Table of contents for March 2018 in The Simple Things

“That pair of baggy black leggings won’t cut the mustard at a yoga class” We have been told countless times by yoga teachers that yoga isn’t competitive; that you go at your own pace and only as far as your body will allow. Which is all very well when it comes to measuring how long you can stand in tree pose, or how deep is your downward dog, but when it comes to yoga gear, that’s a whole other matter. That pair of baggy black leggings won’t cut the mustard at a yoga class when all those around you are in close-fitting, snazzily patterned yoga pants made of technical fibres. Not only will your faithful leggings make you feel like a lesser being, but they will affect your yoga practice.…

Be active Climb a hill. Or go for a walk or run. Simply stepping outside will have a positive impact. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good, so discover which physical activity you most enjoy and that works for your level of fitness. Connect Gather friends. Spend time and share good food with those around you. Think of home, work and your local community as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing relationships there. These connections will support and enrich you every day. Keep learning Make a campfire. Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set…

First cuppa of the day and what are you doing?  I’m an early riser so my first cuppa is usually a strong coffee. I’m up and out with my border terriers, Lily and Lulu, for a walk on Hampstead Heath when it starts to get light in the mornings. My home is close to the Heath so it feels like the middle of the countryside. And then what’s next in your morning routine? I’m the founder and CEO of Lily’s Kitchen and we make natural food and treats for dogs and cats. It’s a ten-minute walk with my dogs, who both come to the office with me. In the mornings, I tend to look at new designs and go through new recipes. It’s good to do this first thing when…

Four Cormorants, One Swan Helen Dunmore The Swans go up with slow wing-beats That strike off from the surface of the water. Even the most absorbed games-player Deep in his mobile, looks up at the clatter Of six swans’ wings After the swans have patrolled the harbour They settle singly. One drifts with the current To the house-boat window that always opens, Another sails towards two cormorants Hanging out their wings And two coosing, or fishing In the shallows beside the jetty. Now the whole afternoon hangs In the balance between four cormorants And a single swan, approaching The first cormorant pratfalls from its perch In an ungainly bundle of wings Or so it seems. But no, it is flying Arrowlike to a fish a hundred yards off. A lover could…

Although a relatively recent invention (see ‘The history of the t-shirt’, over page), t-shirts are ubiquitous in our wardrobes. They’ve also got a unique status in what we expect of them – not only look good and be comfortable but quite often to indicate something more – our interests, perhaps, or our personal beliefs. As a new exhibition celebrates their power to subvert, we look at some of the things that wearing a t-shirt have said about us. “It was understood t-shirts transformed their wearers into walking billboards” THE CAMPAIGNING TEE Even in the t-shirt’s earliest years, it was understood that they transformed their wearers into walking billboards. The Wizard of Oz made a bigger contribution to fashion than ruby slippers, with the first promotional t-shirts said to be produced…

Succulents We’ve all bought succulents expecting them to be a breeze to look after, only to find they bolt or simply perish. “Most succulents are killed from over-watering,” says Alice Howard of Botanique Workshop, artisan store and flower shop. “Wait until the soil is completely dry, then water. They need constant light to prevent straggliness.” Hang them in a pretty planter, like these, to keep them in your eyeline for daily pleasure and monitoring.…

When the sun comes out, people go shopping. It’s an impulse that is also connected with gardening: plants in catalogues and garden centres are fresh and cheerful while the view out of the kitchen window is dreary beyond endurance. It’s wonderful to get out and embrace the new season; filling a window box with violets or bulbs is a celebration of the spring equinox. But don’t rush into buying anything else. When it comes to shopping, gardeners divide into two camps: the rash and the wise. Wise gardeners never buy on impulse: instead they think about the structure of their garden and its green architecture. In other words, shrubs and trees. Flowers are the details that come later. Visiting successful gardens is more enlightening than visiting a garden centre; good…

MAKER OF THE MONTH Beth Kendall turns pressed wildflowers into art Beth Kendall has turned a lifelong passion for pressing flowers into a business. She picks wildflowers on walks in Dorset with her young son, then hand-picks the petals and presses them individually. The results are pressed wildflower artwork, giclée photography prints (from £30) and cards, which she sells through her company Wilder & Wren on Etsy. You can also find Beth on Instagram, @wilderandwren, where she posts snippets of current projects including an alphabet of pressed and wildflower giclée prints. LOST VOICES Solitary nature walks become increasingly quiet for Neil Ansell in The Last Wilderness Neil Ansell loves solitary walks in wild places: “where possible I like to break my own path, find my own route”. Here he heads…

WHAT WILL OUR FINAL PATCH LOOK LIKE? This is your chance to come up with a colour design, in a style appropriate to the series, on the theme of GIVE. We’ll make our favourite into a real sew-on patch and give all the profits to charity. The winning designer will receive a VIP glamping festival package with The Good Life Experience. THE PRIZE The designer behind our winning patch will win four tickets to the Good Life Experience, including camping accommodation and tickets to The Simple Things’ Picnic Feast. It’s a VIP package worth over £900. The Good Life Experience takes place from 14–16 September on the Hawarden Estate (thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk). It involves surprising music, wild swimming, foraging and campfire cooking. Children and dogs welcome! HOW TO ENTER You can draw…

