Pets | Could Your Pet Be a Therapist?

Volunteering opportunities for you and your four-legged friend

In our November issue, Rebecca Frank met horses, dogs, cats and other creatures who act as therapists for humans in need. Volunteering with your pet can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience for you and your furry friend, as well as to the recipient. All Pets As Therapy (PAT) animals are assessed first, but here are a few things to bear in mind if you’re considering it and some information on getting started.

Pets need to be friendly and calm, healthy and groomed.

Dogs and cats must be able to walk on a relaxed lead without excessive pulling.

Pets must accept being stroked and patted and enjoy being fussed over.

Barking, hissing and licking aren’t accepted.

Clients love to give pets a treat, so it’s important that they don’t snatch it, jump up or paw as there’s a risk of injury, particularly with elderly people.

Dogs must be at least nine months old and you must have known them for at least six months.

All animals must be fully vaccinated and have regular flea and worming treatments.

For more information and to apply, visit petsastherapy.org

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Project | Paint Your Own Candles

Bring your own artistic flourish to plain candles to light up dark nights.

You will need

Rubbing alcohol or surgical spirit
Candles
Acrylic pens (you can also use water-based, non-toxic acrylic paint and a paintbrush)

To make

1 Begin by preparing the candle’s surface by cleaning it with some rubbing alcohol or surgical spirit and a lint-free cloth.

2 Paint your design on your candle. You may need to do two layers, so have a slice of cake while your first layer dries, then go over it once more.

3 Allow to dry for a couple of hours before lighting. Remember to burn your candle on a flat surface away from other objects and never leave it unattended.

This project idea is taken from our feature ‘Craft-a-Peel’ in our November issue, which brings together recipes for snacks and drinks, as well as craft projects to enjoy with friends. The styling and recipes are by Kay Prestney and the photography by Rebecca Lewis.

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Learn | An Endangered Craft

Photography by Jeff Gilbert

Taking up a new craft is a delicious challenge and something that helps us feel we’re growing and developing. So imagine the glow of taking up a craft that is in danger of dying out. 

In our November issue, we met Elizabeth Ashdown (pictured above), who practises passementerie, the craft of making ornamental embellishments. She’s the youngest of only six people practising this craft in the UK, which inspired us to find out which other crafts were in danger of becoming extinct. 

Below are a list of crafts that Heritage Crafts have on their ‘critically endangered’ crafts list. Click on each one for information from Heritage Crafts on training opportunities, number of practitioners and more. You might be inspired to take a course or simply give it a go yourself. 

Critically endangered crafts

The crafts listed below are considered to be at serious risk of dying out in the UK (Heritage Crafts also a category of crafts that are only regarded as ‘endangered’. Crafts that are critically endangered might be due to a lack of craftspeople, reduced opportunities for training, being financially unviable or simply that there is no longer a way to pass on the skills and knowledge required. 

• Arrowsmithing 

• Basketwork furniture making

• Bell founding

• Bow making (musical) 

• Bowed-felt hat making

• Chain making 

• Clay pipe making

• Clog making

• Coiled straw basket making

• Coppersmithing (objects) 

• Compass and navigational instrument making

• Copper wheel engraving

• Currach making

• Devon stave basket making

• Diamond cutting

• Encaustic tile making 

• Engine turned engraving

• Fabric pleating

• Fair Isle chair making

• Fan making

• Flute making (concert)

• Fore-edge painting

• Frame knitting

• Glass eye making

• Hat block making 

• Hat plaiting

• Hazel basket making

• Highland thatching

• Horse collar making

• Horsehair weaving

• Industrial pottery

• Linen damask weaving

• Maille making

• Metal thread making

• Millwrighting

• Northern Isles basket making

• Oak bark tanning

• Orrery making

• Paper making (commercial handmade)

• Parchment and vellum making

• Piano making

• Plane making

• Plume making 

• Pointe shoe making

• Saw making

• Scientific and optical instrument making

• Scissor making

• Sieve and riddle making

• Silk ribbon making 

• Silver spinning

• Spade making (forged heads)

• Spinning wheel making

• Sporran making

• Straw hat making 

• Sussex trug making 

• Swill basket making

• Tinsmithing

• Wainwrighting

• Watch face enamelling

• Watch making

• Whip making 

• Withy pot making

• Wooden fishing net making

You can read about Elizabeth and her passementierie in our November issue, as well as others who are doing their best to save beautiful and rare things from extinction, from languages to red squirrels. Turn to page 66 to read The Preservation Society. 

