Table of contents for August 2021 in The Simple Things

Morning! How early do you get the first cuppa in? The minute my husband leaves to take our kids to nursery I exhale and make a cappuccino in a vintage mug. I’ve turned the spare room of our new house into a studio – so the commute is just across the landing! Tell us a bit about your work. I run an online store, selling vintage and contemporary homewares. After being made redundant, I decided to work for myself and do something I love. In the mornings, I take photos of ‘new’ pieces or I might set out early on a sourcing mission. I love it when people buy something from me and it gets a new lease of life. Elevenses – how particular are you? I’ll drink tea or…

Language barrier Try and speak to Alexa in any African language and she won’t understand you. In fact, none of the main speech platforms will, something Mozilla’s Common Voice project is setting right. The aim is to ensure that voice activation technology works in all 7,100 languages spoken round the world. It’s a vital step in making technology accessible to everyone. Gene genie For children born with a rare condition leaving them with no immune system, life expectancy is short. But research at Great Ormond Street and UCLA has found breakthrough gene therapy. It was successful for 48 out of 50 of the children given the treatment, giving hope for a cure. Flower power Looking for a more sustainable source of rubber, tyre maker Continental turned to the history books.…

1987 Jessamyn Stanley is born in Durham, North Carolina 2003 Tries yoga for the first time 2003 Comes out as queer 2015 Completes yoga teacher training at the Asheville Yoga Center in North Carolina 2017 First book, Every Body Yoga: Let Go Of Fear, Get On The Mat, Learn To Love Your Body published 2018 Reaches 350,000 followers on Instagram 2019 Launches wellness company and yoga app The Underbelly, created to act as a home for ‘wellness misfits’ 2020 Begins co-hosting lifestyle and relationship podcast Dear Jessamyn, aiming to ‘go beyond coconut water and destination retreats’ 2021 New book Yoke: My Yoga Of Self-Acceptance (Workman) is published…

Deborah Smith, Positive Psychologist and author of Grow Your Own Happiness: How to Harness the Science of Wellbeing for Life (Aster), has some ideas for good memory making, not just in the moment but also in retrospect. • Take pictures, but not too many. Being in the moment and enjoying it makes better memories than trying to hold onto it so tightly. • Looking at pictures is a powerful way to retrieve memories, but it can also influence you by oversimplifying things. If you’re looking at a photo of a childhood birthday where you’re sitting alone, it could make you feel like you didn’t have friends. Remain open to other possibilities, maybe speak to someone who was there, and your perception might change. • Consider a gratitude journal – simply…

Looking for an evocative idyll of the Edwardian seaside holiday? Then look no further than the family photograph albums of John Hassall, whose illustrations and poster art is currently being celebrated with a new exhibition and book. Many of the photographs of him and his five children depict them enjoying the wholesome delights of various British beaches during the 1900s; at Runton in Norfolk, at Worthing in Sussex, and at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex. Hassall is pictured with trousers rolled up for paddling, or in his Captain Webb-style striped bathing suit, giving his children piggy backs or hoisting the littlest ones aloft on his shoulders. There are pictures of magnificent sandcastles, and others showing Hassall with his stick searching for prehistoric flints. Through 21st-century eyes, these are the kind of holidays…

LETTUCE If you grow only one thing, let it be lettuce. There is no vegetable more obliging, more straightforward, more gratifying than a homegrown salad leaf. They offer infinite joy from infinitesimal effort. Salad leaves, and this applies to everything from icebergs to Italian baby leaf mixes, can be grown anywhere. They’re successful in pots, in almost any conditions. A windowsill, sunny or shaded, can be transformed into a miniature woodland canopied with green. An old ice-cream tub can become a seed tray. A bucket can produce copious bowlfuls of leaves for every night of the week. Sow the seeds into damp compost any time between March and late-September (depending on the variety and the weather). The seeds come in bags of 400–800, so must contain the potential for more…

Familiar domestic objects can be potent totems of family history, often forgotten but powerful when reawakened. So it was with a capacious, ceramic earthenware soup bowl my husband and I had bought on an adventure-filled trip to Marrakesh in Morocco. Ours is a long marriage; we will celebrate 33 years this year and, at some point, maybe 15 years ago we left our four children with my parents and headed for the casbah. Long marriages often have their fallow periods, when love lies dormant. Juggling busy working lives with raising a family, and no grandparents nearby can be tough. My husband is from the Ivory Coast, in West Africa, so there were no doting aunties to give us a helping hand. We were always in our marriage for the long…

