Photography: Alamy
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.
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Dream | June cover reveal
Dare to dream and who knows where it could lead you. Midsummer garden nights are alive with magical possibilities. Lights twinkling in trees, maybe a glass of something, old friends for sure, and a golden hour at hand. But, though we can create a space for for magic, only you can make it happen. And it comes in many forms; helping nature to return after a long absence, breathing life into an old cinema; weaving words to tell the shortest of stories. It’s there in your imagination, just waiting to be set free.
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The Titanic in dry dock c 1911. From Ocean Liners at the V&A until 17 June (Getty Images)
The Titanic | A liner to remember
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is one of the world’s most famous tragedies, with the loss of around 1,500 lives. “As the first major international disaster in peacetime, it generated a huge interest,” says Eric Kentley, co-curator of ‘Titanic Stories’ at National Maritime Museum, Cornwall. “Not just in America, Britain and Ireland, but also in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. No area seemed to be untouched.” But it continues to fascinate.
As Kentley points out, “Few people have heard about the Doña Paz or the Wilhelm Gustloff, which are far worse tragedies.” The reason, he thinks, is “partly because it is so rich in stories.” He explains: “In the two hours 40 minutes it took for the ship to sink, you can see every type of human behaviour – self-sacrifice, self-preservation, bravery, cowardice, duty, incompetence... It’s very easy to imagine ourselves on the deck of that ship and wonder how we would behave.”
Some positives did emerge from the disaster, however, such as a re-examination of safety measures at sea. And, for the QE2, a perhaps surprising surge in bookings following the release of the James Cameron film.
‘Ocean Liners: Speed and Style’, sponsored by Viking Cruises, is at the V&A until 17 June, and opens at the Dundee V&A on 15 September. ‘Titanic Stories' is at National Maritime Museum, Cornwall until 7 January 2019.
Turn to page 86 of May's The Simple Things for more on our look back at ocean liners.
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Photography: SARAH CUTTLE Recipes & advice: KIM WALKER & VICKY CHOWN
Elderflower toner
The scented cream blooms of elderflowers have been used by women since time immemorial – in infusions to soften the skin and even out tone. The addition of glycerine gives a moisturising effect, leaving the skin silky smooth.
Makes around 200ml
1 head of fresh elderflowers (or 2 tsp dried)
200ml boiling water
5ml glycerine (optional)
1 Remove the stalks from the elderflowers (if using fresh) and put the tiny flowers in a mug or heatproof bowl.
2 Pour over boiling water, then cover with a plate and leave to infuse until cool.
3 Strain out the elderflowers, then add the glycerine (if using) to the liquid and mix well.
4 To use, soak cotton pads or a muslin cloth in the liquid and use as a toner or simple cleanser, once make-up has been removed. Use twice a day. The liquid will keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Turn to page 34 of May's The Simple Things for more on spring hedgerow foraging.
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The bizarre art of vegetable carving
Some people insist that a contest fashioning vegetables into weird and wonderful shapes is child’s play. Others, for shame, feel it is a “novelty”. Tell that to the competitor at last year’s Lambeth Country Show who fashioned her veg into a wan woman carrying a basket of greens while clad in shapeless red robe and big white bonnet, and called the entry ‘The Handmaid’s Kale’. She was no uniquely skilled chard chiseller, but a solitary example of a nationwide craft. Walk past the vegetable-carving tent of your local village show and you’re likely missing some of the most inspired work on site.
Turn to page 68 of May's The Simple Things for more of our country show feature.
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Exploring Wales and the West Country by bike
Spring is the time to explore Wales and the West Country - regions that are especially beautiful when explored by bike, says cyclist and author Jack Thurston
"There was a time when I would cycle to Cornwall every summer from my home in London, to join friends in a holiday cottage on the beach. Each year I took a slightly different route, staying overnight with people I knew along the way, or just sleeping out in the open. It usually took me four full days. By train it’s just a few hours. My average speed on those summer rides was about 12 miles an hour, which sounds slow but by historical standards, the bicycle is actually pretty quick. It’s four times walking pace and double the speed of a horse-drawn carriage.