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Recipe | Chai Spiced Shortbread

This is a classic shortbread recipe with a little sprinkle of some of those spices you find in masala chai.

Ingredients

Serves 4

250g soft butter
70g golden caster sugar
250g plain flour
60g cornflour
Pinch of fine salt
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground green cardamom
¼ tsp ground black cardamom
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves

How to make

1 Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/ Gas 5. Meanwhile, whisk together the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy.

2 Sift in the flour, cornflour, salt and spices and mix gently – you don’t want to go crazy here as overworking the dough isn’t good.

3 Once combined, press the shortbread dough into a baking tray lined with baking paper. You can also use a sandwich cake tin if you’d prefer. Use a fork to make little holes and gently mark out the wedges or finger shapes that you’ll cut later.

4 Bake for about 1 hr. Remove from the oven and cut through your markings while still a little warm. Allow to cool and enjoy with a cup of masala chai.

This recipe is just one from our feature East, West, Home’s Best, which is taken from Modern South Asian Kitchen by Sabrina Gidda (Hardie Grant) with photography by Maria Bell. The other recipes include Aloo Gobi Hash with Fried Egg & Green Chutney, Tunworth Cheese Naan, Butter Chicken Pie and Ginger & Jaggery Pudding.

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Wellbeing | Ways to Enjoy November

Photography by Stocksy

Lots of people find November a bit of a difficult month, with long nights, and cold weather to get through, too far from summer and too long until Christmas. But if you look carefully, there are lots of small celebrations to be had and important moments to mark. 

Making the most of seasonal moments is just one way to embrace the colder, darker days, giving you reasons to look forward to the month rather than to fear it. Browse our bumper ‘could-do’ list of ways to enjoy November below. You could do them all, pick just a few, swap them or customise them as you wish. Here’s to learning to love November!

1st: Celebrate Mexico’s Day of the Dead with paper flower garlands and a feast

2nd: Bake Soul Cakes for All Souls Day

3rd: Toast marshmallows on a firepit (or indoors if it’s too wet)

4th: Make a Guy from newspaper and old clothes for Bonfire Night

5th: Watch some fireworks and say ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ as warranted

6th: Make autumnal squash or pumpkin soup

7th: Spend some time with your Teddy Bear for Hug a Bear Day

8th: Get some early mince pies in and start writing Christmas cards

9th: Compile a November reading list of cosy books

10th: Light a candle in the evening

11th: Wear a new, non-plastic, poppy for Remembrance Day, or just remember a loved one in your own quiet way

12th: Spend a day slow cooking, savouring the time simply spent on the task

13th: Go for a walk somewhere new at lunchtime to make the most of the daylight

14th: Start a new craft project to see you through winter

15th: Make up jars of toppings for porridge to make your mornings cheerier

16th: Tell ghost stories with friends

17th: As if you needed an excuse, it’s Homemade Bread Day, so get kneading

18th: Re-read an ‘old favourite’ book

19th: Make your bedroom cosy and winter ready with blankets and throws

20th: Mark World Television Day by cosying up with a box set

21st: Celebrate ‘World Hello Day’ by greeting 10 strangers

22nd: Collect colourful leaves on a woodland walk

23rd: Invite friends over for a board games evening

24th: Buy an advent calendar (a proper one with beautiful pictures) ready for next week

25th: Mark Thanksgiving with a meal for family or friends or just a quiet moment of counting your blessings

26th: Make your Christmas pud on Sitr-up Sunday

27th: See if you can spot the full moon today. It’s called the Beaver Moon, or Frost Moon

28th: Hug a tree to mark the second day of National Tree Week

29th: Embrace the dark with a night hike

30th: Cook a Scottish dish such as kedgeree or haggis for St Andrew’s Day

For more inspiration on feeling better about this time of year, read ‘How I Learned to Love November’ in our November (of course!) issue.

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Tipple | Hot Cranberry Toddy

Boozy or not, this hot cocktail looks almost too pretty to drink and is a warming, wintry way to welcome guests or just to enjoy a quiet, dark November night at home. It’s a good way to warm up after you’ve been watching the fireworks, too.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 satsumas, peeled and segmented
5cm of fresh ginger root
8 x star anise
1 tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp juniper berries
4 x 10cm cinnamon sticks
1ltr unsweetened cranberry juice
2 tbsp honey
2 shots of whisky (optional)
for the topping:
2 tbsp unrefined golden sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon

To make

1 Place all the ingredients (except for the topping ingredients) into a large pan over a medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently, while stirring, for 10 mins.