How do you spot a modern mermaid? There’s the tail, of course, and – in the case of Laura Evans, St Ives’ resident mermaid – there’s also her turquoise eyebrows and playful smile. And it’s also something of a mindset. “You know how some people feel they missed their Hogwarts letter?” she says. “Well, I feel like that; somehow I didn’t get a tail when I was young, but I believed I was a mermaid nonetheless!” Sitting in the evening sun at her favourite swim spot, dangling her feet in the clear water of the tidal pool and sipping tea, that doesn’t seem out of the question. INAWORLD THAT CAN FEEL INCREASINGLY UNIFORM , WE’RE CELEBRATING THOSE HAPPILY DOING THINGS a bit differently. Meet the PEOPLE WHO ARE seriously PA…

Favourite shop PEERIE SHOP Owner, Emma Gibson, works with designers to create unique products that reflect Shetland.peerieshop.co.uk Favourite galleries SHETLAND GALLERY For the best of Shetland artists and artisans, venture north to the Shetland Gallery in Yell.shetlandgallery.com VAILA FINE ART This beautiful gallery sells contemporary local art.vailafineart.co.uk Favourite café PEERIE SHOP CAFÉ This place makes the best soup in town. They do delicious Cullen Skink and Reestit Mutton soup – local delicacies.peerieshop.co.uk Favourite restaurant THE DOWRY A Scandinavian-inspired interior and a Nordic twist to the menu. The bar is great for a dram of Scottish single malt.thedowry.co.uk Favourite market ISLAND LARDER The place to buy local produce, plus they have an excellent refill station for cereals, grains and spices.islandlarder.co.uk Favourite hotel BURRASTOW HOUSE An 18th-century house set in a remote…

“It’s a fabric of comfort: Dorothy’s apron; happy days on picnic blankets” Gingham always reminds me of my summer school uniform: the summer school uniform I never wore. A gingham buttoned dress was the official summer dress, but the unofficial sartorial code dictated what we should wear for summer were the skirts we’d worn all winter. Sunnier days were spent with heavy, pleated skirts hoiked up as high as we could get away with, rather than enjoying the easy, light benefits of gingham. But if I could rifle through the wardrobe of the unofficial fashion arbiters today, things might look a bit different – a flick through Instagram or a mooch around the shops reveals that I’m not the only one with a bit of a gingham infatuation. In a…

DARK AND STORMY This refreshing punch is hailed as the national drink of Bermuda Serves 4 250ml Goslings Black Seal rum, or similar Ginger beer (see below) Crushed ice Lime wedges, to serve Chili flakes, to serve (optional) 1 Chill your glasses and, when cold, fill with crushed ice. Pour 60ml of rum into each glass and top with ginger beer. 2 Finish each glass with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of chili flakes. OLD-FASHIONED GINGER BEER For a zestier kick to your cocktail – or as a non-alcoholic option – make your own fiery ginger beer Makes 2ltr 2 x 11.5cm pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped 175g caster sugar Zest and juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp active dry yeast Sterilised glass bottles with…

Flowerpot garlic breads You don’t need green fingers to make these individual garlic breads with a hint of rosemary. No need to tear and share, either, you can have one all to yourself! Flowerpot garlic bread Makes 6 small flowerpots or 2 loaves 600g white strong/bread flour, plus extra for dusting 10g chopped fresh rosemary 12g salt 400ml water, warm 12g fresh yeast (or 6g dried yeast) 80g fresh garlic, finely sliced Butter, for greasing the pots Semolina or polenta, for coating the flowerpots Olive oil, for painting the surface Few sprigs of rosemary, for decoration 6 small terracotta flowerpots or 2 x 500g loaf tins 1 In a small mixing bowl, add the flour, rosemary and salt. Mix with your fingers and set aside. 2 Pour ¾ of the…