"The bicycle, and only the bicycle, combines speed, efficiency and freedom with a total immersion in the world around us. Riding through the sun, the wind and the rain, every sight, sound and smell is as vivid and immediate as it can be. Cyclists experience the landscape with a detail and definition that is just a blur when travelling by car or train. As Ernest Hemingway puts it, “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.”
Jack Thurston is author of Lost Lanes West and Lost Lanes Wales (Wild Things Publishing)
Turn to page 79 of May's The Simple Things for more of Jack's springtime cycling advice.
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Competition | Win a balloon flight for two with British Balloon Flights
The winner and a friend will be taking off from Knepp Castle, flying over the wonderful West Sussex countryside. Knepp is a 3,500-acre estate, now rewilded and home to some surprising wildlife. While your balloon is being prepared, take in your surroundings with drinks, nuts and nibbles. After a memorable flight, as the sun melts into the west, you’ll get the chance to toast your landing with English sparkling wine. Photos from your flight and a commemorative certificate will help keep some
very special memories fresh.
Terms & conditions:
The competition closes at 11.59pm on 11 July 2018. A winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries after this time and notified shortly after. This is the prize: a flight for two from Knepp Castle, conditions permitting, over the Sussex countryside, including pre-flight refreshments and sparkling wine afterwards, return transfers from the local train station (if needed); prize excludes travel costs. You can’t swap it for cash or transfer the prize; you must be over 18, taller than 4ft6, and you have until 30 June 2019 to take your flight. Full terms and conditions are at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.
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Photography: CHRIS MIDDLETON Project: BECI ORPIN
Make | Macramé chair
Crochet and outdoor chairs are not the most obvious combination but put the two together and you have a nifty upcycling opportunity.
Have an old chair lurking in the shed, seat worn from many summers? This project uses a crochet knot to create a new seat and back from paracord. It may sound complicated but is actually relatively simple once you’ve got into the groove (if you need some extra help along the way, find handy video tutorials by searching ‘macramé chair tutorial’ on YouTube). Then sit back and admire your work, hopefully with a refreshing drink in hand.
Macramé chair
Knot your way to a new summer seat
you will need
Scissors
Unloved aluminium camping chair
200m of 4mm rope (such as nylon paracord): 100m white, 50m grey, 25m yellow, 25m pink.
2 x size Q crochet hooks
Macramé chair template
Lighter or box of matches
1 Using scissors, cut and then pull off the existing webbing from the chair.
2 Create a skein from a long, thin piece of card or plastic. Wrap your cord around it and unwind it as you go. Start with the vertical cords. Using the white cord and starting from the bottom left of the chair, tie a double knot around the frame.
3 Pull the cord through the seat of the chair, behind the centre back brace bar and up to the top left side of the frame. Make a loop in the cord at the top bar. Pull the loop behind and then under the bar and over to the left.
4 Insert your first crochet hook in the loop, with the hook pointing towards the right side of the chair and pull the cord tight so the hook rests against the chair frame. Bring the cord back down under the centre back brace bar to the front.
5 Create a loop in the cord on the bottom chair frame, then pull it over the front of the bar and behind to the left.
6 Insert the second crochet hook into the loop and pull the cord taut. The hook will rest on the chair frame.
7 Pull the cord through the seat of the chair, behind the centre back brace bar and up to the top frame. Make a loop in the cord at the top bar. Pull the loop behind and under the bar and to the left of the last vertical cords you created.
8 Hook the new loop over the crochet hook. The existing loop on the hook will overlap the two vertical cords to its right.
9 Pull the loop taut, then pull it through the loop you made in step 3. This will create a chain stitch. Rest the hook in the loop.
10 Pull the loose cord down behind the centre back brace bar and to the front. Create a loop, then pull it over the topof the front bar.
11 Pull the loop around the top bar and to the left of the last vertical cords you created. Hook the new loop with the crochet hook.
12 Pull the new loop through the loop created in step 6, making a chain stitch. Pull the loose cord taut.
13 Repeat these steps until you have 40 knots and have filled the top and bottom bars with taut cord. Cut the cord off the skein, making sure you have about 11⁄4m left. Pull the cord through the last loop and remove the crochet hook. Pull the cord behind the back brace, over the front bar and through the loop on the other hook.