3 Caged Battery cages were banned across the EU in 2012, so most eggs now come from hens that spend their lives in enriched cages. These house 20 to 100 birds, allowing them space to move around and stretch their wings. 1 Free range The birds live in large sheds but have permanent access to an outdoor range (but not necessarily much grass). Pastured eggs A US trend on its way to Britain. Mobile henhouses are used to move free-range birds regularly to new pasture. Eating fresh grass and bugs gives them deeper yellow yolks that are higher in beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids. 2 Barn From chickens housed in large sheds with room for them to move around, stretch, perch and dust-bathe. 0 Organic Have easy access to pasture, are…

LEMON & EARL GREY LOAF CAKES Makes 6 cakes 1 earl grey tea bag (or 1 tsp loose leaf earl grey) 120g golden caster sugar or demerara sugar ½ yellow courgette, grated ¼ swede, peeled and grated 15g lemon juice Finely grated zest of 2 lemons 2 eggs 40g rapeseed oil 75g ground almonds 90g rice flour 1½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda ¼ tsp xanthan gum (optional)* Coconut oil, for greasing FOR THE ICING 120g golden icing sugar Juice of ¼ lemon 25g (2 tbsp) strongly brewed earl grey tea 1 tsp loose earl grey tea (from tea bags or loose leaf) Blue cornflowers (optional) 1 Empty the contents of the tea bag into a bowl with the sugar, cover and infuse for a few hours…

From the earliest pagan sites to modern urban cemeteries, burial grounds have always enjoyed a sacred, protected status. However, graveyards only became truly significant once they began to be enclosed and isolated – insulated – from the surrounding area. From a wildlife perspective, it is those that have been continuously enclosed for many centuries that are of the greatest interest. In Britain, since the Reformation, there has been no consistent tradition of re-using graves as in many other European countries, so helping to ensure the graveyard stays undisturbed. As populations grew, many churchyards were closed for new burials, their ancient graves rarely visited. While the church itself may have been in regular use, the burial ground was often neglected and, unlike a garden, no one added fertiliser to ‘improve’ the…

Pisces 19 February – 20 March ★ A positive new chapter begins as a New Moon falls in your sign in March, followed by Uranus moving into your mind zone in May. Now is the time to invite change. It is also probable that something in your life is ripe for healing and perhaps that ‘something’ is you. Pisces has a tendency towards feeling guilty, and this can hold you back. Try being a bit more loving and compassionate with yourself, as this will work wonders and enable your true spirit to take flight. As Goethe, German poet and author once said: “Magic is believing in yourself; if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” Aries 21 March – 20 April ★“Life isn’t a business to be managed,…

Returning to live where you grew up is something many of us consider, especially if the intervening years were spent living in London. As property prices grow out of reach, and children are born, the home town we once escaped from starts to become ever more attractive. Camilla Westergaard grew up in Sheffield but, after university, work drew her to London. She loved city life, but raising children in Hackney became less appealing as time went on. “I loved that when the children were studying dinosaurs, we could go to the Natural History Museum,” she says, “but we always knew we wanted our children to grow up with a slower pace of life.” So Camilla went back home to Sheffield and, with her husband Brendon and their three children (Kaspar,…

One of the bonuses of the winter months is that dirt, dust and general scruffiness can be ignored. As we spend the long, dark nights hibernating, cosied up in an armchair with the curtains drawn, cobwebs gather in corners, dust layers shelves, fingerprints appear on woodwork, sofas accumulate crisps, loose change and pet hair. Although we know all of this is going on, it’s easy to overlook, and even easier to doing nothing about it. But with the first blast of spring sunshine through a smeary window, everything looks different. All of winter’s neglect is exposed. Suddenly grubbiness won’t do. There’s nothing for it but to dig out the duster, pull the furniture away from the walls and fill a bucket with hot soapy water. It is time to Spring…

Aloe Vera Only with the splitting open of a mature capsule can we say ’aloe to the small winged seeds of this soothing succulent. King Protea Large, hairy nuts that are adapted to grow back after a fire – this South African plant is more like a phoenix than a king… Earleaf Acacia Each shiny black seed of this evergreen Aussie tree has an orange-yellow appendage from which they dangle. Ceylon Olive The seeds of this Indian evergreen tree are the jewels in its crown – literally – as they’re used as decorative beads. Cotton Called bolls, cotton seeds are found within the plant’s fibres. Native to the Americas – now found worldwide. Lipstick tree Mayans used the red dyes from this tree’s seeds as body paint, ink and colouring.…

