starting on p30 and you’ll find the July issue in any shop worth its salt now or online (see links below).

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Cake facts | Upside-down cake

A look at the history of this wrong-way-up cake, which is a classic… whichever way you look at it

The history of cake is dotted liberally with fine examples of retro ideas that have wholly endured. In fact, why we think of them as retro is a mystery, since they never really went away. The upside-down cake is an excellent example, and none more than the classic - the Pineapple Upside-down Cake, which has been eliciting excited ‘oohs’ from children and overgrown children alike for over a century.

Upside-down cakes have, in truth, existed for hundreds of years. When cakes would have been cooked over a fire, a clever way to get a nice decorative top with caramelised fruit adorning it, was to put the fruit and sugar in the bottom of a skillet over the fire, so that when the skillet is turned out, the unattractive top becomes the bottom of the cake and the fruity goodness that was on the bottom becomes the top.

But it wasn’t until the advent of the Pineapple Upside-down cake that topsy-turvy patisserie really ‘had a moment’. And for that we have to thank one James Dole. That’s right. Him of the tinned pineapple.

In 1901 Dole invented a machine that could cut pineapples into perfectly sized rings, that he could put into tins. Quickly, one of the most popular uses for pineapple rings became to put their flavour and attractive shape into an upside-down cake. As an aside, we’d also like to award a retro medal to whomever was the first amateur baker to pop a few maraschino cherries in the holes of the pineapple rings. Genius!

In our July issue, we have a less retro but no less welcome topsy turvy cake from Annie Bell’s Baking Bible (Kyle Books). Photography by Con Poulos. Find it on page 7.

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In praise of potting sheds

Because it’s about more than the soil and seedlings

There’s no denying it, a potting shed is endlessly useful. As well as being a spot for bringing on seedlings, it’s a place to work on your own soil, keep all your tools neat and tidy and have your seed packets and catalogues stacked away….

But that’s not really why any of us have a potting shed, as any fool knows. For the uninitiated, and those not yet fully throwing themselves into potting shed life, here’s what they’re really for:

1. Having a grown-up wendy house. No one truly gets too old to appreciate the joy of a tiny little house of one’s own to pass the time in, play in and arrange ‘just so’. A place no one else will try to invade (because it’s too darn small).

2. Keeping your most delicious comestibles. If you’ve any kind of sense you’ll kit out your potting shed with a few essentials. Nothing too fancy. You don’t want to arouse interest. Just an old Thermos you can take out full of boiling water, a nice enamel mug, a small box of a few interesting herbal teas, and most importantly, a thoroughly uninteresting looking old biscuit tin in which to secrete cakes, biscuits and other treats. A cup of tea and a slice of fruitcake never taste so good as when they’re secret.

3. Hiding from your nearest and dearest. Yes, we’re sure they’re lovely but sometimes we all just need to disappear for an hour. The potting shed offers that ideal combination of being outside the four walls of the house (thus putting off potential ‘company’ happening upon you) but not actually off the premises (so you don’t strictly speaking have to tell anyone you’ve gone there. If you slip up the garden like a ninja it could be a good half hour before anyone notices you’ve gone.)

4. Communing with spiders. Because somehow they count as welcome company rather than unwanted intruders. You might look askance at your other half trying to muscle their way into your potting shed but Gerald?! Well, he came with the bricks. And he’s always there to lend a hand (or eight) when needed. Gerald’s welcome to stay.

5. Enjoying without distraction. Do you find you only ever really do the whole crossword, get stuck into a book or sit and listen to the afternoon play on Radio 4 when you’re not in your own house? That’s likely because there’s always a job you ‘should’ be doing to take the place of what you want to be doing. Get a potting shed and suddenly all that laundry that needs folding, the drain that needs unblocking and the spuds that need peeling for dinner disappear! Out of sight out of mind, see? Who knows? Perhaps by the time you skulk back indoors someone else will have done the chores for you! We live in hope.

6. Doing some Proper Pottering. After all where can you truly potter if not in a potting shed, sniffing the unmistakable smell of compost, sweeping up, scrubbing the odd pot and arranging seed packets. There’s no place where it’s easier to be gently useful and relaxedly occupied.

If you’re already yearning for a potting shed of one’s own, pick up our July issue, which has instructions on how to make your own potting shed in a day (like the one pictured above). It’s small but very easy to put together and there’s enough room for you, a newspaper, a comfy stool… and Gerald, too.  

The project is adapted from Upcycling Outdoors by Max McMurdo (Jacqui Small). Photography: Brent Darby.

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Playlist | Songs about dogs

Listen at thesimplethings.com/blog/dogplaylist

DJs: Clare Gogerty, with the help of readers Wendy Browning, Louise Collyer, Carole Hirst and Michelle Monteleagre.

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Win | a foodie hamper

A summer foodie bundle to make picnics even lovelier could be yours

Summer starts in earnest, it’s said, when elder trees burst into flower, and it ends in late August when elderberries are ripe. Delicate elderflowers explode in hedgerows across the Quicke’s estate and beyond. Only the best ingredients are good enough for Quicke’s clothbound cheese, from grass-fed cows’ milk made by the Quicke’s herd, to Cornish Sea Salt to mix into the curds. So, when it came to developing the Elderflower Clothbound Cheese – a creamy hard cheese with a flicker of real elderflower – only the best hand-picked wild elderflower would do.

To celebrate the latest batch of Quicke’s Elderflower Clothbound Cheese (above), they’re giving away a summer foodie bundle from a few of our favourite South West businesses who are also making the most of this wonderful summer blossom. The prize includes:

• Nancarrow Farm Feast tickets for two, worth £40 each, valid for summer feast nights down on the farm in Truro, Cornwall. • Easygoing English aperitif, Sharpham Sparkling Elderflower. • Lyme Bay Gin, bursting with traditional botanic flavours and citrus and elderflower notes. • Luscombe Wild Elderflower Bubbly, a soft drink infused with blossom foraged in the June sunshine. • And of course – Quicke’s Elderflower Clothbound Cheese.

For your chance to win, enter below.

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