14 Horizontal cords: these are completed using the same method. Follow the template, starting with three knots of white followed by the grey cord to form a semi-circle pattern.
15 Continue with the pink cord to form the second half of the circle.16 Finish with three more knots using white cord. Repeat on the base of the chair, using the yellow and grey cords. To finish, simply tie off the cord. Burn the ends of the cords to ensure they do not fray.
Taken from Sunshine Spaces: Naturally Beautiful Projects to Make for Your Home and Outdoor Space by Beci Orpin (Hardie Grant).
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Photography: Susan Bell Recipe: Simon Stallard
Ewe’s cheese salad from The Hidden Hut
Inspired by his Cornish café’s coastal setting, chef and owner of the Hidden Hut, Simon Stallard, picks favourite summer dishes for morning, noon and night on page 38 of June’s The Simple Things.
Want to make the Ewe’s cheese salad to accompany the 12-hour lamb with smoky aubergine? Here’s the recipe.
Ewe’s cheese salad from The Hidden Hut
60g pumpkin seeds
160g bulgar wheat
4 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
80g mint leaves, roughly chopped
120g parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1.2kg watermelon flesh, chopped into 2.5cm cubes
350g ewe’s cheese or feta
Sumac, for sprinkling
1 Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry saucepan over a medium-high heat for 3 mins or until lightly browned, shaking the pan regularly. Put to one side.
2 Place the bulgar wheat in a small saucepan and just cover with water. Put a lid on and cook over a low heat for 8–10 mins until the water is absorbed and the grains are tender. Leave to cool completely.
3 Combine the lemon juice and oil in a small bowl and season well with salt and pepper.
4 In a large mixing bowl, combine the mint, parsley, onion and watermelon. Tip in the lemon juice dressing and toss everything to coat.
5 Transfer the salad to a large serving plate. Crumble the cheese over the top of the salad, then sprinkle over the toasted pumpkin seeds. Finish with a sprinkle of sumac.
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Listen | Music that makes us dance
“Dancing helps relieve the pain
Soothes your mind, makes you happy again”
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Growing | My year-round cut flower guide
It's not difficult to fill your house with something flowery all year long. It just takes a little planning and imagination.
On page 106 of May's The Simple Things, Francine Raymond shares her productive small garden in Kent, including this guide to a year-round cut flower guide.
January
Indoor bulbs planted in October come into their own. This is the time to enjoy narcissi, hyacinths, cymbidium orchids and amaryllis.
February
Flowering cherries, sweet box, daphne, helebores and mahonia are fragrant additions to the home. Pussy willow, hazel and birch twigs add interesting structure to any vase.
March
I snip branches of pear before the buds burst: the warmth of the house brings them into leaf and bud.
April
Time for tulips. I like to display them in a row of little glass bottles or bunched together in a crate.
May
One of my favourite plants, auriculas, flower now. They can be brought indoors and displayed on a windowsill out of direct sunlight.
June
Sweetpeas flower in abundance this month. I keep picking to ensure there are plenty of blooms.
July
Lavender is at its headiest now. Once bees have finished with the flowers, I clip off the stems and put them in a big basket.
August
Succulents are at their best in August. I put pots of sempervivums and sedums on the kitchen table.
September
Now is the time to forage hedgerows for berries to display. A few sloe branches and some rosehips add extra colour.
October
I grow pumpkins for decoration, then pile them high in the porch and festoon them with Virginia creeper.
November
I press the heart-shaped leaves of cercis between sheets of paper; and dry seedheads and flowers for festive decorations.
December
I take cardoon heads and little pumpkins and turn them into nightlight holders.
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Nest | Rosemarijn's style
Just because a house is old, it doesn’t have to look old-fashioned. Modern furniture and materials will bring it up-to-date.
- I love plywood and we used it extensively throughout the house to clad walls, and make furniture. It’s light, affordable and looks contemporary.
- All our walls are painted white because we wanted the house to be light and feel spacious. It also shows off the loveliness of the timber beams and natural materials.
