Eye Spy | In a Rockpool

All over the UK, rockpools allow you a miniature glimpse of life beneath the sea but which of the following rockpool inhabitants will you spot this summer? Tick them off as you go!

Common Starfish

Five orange arms with lighter coloured short ‘spines’. Usually around 10-30cm in size

Shore Crab

Look for a greenish shell about 9cm across with five spikes on each side of the eye

Mermaid’s purse

The egg cases of sharks, rays and skates. Very dark brown in colour and up to 21cm long, with distinctive ‘horns’ on the end

Limpet

A grey cone-shaped shell with ridges running down the sides from the top. Grows to up to 6cm diameter

Gutweed

Green hair-like fronds of seaweed. Very common in rockpools

Common Blenny

A small, brown fish with dark patches and fins on its side. Grows to around 16cm

Beadlet Anemone

Look for small round red blobs with dozens of ‘tentacles’ growing out of it. Their tentacles retract when they are not in water

Hermit Crab

Small, soft brown crab who squat in empty spiral shells

Common periwinkle

Another conical shell with spiralling ridges. Usually brown but also grey, black or even red. Up to 5cm in size

Bladderwrack

A browny greeny seaweed with a rib running down the middle of each piece and round air bladders which help it float and photosynthesise

If you need a little help with your rockpool identification, the Marine Conservation Society has a very useful rock pooling guide with videos. 

Feeling inspired by the idea of watching sea life close up? You might enjoy our ‘Outing’ feature this month, which is all about the underwater creatures and eco systems you can explore just off the beach. We also have a ‘Magical Creatures’ guide to the Starfish. Both are in our August issue, on sale now. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More outings for summer…

More from our blog…

Outings | Places to Seek out Cool

When the temperature rises, there are plenty of places to enjoy the cool

It’s lovely to see the sunshine out but if you’re in need of a little relief from it, seek out the shade, the cool and the dark. Cold places that you might wrap up in during winter (or simply avoid), in summer become welcome retreats to relish. Here are a few places to enjoy the cool on hot days.

Churches

If the heat gives you the urge to throw yourself down on the nearest cold stone floor, get thee to the nearest church where being prostate is less likely to be frowned upon. Churches and cathedrals with cloisters, crypts and catacombs will win you extra cool points. But, not only do they provide a refreshingly cool environment, churches can be a quiet and soothing place to sit and think, as well as an opportunity to appreciate some of the most beautiful art and architecture on public display. 

Caves

In the hot weather, it’s easy to understand why Bilbo Baggins was so reluctant to leave his hobbit hole. There’s a cave for every kind of troglodyte, whether you prefer your cavities natural or manmade, inland or on the seashore. Their temperatures of around 8 to 10C provide the necessity – nay giddy pleasure – of being able to pull on a pullover. Seek them out in the gardens of stately homes - a much cooler place to lounge than a chaise longue. 

High places

If you want to catch a breeze, head to the top of a hill or – even better – the top of a tall tower on a tall hill. It doesn’t need to mean a hike up a mountain though - just an area that is slightly higher than average. According to the Met Office, temperatures fall by around 5 to 10C for every 1000 metres you go up, making somewhere like the Cotswolds, for example, significantly cooler than the nearby Severn Valley.

Someone else’s air con

Precious objects and manuscripts require carefully controlled temperatures, so galleries and museums also make for cultured and cool visitors. A well-timed trip to the cinema allows you the ultimate indulgence of a couple of hours in a properly cool room. You could even order an indecently icy slush drink and experience the thrill of added brain freeze. For the ultimate quick fix, take a trip to the supermarket. Skip straight to the chilled food aisle and devote some serious time to debating the merits of petit pois versus garden peas. The M&S picnic section is also a great place for the overheated to linger – although you’re likely to leave weighed down with fancy stuffed olives and the like, considerably lighter of purse.

Woods and forests

For sun that twinkles, rather than blazes, seek out the sanctuary of a secluded forest. Wooded areas create their own microclimates that make them particularly enticing in hotter weather. The natural filter of the leaves and branches make them seem cooler. They’re also less windy, as the trees act as a natural windbreak, making for ideal picnic conditions: just take a look at Manet’s 1860s painting Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe for inspiration (stripping off optional).

These ideas for cool places to spend hot days in were originally published in issue 38 of The Simple Things. For more ideas on places to stay cool this summer, don’t miss our feature on rivers, waterways and lakes in our current July issue, in shops now, or available from our online store. 

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

More from our July issue…

More summer outings…

Crabbing for grown-ups

Get your claws into this most summery of seaside activities

Summer time-wasting shouldn’t be the preserve of children. Rockpooling, building sandcastles and climbing trees are all noble pursuits that every adult should have the pleasure of indulging in, too. And there’s little more fun that grabbing a bucket and a line and going crabbing. Here’s how to do it properly.

Crabbing kit:

A bucket

A line (you can buy proprietary crabbing lines in most buckets-and-spades shops by the sea but any bit of string or line will do. You can add your own bag for putting bait in using an old washing tablet bag, washed out and something tied on for a weight). Never use a line with a hook on.