NETTLE & SEED CRACKERS These crunchy, tasty crackers are great for dipping, loading with toppings or just eating alone Makes 16–20 crackers 50g sesame seeds 50g linseeds 80g sunflower seeds 80g pumpkin seeds 20g chia seeds 50g buckwheat flour 2 large tbsp dried or fresh nettle tops (blanched)*, plus extra to scatter Pinch of xantham gum 3½ tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil or good olive oil 150ml boiling water ¼ tsp salt Flaky sea salt, to taste 1 Preheat oven to 150C/Fan 130C/Gas 2. Take two baking sheets and line with baking parchment. Add all the ingredients (apart from the sea salt and extra nettles) to a bowl and stir well. 2 Split the mixture in half and place one half on each lined baking sheet. Place another piece of…

We love a patch, here at The Simple Things; from the ones we used to collect on seaside holidays as children, to the witty and wise modern versions of today. What could we put on a set of patches, we wondered, that would truly reflect what The Simple Things is all about? The answer was, well, simple: things that make us happy. We’ve produced four patches – if they’re your cup of tea, you can buy one, two, three or the whole set at icebergpress.co.uk/shop. We think of The Simple Things as a handbook for happiness, and in each issue we share ideas and inspiration that help us to connect with the people around us, to be active and get outdoors, to take notice and be curious, to keep learning…

We’ve come a long way from ‘milk and two sugars’… Tea drinking in the UK is as varied a part of our lives as the food we eat and the clothes we wear – from builder’s tea to herbal, to chai, loose leaf or bagged. As a response to tea drinkers’ growing interest in health and wellness, Tea India has created a new range of ayurvedic blends. Caffeine-free and delicious, each blend has been created to meet different needs and suit different doshas, with a little help from ayurvedic health practitioner Geeta Vara. MEET THE BLENDS • Peace & Calm A soothing cuppa for the sleep deprived, this blend of camomile, peppermint, fennel, coriander and rose petal is an ideal bedtime tonic, best suited to those with a pitta dosha.…

* There’s no better way to get to the heart of a city than through the people who live there. Every month, we ask someone, clearly in love with their city, to take us on a personal tour and tell us what makes it so special. You may feel inspired to visit one day or to rediscover the charms of a city closer to you, but for now just sit back, relax and enjoy some armchair travel. How long have you lived in the city? I was born in Istanbul and have lived in many different parts of the city. I started on the Anatolian side where I lived with my family until I graduated and have moved all around but now my husband and I have settled in Nişantaşı,…

Northern School of SoundSmiths Martyn Cawthorne holds gong baths in and around Manchester and Cheshire; northernschoolofsoundsmiths.co.uk. London Gong Gong Master Odette holds Friday gong baths in North London and will also bring her gong to your home or workplace; londongong.co.uk. Sound Camp 2018, 6-8 July: three days of sound- and movement-related activities in Devon, including an all-night, 12-hour sound bath; sound-gong-bath.co.uk . College of Sound Healing Holds gong practitioner training and has a useful nationwide directory of sound-healing groups, including drumming, gongs and voice; collegeofsoundhealing.co.uk. Carly Grace uses the voice and crystal singing bowls at retreats and sound-healing concerts; carly-grace.com. Jill Purce holds workshops in overtone chanting and sonorous dream work from her base in London, and one-day events in Somerset; healingvoice.com If you can’t get to a workshop, listen…

Whether woodland path or urban street, keeping an eye out for stray feathers as you move about is one way to stay alert to nature during daily life. This project by Emma Mitchell (@silverpebble2) shows how making a simple sketch is a way to gain an even greater appreciation of your finds. As Emma says, “On close examination every feather is beautiful.” Each feather is made of a central shaft, or rachis (say ‘raykiss’), edged on both sides by delicate fibres known as barbs. These have microscopic hooks that interlock to ensure that the feather is able to push air downwards and create lift effectively. Emma describes them as “small pieces of natural engineering. Each one you find has been partly responsible for innumerable flights, which is rather humbling.” This…

POITÍN This Irish spirit is made from potatoes or barley, originally distilled in a small pot, over peat fires. It’s got a long history, and was banned for a good deal of it, thanks to a typical ABV rate of around 95%. On legalisation in 1997, it became much less potent, and presumably much nicer, with flavours ranging from the earthy and savoury to the fresh and grassy. SERVING NOTES: Serve neat, over ice. Or you could try with a mixer such as cola, lemonade or soda.…

While on one hand bi-annual publication Ernest is a travel magazine, encouraging you to set out for remote islands and the lesser-trampled wilderness, it’s also packed full of eccentric histories – the kind of knowledge gleaned from old books, musty museums and old-fashioned enthusiasts, rather than the internet. In a compact and chunky format, it’s ready to slip into a bag to provide pleasurable diversions en route to wherever you might be heading. £10, ernestjournal.co.uk THE NUMBER on every Heinz product. It came from Henry J Heinz’s 1896 slogan: “57 pickle varieties”. In fact, they had more than 60 products, but five was Henry’s lucky number and seven his wife’s. Today, Heinz products number 5,700!…