Congested Cornish lanes and queues up the Lake District fells are not what we dream of when planning our summer holidays. The UK is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe and with most foreign holidays still off limits, our countryside and coastal resorts are going to be super busy through until autumn. But even the most popular holiday destinations have their secret hideaways and wild places if you know where to look – and are prepared to walk a little way. Scotland has so much more space it’s easier to escape the crowds, so we’ve explored the lesser-known corners of some of England and Wales’s most popular holiday hotspots to suggest inspiring ideas for finding your own piece of peace. » BRIGHTON, EAST SUSSEX Despite the proximity…

Light reflecting off the water, making rippling patterns across the ceiling, ducklings paddling past in search of their mum, swifts swooping across the canal, all makes waking up on a narrowboat something quite special. Sitting on the edge of the tow path, as their dog Oatly seeks out a spot of shade to laze in, Peter and Emily Francis can’t get over how lucky they are to have their own tiny home – their 42ft narrowboat, currently moored up next to a nature reserve on the outskirts of Birmingham. However, when they picked up the boat (now named Navah) after buying it on Facebook in February 2020 it was almost a very different story. Not only did they need to rip out the entire interior and make urgent adjustments to…

Maker of the Month Sustainable stationery Created by Jess Howard, Matere is a stationery brand that beautifully combines simplicity and functionality. Highlights from her debut collection include a varied range of layflat notebooks, abstract line wall prints, created using Suni ink, and a set of functional yet pretty notepads. Products are as sustainable as they are beautiful, formed using waste materials such as recycled coffee cups, spent brewer’s yeast and leather off-cuts retrieved from tanneries. A designer worth making a note of.materestudio.com Rainbow hunters The World According to Colour: A Cultural History by James Fox For James Fox colour makes everything worth looking at; the most banal sight becomes beautiful as he considers tone and shade and vibrancy of the object or scene he is viewing. Saturated with meaning and…

Love Snoopy We're Peanutty about this tea towel. Snoopy has been in the world since 1950, so it's only fitting that he'd eventually make it to our kitchens, too, along with his pal Woodstock. £8, from ToDryFor.com MATCH BOXES PUZZLE While we’re all familiar with the equals sign, it’s nice to have a bit of wiggle room. Enter this handy symbol. In maths, it means ‘approximately equal to’. “In summer, the song sings itself”William Carlos Williams The PRACTICAL, the PLAYFUL and the SILLY Three ways duct tape makes things a wrap PRACTICAL: tweezers not doing the job of getting a splinter out? Clean the area, wrap with duct tape and leave for 30 mins. When the tape comes off, the…

Coconut flour makes this classic sponge super soft – it’s a great summer cake for sharing COCONUT LAYER CAKE  Serves 8 - 12 150g Doves Farm Organic Coconut Flour 2 tbsp baking powder 150g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing 150g caster sugar Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated 6 eggs FOR THE BUTTERCREAM: 75g butter 75g cream cheese, softened 150g icing sugar 2 tbsp coconut flakes 1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4 and grease three 18cm loose-bottomed cake tins. 2 Mix the coconut flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the zest and beat to combine. 3 Break 3 of the eggs into the bowl,…

Feed your curiosity The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher (Daunt Books) “Our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others,” so says the irrepressible Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, American food writer and founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library, as she marries meals to memories in this delicious, celebratory book about food, loss, love, and appetites. It opens in 1912 with four-year-old MFK entranced by the joys of jams, and ends in 1941, with our twice-married heroine fully alive to the allure of oysters, fine wine and other epicurean delights. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Picador) This indie rock star’s (she heads the band Japanese Breakfast) exquisitely beautiful…

The way their heads mechanically twist and tip and little wings twitch in short, sharp, flicks, they appear more automaton birds than birds. A line of clockwork, tin-plate, junk shop things. Dusty, backroom Fifties novelties discovered by chance in a box on a shelf, brought down and arranged on the wall outside; that, against the odds, were found to work when wound a rusty half-turn. Now, keyed back to life, they jolt and jerk in August sun, repeating that familiar squeak of something just needing a little love and a drop of oil after too long forgotten: cheep, cheep, cheep. About the author: In the midst of the pandemic, acclaimed nature writer Rob Cowen began a careful, attentive observation of nature. His poems, alive with spider webs, swooping swallows and…