Some tasty crab bait. Bacon is good - they especially love the rind - or sardines

A net 

A lovely picnic lunch 

A friend (optional)

Where to go crabbing

Crabs like tidal waters and you need somewhere you can drop your line easily, such as a quayside. A nice spot where you can sit and dangle your legs over the harbour wall is always lovely. If you’re likely to get over-excited, look for a location with a waist-height wall that might prevent you enjoying a wild swim on the same day. 

Check locally that crabbing is allowed or ask the harbour master so you don’t irritate local fishermen.

How to crab well

1. Pop down to the water’s edge with your bucket and fill the bucket with sea water. Crabs do not like tap water.

2. Add a couple of big rocks and a bit of seaweed, if you can find it, to give the crabs a bit of shade and somewhere to hide while they’re in your bucket. Keep the bucket in shade while you have the crabs in there, too. 

3. Tie some bait onto your line or put it in the net bag. Large bacon lardons are crab favourites, particularly the rindy bits.

4. Drop your line into the water, sit down and make yourself comfortable. 

5. If you feel any tugging, very gently pull up your line. If you can see any crabs hanging on enjoying a snack, scoop your net underneath them so they don’t drop off and transfer them to your bucket.

6. Never have more than ten crabs in the bucket at the time - they get on each others’ nerves a bit. If any start fighting, put them back in at once. 

7. When you’ve got a few in there you can sit down and watch them scuttling around sideways, peering out at you and generally getting on with their crabby business. They’re fascinating crustaceany creatures. You can give them names, pick them up, either with one finger on the top of the shell and one on the bottom, or holding them either side of the shell, to have a good look at them, and get to know them a bit better, but obviously be gentle and don’t have them hanging about in your hands too long.

8. Try not to leave your crabs in the bucket longer than ten minutes. When it’s time to put them back always go down to the water’s edge. Throwing them over the quayside will stress them out and they could even be hurt. At the water’s edge, tip them out gently onto the sand or rocks and watch them scuttle back into the water. 

9. Change your water before dropping your line again to ensure there’s plenty of oxygen in it for your next catch.

Gone Crabbing is a shop in Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk, which has a useful crabbing guide on its website. you by Googling ‘where to go crabbing near me’. You’ll be surprised how many spots there are at your nearest stretch of coast or estuary. 

In our August issue, we are appreciating the crab in our regular Magical Creatures slot. Pick up a copy in shops now. And if all that crabbing has made you hungry, we have a delicious recipe for crab burgers in the same issue. Probably best to buy your crab meat locally. It seems rude to eat something you’ve shared a pleasant afternoon with. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our August issue…

More summer fun for grown-ups…

Where to get wild

Take an outdoor course and you could learn a new skill and return home smugly clasping a new spoon, dreamcatcher... or goat (maybe not the goat)

There are plenty of local courses online, or look at those run by the National Trust (nationaltrust.org.uk/build-your-skills). Wild guides (wildthingspublishing.com) also list local courses by region. 

Woodcarving with Woodmatters, Cumbria

Try your hand at carving anything from spoons to stools. From £65, woodmatters.org.uk. 

Woodland Women, near Bristol

All-female day and weekend retreats in Tortworth Arboretum, eg, willow skills and campfire cooking. From £16.50, honeywoodscamping.co.uk. 

Wild Things weekends, Scotland

Women-only wilderness weekenders include foraging, wild medicinal plants and natural navigation. From £160, wild-things.org.uk.

Wild Bushcraft Company knife-making course, Wales

You’ll use 100% recycled materials to forge your own knife, complete with an antler handle. Four-day course, from £350, wildbushcraft.co.uk.

Wood craft courses, Sheffield

Craft courses are run throughout the year in Ecclesall Woods in Sheffield. From blacksmithing to furniture- making, the bustling Woodland Discovery Centre is a hidden oasis in the city. From £85, ecclesallwoodscraftcourses.co.uk.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the July issue:

More summer outings:

Unexpected treasures | Outdoor art

From waymarking sculptures on coastal paths to pieces made from the earth itself, outdoor art comes in many and various forms.

GALLERIES IN THE GLADES

Forests can often feel a little like galleries: the hushed atmosphere, the filtered light, the sculptural forms of the branches. It’s no surprise then that several forests have taken this one step further, installing site-specific sculptures, to help us explore and understand the woods and their history. So in the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, lines of compressed charcoal by Onya McCausland signal underground coal mines, while in Kielder Water and Forest Park in Northumberland, Chris Drury’s Wave Chamber projects the rippling waters of the adjacent lake onto the chamber’s floor.

