Make | A Beetle Bucket

This simple back garden project means you can offer a safe haven for beetles and other bugs

You’ll need: a plastic bucket, a drill, a spade, some logs or branches (shorter than the bucket), stones of varying sizes, bark chippings, leaves.

1. Drill holes of different sizes (for different beetles) in the sides and bottom of your bucket.

2. Dig a hole slightly bigger than your bucket and a couple of inches deeper.

3. Place the bucket in the hole and put some stones in the bottom, then carefully place the branches or logs in, in an upright position.

4. Use more stones, bark chippings and leaves to fill the rest of the space and cover with some of the soil you removed when digging the hole.

5. Wait for your six-legged guests to move in.

This project is taken from our August Almanac pages, by Iona Bower, where you’ll find seasonal things to note and notice, plan and do each month.

More from our August issue…

More ideas from our Almanacs…

How to | Do a Swimming Pool Handstand

Want to look effortlessly sporty and stylishly carefree at the same time? Here’s how to do an underwater handstand. 

Practise the following steps in secret - perhaps on early mornings at the pool - until you can do an underwater handstand with ease (and without causing alarm… or a tidal wave). Don’t be tempted to try it on land though (unless you are a gymnast or under the age of 12).

1. Choose a depth of water you feel comfortable in. Deep water will support your body more, meaning you don’t have to use as many muscles or exercise so much balance. However, the deeper the water, the harder it is to keep your hands on the pool floor. Shallower water makes it a little easier to stay on the bottom but you won’t be buoyed up by the water so much. Experiment a bit and find what suits you best but maybe start with the water about waist height.

2. Plant your feet firmly together on the floor of the pool and take a deep breath into your lungs. Hold your breath and in one, hopefully swift, movement lift your feet, bring your knees into your chest and plant your hands, palm down, where your feet were. 

3. Once your palms are firmly on the floor of the pool, steadily push your legs up into a handstand position. Once they’re there, point your toes and press your legs together (this will help you stay in position). While you’re practising, you can always ask a trusted friend to catch your legs for you.

4. When you can’t hold your breath any longer let your legs fall forward over your body and return to a standing position. Once you’ve taken a breath of air, you may shout “TA-DAAAAH!” if you wish. 

Once you’ve mastered a handstand, if you want to be REALLY fancy you might like to take inspiration from the synchronised swimmers (pictured here) that Ella Foote met for our August issue’s Modern Eccentrics page. Photography by Jonathan Cherry. 

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Summer Reads | And Summer Tipples

With a book in your hand you can travel the world from the comfort of your deckchair. Here’s a read that will transport you to a sunny island…

The Orange House by Isabelle Broom (Hodder & Stoughton)

Somewhere warm and beautiful, with waves lapping the shore is surely the stuff of many summer fantasies. In (TST short story contributor) Isabelle Broom’s dreamy novel of second chances, and of love lost and regained, she adds in a rambling house, with apricot-coloured walls and surrounded by citrus trees in Mallorca. Violet and Henry bought the dilapidated La Casa Naranja when they were young and hopeful; 20 years on, their marriage is faltering, the house is up for sale, and both are nursing grievances and keeping secrets as their marriage tethers on the edge. Add to the mix their troubled son Luke and his protective girlfriend Eliza, and their summer has taken a turn for the fractious. But with the scent of the lemons, the sound of the sea and the shimmer of the sun, Broom sets the course for emotional reckonings and romantic realisations. Bliss.

To go with this book, we recommend a Sunshine Negroni

Serves 1

25ml citrus gin, such as Gordon’s Sicilian Lemon Gin
25ml Aperol
25ml Dolin Blanc vermouth
10ml orange juice
35ml grapefruit soda
5ml grenadine
Slices of orange, to garnish

1 Add the gin, Aperol, vermouth and orange juice to an ice-filled highball glass and gently stir.

2 Top up with chilled grapefruit soda and slowly pour the grenadine down the inside of the glass. Garnish with orange slices to serve.

Bartender’s Note: Any grapefruit soda can be used, even Lilt, but for the best visual effect, choose white grapefruit soda over the red variety, such as Sanpellegrino.

The Sunshine Negroni recipe is taken from Spritz Cocktails: 35 Thirst-Quenching Sodas, Highballs & Sparklers (Ryland Peters & Small) Photography: Alex Luck

To find more reads to transport you to other locations, turn to page 67 of our August issue, where Eithne Farry introduces us to some books for summer armchair tourism.

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How To | Be More Adventurous

Feel like you spend too much time watching others being brave and not enough throwing yourself into life yourself? Here are a few ways to find your inner adventurer

Do what you love but be a little more adventurous
Think going from walking to climbing a mountain, swimming to wild swimming, camping to wild camping.

Have more fun
Enjoyment is not the same as fun. Do something a bit silly that makes you laugh. Jump off a rope swing into a lake. Ride a roller coaster. Make up a bed and sleep in your garden under the stars.

Feel the fear but don’t let it control you
Listen to it, thank it for alerting you to possible dangers and then tell it to move away so you can be in control of your life.

Enjoy the journey
Think about where you enjoy the process not just the outcome. Go for a hike in the woods or a bike ride, not for exercise but to bask in nature.

Find pockets of adventure
Rather than waiting until you have time for a weekend away, find something that fits into your evening or lunch break.

Watch and read about adventure
When we hear of others that inspire us, we start to expand on what we believe is possible.

Listen to what’s whispering to you
Do you drool over travel or adventure programmes, lust after campervans or think fondly of horse riding or sailing boat memories? Act on these desires and impulses rather than finding reasons not to do things.

The ideas above are from our feature ‘Brave New World’ by Rebecca Frank from our August issue. Read more about how to be brave starting from page 20 and be inspired by reading Achievable Adventures by Charlie Wild and Jessica Last (Quadrille, £18)

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Recipe | Summer Crostini

Edible flowers add colour and fun to these crunchy beetroot, tomato and houmous crostini

Serves 6

Ingredients
One small baguette
250g houmous
1 raw beetroot, peeled and thinly sliced
250g mixed coloured cherry tomatoes, halved
Edible flowers (try nigella, marigold, nasturtium, pansies and violets)
Olive oil, to drizzle

To make
1 Cut the baguette into thin slices and lightly toast to make crostini.

2 Spread each crostini generously with the houmous.

3 Layer the beetroot and tomato on top of the houmous, then decorate each bite with an edible flower and season with salt and pepper.

4 Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve immediately on a nice platter.

This recipe is taken from our August ‘Gathering’ feature, which we’ve called ‘Circle of Friends’ and includes a menu for a lunch with mates: Grapefruit & Kombucha Refreshers, Coconut & Yogurt Herb Dip, Salmon, Saffron & Lime Kebabs, Cucumber, Lemon & Goat’s Cheese Salad and Honey Mascarpone Tart with Fig. The recipes are by Kay Prestney and photography by Rebecca Lewis.

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Playlist | Feel-good summer

Summer songs to lift the spirits – and a touch of summertime nostalgia – whether the sun is out or not. Take a listen on Spotify here. You’ll find this playlist in our August HAVEN issue, on sale from 24 July.

For more summer playlists, take a look at our Spotify profile, where we’ve got playlists for a barbecue, summer memories, midsummer magic and also for lazing on a sunny afternoon.