2 Meanwhile, mix the topping ingredients in a dish. Slightly dampen the top of each glass with a little water, then dip into the sugar mix.

3 Strain the hot spiced cranberry juice through a sieve into each glass, then add two star anise, a cinnamon stick and a few satsuma segments to each glass to garnish.

4 Add half a shot of whisky to each, if desired, and serve while still warm.

This Hot Cranberry Toddy is just one of the recipes from our November Gathering Pages, which we’ve called ‘Craft-A-Peel’. It’s a menu of snacks and finger foods to fuel you and a few friends while you make decorations for winter together. It also includes recipes for Pomegranate and Goat’s Cheese Bites, French Chestnut Soup, Spiced Flatbreads, Stollen Traybake and a Turmeric Hot Tipple. The recipes and styling are by Kay Prestney and the photography is by Rebecca Lewis.

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Recipe | Sausages with Green Lentils & Salsa Verde

Move over mash! Pair your bangers with lentils for a rich and filling feast with a little kick.

Serves 4

300g green lentils (we got ours from hodmedods.co.uk)

Olive oil

250g bacon lardons

1 onion, finely diced

2 celery sticks, finely diced

2 carrots, peeled and finely diced

2 bay leaves

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

6 pork sausages

A splash of cider vinegar

For the salsa verde:

1 small bunch of basil, finely chopped

1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 small bunch of mint, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp capers, rinsed and finely chopped

1 tbsp cider vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

3-4 anchovy fillets

How to make

1 Rinse the lentils in cold water and leave to soak for 30 mins.

2 To make the salsa verde, place the herbs, garlic and capers in a blender. Add the vinegar, olive oil and anchovies, along with a good pinch of salt and black pepper, blitz to combine. Check the seasoning, adding more if necessary.

3 Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the lardons and fry for about 5 mins, or until crispy and golden. Add the onion, celery, carrots and bay leaves and cook for 10 mins more over a medium–low heat, or until they’re very, very soft but without much colour. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 mins.

4 Add the soaked and drained lentils and 1 teaspoon of salt and stir until they’re well coated with the oil and veg, then add enough cold water to cover the lentils by about 1cm. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 mins, or until tender, topping up with a little more boiling water if necessary.

5 With the lentils cooking, fry the sausages in a little oil for 8–10 mins, or until cooked. Remove from heat.

6 Remove the lentils from the heat and add a splash of vinegar to taste. Check the seasoning. Serve the lentils with the sausages and a big dollop of the salsa verde.

This recipe is taken from Pipers Farm: The Sustainable Meat Cookbook by Abby Allen & Rachel Lovell (Kyle Books). Photography: Matt Austin. The sausages with lentils are just one of the ideas for autumnal recipes featured in our November issue.

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November | Things to Appreciate

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

They say it’s not about where you go; it’s about the journey. A day out spent on a train is very much in that spirit. There’s something a bit romantic about a train journey, whether you do it alone or take a friend along for the ride. All you need is some good scenery, a travel board game (we favour Travel Scrabble) or a book and a train picnic. And we’re talking a Proper Picnic, here. Hamper, flask of tea, cake, sausage rolls, the lot. Perhaps leave the hard-boiled eggs at home for the sake of your fellow passengers, though.

A steam train journey brings instant atmosphere, with the sound of whistles, heavy carriage doors slamming and the smell of the coal. Almost wherever you are in the country there will be a steam railway near you, from the Bluebell Railway in West Sussex to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. But you don’t have to step back in time to enjoy a scenic rail route. Londonderry to Coleraine is arguably one of the prettiest train journeys in the UK, with fabulous sea views. An equally lovely coastal trip is the newly reopened Exeter to Dawlish line. Find a scenic rail route near you, but make sure you leave just enough time for tea and a scone in the station café at the other end before the whistle blows for the return leg. 

This idea for a day out 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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Competition | Mark Pyjama O' Clock with a £250 voucher for Yawn

With the softest of cottons, considered design and unique prints, Yawn nightwear will have you preparing for an early night

Surely one of the best things about the nights drawing in is that we all have a good excuse to get into our pyjamas just that little bit earlier. Alice Whitely knew this only too well and it was the catalyst for setting up Yawn, her beautiful nightwear business, back in 2014.