SCULPTURES BY THE SEA

Summer is often when we head to the coast and, just as many of our seaside towns are now home to impressive art galleries (think Margate and Dundee), so outdoor art has stepped into the limelight. Another Place by Antony Gormley is undoubtedly one of the most haunting works: 100 life-size cast-iron statues “trying to remain standing, trying to breathe,”as Gormley has said, in the shifting sands of Crosby Beach, just north of Liverpool. Due to its size, and therefore the statement it makes, a lot of outdoor art tends to be by well known artists with guaranteed ‘pulling power’ (eg, Maggi Hambling’s Scallop at Aldeburgh). It’s refreshing then to note that the five new waymarking sculptures created for the Gower coastal trail between Mumbles and Rhossili this year are all by lesser-known artists, all women, handcarving in oak.

PARKLIFE PIECES

Purpose-built sculpture parks got going in Britain in the late 1970s with the launch of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the first in the UK and, with more than 500 acres to play with, the largest of its kind in Europe. The rolling open fields provide an expansive backdrop to monumental pieces by Henry Moore, while the landscaped grounds and woods shelter works by a roll call of leading names from Elisabeth Frink to Andy Goldsworthy. Entrance is free, but donations are invited. If it’s site-specific art you’re after, head further north to Jupiter Artland, just outside Edinburgh, where collectors Robert and Nicky Wilson have invited contemporary artists to make new pieces for their 100-acre estate. Highlights include several works by Goldsworthy and Cells of Life by Charles Jencks, in which the earth itself has been sculpted into sinuous, swirling landforms.

Turn to page 64 of July's The Simple Things for more extraordinary and challenging, joyful outdoor art that helps us see the world differently.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the July issue:

More summer outings:

Seaside snacks for a stroll along the prom

With the sea beside you, an ice-cream in hand and attractions all around, proms offer a fun coastal walk without the hike

Six snacks for promenaders

Cockles
Skewer a few of these vinegary delicacies from a cardboard tub with a cocktail stick for maximum seaside snack authenticity.

Ice-cream
Wherever you find a prom, you will find an ice-cream parlour. It would be a crime not to indulge, whether you go for a simple cornet or a sundae.

Doughnuts
Sharing a bag of freshly-fried, sugar-coated doughnuts is an ideal accompaniment to a seaside stroll. Let an increase in appetite caused by the sea air be your excuse.

Fish and chips
A piece of sustainably sourced haddock in a light batter with a tray of fat chips and mushy peas? Yes, please.

Milkshake
This frothy glass of flavoured milk has bounded into the modern age with new flavours like Oreo Cookies and Cream, and Peanut Butter Fudge. Yum.

Rock
Teeth-splintering it may be, yet a sucking a piece of this usually-mint-flavoured pulled sugar is an essential seaside experience.

Turn to page 66 of June's The Simple Things for more of our seaside prom feature.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the June issue:

More summer outings:

Escape | Outing to the sea

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

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

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

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

Read more in July’s The Simple Things.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the July issue:

More Escape inspiration:

Outing | PYO summer traditions

More than a chance to buy the freshest of veg, a day at a PYO farm is a treasure hunt in the sunshine. 

Some pick-your-own farms look like they could be in a snap from the 1970s – lines of fruit as far as the eye can see, punctuated only by a small wooden chalet. The simplicity of these places holds a strong sense of nostalgic charm, yet the new breed that can lay on a flat white and a fleet of miniature tractors to entertain accompanying tots as quickly as you can say: ‘One punnet, please’, has an altogether different kind of draw.

Pick Your Own has a number of precursors, such as in the Victorian farmers who invited their urban customers back to their land to harvest their own food, and ‘gleaning’ in the mid-20th century, when villagers were invited to collect and take home the corn that had fallen into the stubble after harvest.

More recently, the entrepreneurial Derbyshire farmer-turned-media personality Ted Moult is thought to have been the first to popularise pick-your-own strawberries by inviting visitors onto his fields in the early 1960s when reportedly, he greeted them one by one. As soft fruit became available in supermarkets all year round due to foreign imports, the pastime lost its allure, but with the 21st century’s renewed interest in seasonal food, it is regaining its rightful place as one of summer’s simple pleasures.

How to fill your punnet with only the sweetest, juiciest fruit

• Select strawberries in the warmest part of the day and, once you’ve established that they’re ripe (red all over), pinch the stalk between your thumb and forefinger and pull.
• Search for plump raspberries at the bases of the canes, which are often forgotten about. They should lift off easily when ready. Place in a shallow container in just one or two layers – they bruise easily.
• Remove the cluster of currants (black, red or white) on a branch before stripping it of its fruits.
• Gather under-ripe gooseberries in June for using in preserves, leaving enough fruits to sweeten for eating in July.

Turn to page 72 of June's The Simple Things for more PYO traditions.

More from the June issue:

Soft fruit recipe ideas:

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

Things to do in July

Our list of music, film, events and festivals not worth missing in July, see you there?

Photography: Carly Lesser and Art Drauglis

Shucking knives out! Whitstable Oyster Festival cracks open on 27th July

The world’s largest classical music festival clears its throat on 12th July

Pack a festival hamper for Latitude from 18th-21st July

Take a trip with Greg ’n’ Aud as Roman Holiday returns to the big screen on 19th July

Join in with the hot hot fun at Birmingham Chilli Festival from 19-20th July