The dress that always accompanies you on summer holidays. The jacket that belonged to a loved one. The top that reminds you of your first feeling of freedom: there are stories in all of our clothes and, chances are, the more we love them, the more stories they’ll have to tell. Even so, we can be guilty of casting them aside when they’ve become worn and damaged with age. The art of repair, championed by Molly Martin, is an antidote to that attitude, a slow, considered act that treats these items with the love and respect that they deserve. Molly is an illustrator, artist and textile repairer, based in south London. Her advocacy for repair began when she tackled the holes in a favourite pair of socks, and gradually she…

Memories are a mysterious thing. Sometimes it’s as if they exist outside of our minds, waiting for us to stumble upon them. A little thing can trigger a memory, causing it – and all the associated feelings – to come flooding back. For example, the smell of tar instantly brings to mind my late grandfather, clear as day in his blue overalls. Play a song you loved at 17 and wait for the flood of teen feelings – it’s as if all those memories were stored in that one track. Other memories will be forever associated with a time of year, which is how every autumn, years after leaving school, you might get an urge to buy new stationery and shoes. Chris Bird, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University of…

• Keeping the walls light and bright makes it feel more spacious. It lends itself to the ‘70s boho style we wanted, too. • Avoid clutter – select items to have on display and hide the rest away. A boat can get very messy very quickly, so use all the hidden space available. • Painting the outside is as important as the inside, but you don’t have to go traditional if you don’t want to. • Search Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace for bargains. Buying second-hand meant we could get things like our canoe, butler’s sink and most of the fixtures and fittings, that we could never have afforded new. See more of Peter and Emily’s style on Instagram @littlefloatinghome.…

“This spot is my happy place, it’s where I go to wind down and have a quiet moment to myself. “This is our private oasis. We moved in last year and have been benefitting from the planting the previous owners did, which has meant lots of surprises as the plants bloom. The mature trees bring birdsong and our pond encourages frogs, dragonflies and birds.”Sarah and Amy, Nottingham @through_the_hedge “Despite being next to a road I sometimes forget I’m in the centre of a city. When I sit surrounded by plants it makes me calm and proud of putting it together on a tiny budget.”Sophia Kostich, London @diydoctorat49 “This area was only used by our pet pigs until this year. We cleared and levelled it and, because we live on top…

There’s an unhurried pleasure in visiting a part of the country where there are no particular ‘must sees’ or ‘have to dos’. The Blackdown Hills, where Somerset meets Devon, near Ilminster, are just such a place. Staying in a Shepherd’s hut (albeit with every modern convenience) only adds to the bucolic bliss and a longing to idle away the hours. Regular readers will recognise the beautiful huts at Dimpsey Glamping as those of The Simple Things advertiser and supporter, Blackdown Shepherd Huts and, in fact, their owner Emma was the company’s first customer back in 2011; two years ago, she added the double size ‘brace’ hut that we stayed in. It’s just a few miles from where these expertly handcrafted huts are made, so it’s very tempting should you like…

Magnum Hygge, cool furniture, Lego: we can also thank the Danes for Magnums. Voted Britain’s favourite lolly, it’s all about that chocolate crack. Zoom Just one look and our heart went boom, at this rocket-shaped lolly, first released in 1963 on the back of the popularity of Thunderbirds. Minimilk While punk raged, Wall's launched something more wholesome: flavoured milk lollies. Although mini, our love remains at a max. Twister Let’s twist again like we did last summer, and like we’ve been doing since 1982. Get your tongue around pineapple, lime and strawberry. Fab Another Thunderbirds-inspired confection, lifting off in 1967 with Lady Penelope-worthy pink, sugar and strawberry. F-A-B, indeed. Solero 1990s sophistication saw fruit sorbet coming to the lollyscape. Less sophisticated are the flavour names – 'Berry Berry’ or ‘Exotic’,…

The hotel was a jumble of ancient sun-baked buildings in the steepest part of the hilltop town and its entrance was typically discreet. Unless you knew, Rachel thought, you could pass the plain wooden door, the hand-painted sign, and walk on, thinking instead about the lavender and soaps at the market or, likely, a long, cold drink. If you did know, the door was a portal. She’d first seen the hotel in a magazine left at the café where she’d waitressed the summer after GCSEs. She’d looked at the pictures and felt the strange hum in her chest that said here was something that would matter. There’d been other articles since, a French coffee-table book that Tom found online and a truly epic Pinterest board, but those first pictures, carefully…