Alice’s vision was to create pyjamas that felt like a hug – characterful and colourful designs that made women feel happy and comfortable, both whilst sleeping and relaxing at home. Along with friends Roly and Phil, they searched fruitlessly for the ideal fabric, eventually opting to make their own, sourcing organic cotton to produce a fabric that’s naturally supersoft, temperate regulating and breathable. Add to that thoughtful designs with attention to even the smallest detail, such as French seams, reinforced buttonholes, corozo buttons and pockets (who doesn’t love a pocket, hey?). But what really makes Yawn pyjamas extra fun are their hand-drawn or painted prints, each with a hidden quirky detail, from whales hiding in stormy seas, to a forest fox, to a cheeky skinny dipper.

If you’re already checking your watch, wondering if it’s pyjama o’clock yet, then you’re in luck. The Simple Things has teamed up with Yawn to offer two lucky readers the chance to win a £250 voucher each. So, you too could soon be snuggled in the softest of jammies and enjoying that extra special Yawn hug. However, if you’re not a winner this time, might we suggest that they make a wonderful gift (hint, hint), whether treating a loved one… or yourself!

To see the full collection, visit loveyawn.com or follow on Instagram at: @yawnlondon.

How to enter

For your chance to win one of two £250 vouchers, enter our competition at thesimplethings.com/blog/yawn2023by clicking the button below by the closing date of 6 December 2023 and answering the following question.

Q: In which year was Yawn set up?

Terms & Conditions

The competition closes at 11.59pm on 6 December 2023. Two winners will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. Subject to availability. The winners cannot transfer their prize or swap for cash. Details of our full terms and conditions are on p125 and online at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

Recipe | A Stir-Up Sunday Pudding

Sticky, sweet and steamy, this is a pudding packed with wintry flavours and spicy aromas to enjoy making now and then enjoy eating in a few short weeks.

Celebrating moments and traditions is a lovely way to mark the passing of the weeks in these last months of the year. One such tradition is Stir-Up Sunday, which this year falls on 26 November. If you fancy stirring up a pudding ready for Christmas, you might like this pudding with a fruity twist.

Ingredients

150g dried figs
150g Medjool dates
100g dried cranberries
100g raisins
200g Demerara sugar
3 tbsp rum, brandy or whisky
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
75g fresh white breadcrumbs
75g plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
50g almonds
100g butter, room temperature, plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs

Method

1. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to snip the dried figs into small pieces, about the size of a raisin. Squash the dates and pull out the stones, then finely chop the dates.

2. Pop the figs and dates in a large mixing bowl with the dried cranberries, raisins and Demerara sugar. Pour over the liquor and the juice of 2 oranges. Tip in the orange zest. Mix well and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave overnight (or for at least 6 hrs) to soak, so most of the liquid is absorbed and the sugar begins to dissolve.

3. Add the breadcrumbs, flour and mixed spice to the soaked fruit. Finely chop the almonds and add them to the bowl. Stir well to combine.

4. Add the room temperature butter to a separate bowl and beat till smooth and creamy. Crack in 1 egg and beat into the butter. Crack in the second egg and beat til combined – it will look a little lumpy, but don't worry. Add to the dried fruit mix and fold to combine. Try to mix in all the butter and not leave any unincorporated lumps.

5. Generously butter a 1 ltr pudding basin. Spoon the mixture into the basin. Cover with a pleated piece of buttered foil (the fold in the foil allows for expansion) with the buttered side towards the pudding. Push the foil down around the edges of the basin and tie it in place with kitchen string, so no steam can escape. Make a string handle so it's easier to lift the whole thing out of the pan.

6. Place the basin in a steamer above some water or stand it on a rack in a large pan. Pour water into the pan so that it comes half way up the basin. Bring to the boil, then lower the temperature and simmer for 6 hrs for a light pudding, or 8 hours for a darker one. Check the water level now and then as it may need to be topped up.

7. If you're not serving the pudding straight away, allow the pudding to cool completely. Replace the foil with a new piece and make sure it is well sealed. Store somewhere cool and dry for up to 1 year. To reheat the pudding, steam or simmer it in water for about 1 hr. Turn the warm pudding out onto a plate and serve with cream, custard or brandy butter.

Photography by Abel & Cole

This recipe is by Rachel de Thample for Abel & Cole. You can find this and more recipes on the Abel & Cole website. In our November issue, Lucy Brazier embraces the joy of marking traditions and making your own throughout the year, and shares her Stir-Up Sunday memories.

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