- I don’t like a lot of clutter but I do like to have beautiful things, like classic pieces of furniture and art, around me. They lift my spirits.
Turn to page 98 of May's The Simple Things for more of Rosemarijn's tumble-down farmhouse.
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How to make a peg bag
Hanging out the washing is an unusual and surprising thing: a pleasurable household chore. If it’s a fresh morning and the sun is shining, the simple act of pegging clothes on a line before you can lift the spirits and blow away gloominess. As the days extend and there’s more likelihood of sun, it’s also a chance to get outdoors and away from everyone indoors. Doing something methodical provides the opportunity for a moment or two of peaceful reflection – just you, the breeze, a handful of pegs and some billowing sheets. The results are also worth it: the fresh, outdoor smell of line-dried laundry will have you burying your nose in the laundry basket and inhaling deeply. As a method of drying clothes, pegging out is 100% better than piling them in an energy-gobbling, clothes-battering tumble dryer, or heaping them on radiators and leaving them to steam.
Every washing line needs a bag full of pegs nearby for easy pegging out. How to cunningly create one from a child’s polo shirt.
Here’s a clever thing: peg bags are suspended from a hanger so, rather than create a new bag from scratch, why not use an item that is already the right shape and size? Buy a child’s polo shirt (the one above is £3.99, hm.com), or better still use one they have grown out of or no longer like. Turn it inside out, stitch the bottom of the shirt closed about half way down the length of the body, trim surplus fabric, and turn it the right way round. Insert a child’s hanger and fill with pegs. Job done.
Turn to page 111 of May's The Simple Things for more on pegging out.
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Find your natural strength
Treating resilience not as an innate quality, but as a skill to be practised and nurtured, allows you to make lemonade whenever life throws you lemons
The Finnish word sisu refers to a mix of courage, resilience, grit and ‘guts’. In her new book Sisu: The Finnish Art of Courage (Gaia), Joanna Nylund explains how the Finns’ close connection with the weather and nature has played a crucial role in forging the resilient nature of the people. “Living in Finland means living with sharp contrasts,” she says. “It is the extremes that rule our lives – from gritting our teeth and summoning our sisu at the approach of winter to celebrating the eagerly anticipated summer with a devotion to the sun that most closely resembles Celtic worship.”
After that long, hard winter, the Finns’ summer ritual is more about celebrating discomfort than luxury hotels or even glamping. In late June, the country collectively withdraws from everyday life and heads out into nature, spending a few weeks in a mökki (summer cabin). The cabin will have a fireplace and cooking facilities, but rarely central heating – and sometimes no electricity or running water.
“Squatting by the lake to wash your dishes in cold water is so romantic!” says Nylund, who explains how their ancestors grew resilient through hardship. “We are modern people living in a modern world, but at heart we are still rural, and we love our sometimes harsh environment. It has given us our sisu.”
Nature is grounding, it teaches self-sufficiency and spending time in it boosts self-esteem. You don’t have to spend four weeks in a cabin – start by spending a bit of time outdoors every day, read and learn a little about the nature around you, dabble in being more self-sufficient by growing a few veg or salad leaves in your garden, spend a night under canvas, and go from there.
Turn to page 92 of May's The Simple Things for more of our feature on How to bounce back.
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Face the sun and shadows will fall behind you
Photography: Alan Benson
Recipe | Olive oil, rosemary & apricot cake
If you’re not keen on an oversweet cake, this one’s for you. The Mediterranean mix of olive oil, rosemary and lemon is sensational
Olive oil, rosemary & apricot cake
5 eggs, separated
165g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp to sprinkle
1⁄4 tsp salt
185ml olive oil
Juice & finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
150g plain flour, sifted
10 apricots, halved & stones removed (or tinned apricot halves, drained)
to serve (optional)
300ml soured cream or crème fraîche
30g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence or vanilla bean paste
1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/Gas 3. Grease the ring of a 20–22cm springform tin, then turn the base upside down, so it no longer has a lip. Place a piece of baking paper over it, then clamp the ring around it to secure.
2 In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until just foamy. Add 55g of the caster sugar in two batches, whisking well between each addition, until soft peaks form. Set aside.
3 Combine the egg yolks, remaining (110g) caster sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl, and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed until pale and thick. Gradually drizzle in the olive oil, whisking on high speed until all of it has been used. Add the lemon juice and zest, rosemary and flour, and stir with a whisk until just combined.
4 Whisk in one-third of the egg whites to loosen the mixture, then add the remainder and stir very gently with the whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and arrange the apricot halves in concentric circles on top, working from the outside in.
5 Sprinkle the extra tbsp of caster sugar evenly over the surface, and bake for about 50 mins, or until an skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6 To make a vanilla cream, if using, combine the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until floppy peaks form.
7 Once the cake is cooked, rest it in the tin for 5 mins before releasing the ring and sliding the cake onto a wire rack to cool. Leave to rest for about 30 mins before slicing and serving – warm works for this cake – with your choice of dolloping cream!
Recipe from Poh Bakes 100 Greats by Poh Ling Yeow (Murdoch Books).
Cake in the House is our monthly recipe feature - get a cake recipe every month in The Simple Things!
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Processions | 100 years of votes for women
On 10 June walk to mark 100 years of votes for women. With handmade banners and wearing the suffragette colours of green, white and violet, marchers will form a river of colour through London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh. Details at processions.co.uk
PROCESSIONS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in a mass participation artwork to celebrate one hundred years of votes for women. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave the first British women the right to vote and stand for public office. One hundred years on, we are inviting women* and girls across the UK to come and mark this historic moment as part of a living portrait of women in the 21st century.
On Sunday 10th of June, women and girls in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London will walk together as part of this celebratory mass participation artwork. Wearing either green, white or violet, the colours of the suffrage movement, the PROCESSIONS will appear as a flowing river of colour through the city streets.
One hundred women artists are being commissioned to work with organisations and communities across the UK to create one hundred centenary banners for PROCESSIONS as part of an extensive public programme of creative workshops.
Sign up: processions.co.uk
DON'T MISS: Next month, we look at why women march, plus how to make your own banner or pennant. All in the June issue (on sale 30 May).
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Illustration: Kavel Rafferty
Stories behind superstitions | Knock on wood
Why do we knock on wood? We’ve been leafing through the history books to trace the roots of this belief
Don’t want to lose this good thing – as the song goes – well, you better knock, knock on wood. We’ve been using the phrase since at least the 19th century to protect our good fortune but theories as to why link it back even further. It’s thought that in pagan cultures, it was used either to call on the protection of spirits, or scare away malignant forces.
A Christian interpretation links it to the wood of Christ’s cross – as well as a Jewish one, recalling the coded knocks of escape networks during the Spanish inquisition. A later interpretation links to a child’s game of tag, and the knocking on wood that means “safe”, made more plausible by the fact the first written reference to touching wood is as recent as 1899. Nevertheless, variations of the superstition appear in many different cultures. Italians, for example, instead will find themselves “touching iron”.
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Project & photography: NATMADY/HACKNEYHERBAL
Make | Herbal tea bags
A soothing cuppa is in the bag, when you make your own. The appeal of this project goes beyond having something nice to sip: the touch and smell of choosing your herbs, even before the tastebuds kick in, make it a real sensory experience – something to savour.
Herbal tea bags
You will need:
Unbleached muslin fabric (try souschef.co.uk or johnlewis.com), or you could buy readymade self-fill tea bags from dotboutique.store)
Cotton thread
1 tsp of dried herbs
1 Cut unbleached muslin fabric into squares roughly measuring 10x10cm.
2 Choose between 2 to 4 dried herbs to mix and place in the middle of the square. You need about a teaspoon in total.
3 Gather the corners of the square together and tie the teabag up using cotton thread.
4 Infuse in hot water for five minutes and drink. You can empty out the spent herbs and re-use the muslin again after rinsing it.
SOME BLENDS TO TRY
Rosemary, peppermint & nettle An uplifting blend to aid focus and concentration.
Echinacea, yarrow & sage A restorative blend to sip when you have a sore throat or cold.
Lemon verbena, rose & skullcap A relaxing combination to enjoy before bed.
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