Whether it’s your own garden in need of a little TLC or a visit to a stunning garden lovingly cultivated, there is nothing like getting out and enjoying one. In recent years, much has been placed on the physical and mental health benefits of gardening too, so get out there and be inspired…
Be realistic about it, don’t try tackling it all at once – especially if you’ve got other things that need your attention – do it room by room, perhaps even enlist the help of other family members at home with you and make it fun for the children to help out, after all many hands make light work!
Over the next week, we’ll share advice on all those essential tasks that can help give your house a new lease of life.
Let’s start with one of the most used rooms in the house:
Make your bathroom smell fresh by simply adding a few drops of essential oil to the inside of your toilet roll.
One of the best ways to revamp your bathroom is to get rid of the mould and discolouration on tiles, try a mixture of baking soda, distilled white vinegar, salt and essential oils. Mix them up, spritz on to your tiles, wait 10 minutes and wipe off.
Baking soda and vinegar are also essential ingredients if you’d rather not use toilet bleach to clean the loo effectively. The soda and vinegar combination are effective at removing hard-water marks, and rust stains. More unusually, you can pour cola down the toilet – it’s thought to work well at removing rust rings.
Keep the baking soda and vinegar handy for this, fill a sandwich bag with the mix and tie it around the shower head with an elastic band, leave it overnight to soak. In the morning, use an old toothbrush to remove the scale and debris and you should find your next shower will be a much better, more refreshing one.
Shower curtains can get pretty nasty and are prone to mould. Put your shower curtain in the washing machine (along with the bath mat), then hang it back in the shower to dry – simple as that!
Photo credit: Adam Cormack
This year’s Wild About Gardens campaign is calling on gardeners to get growing to help the UK’s falling numbers of butterflies and moths.
The new campaign draws inspiration from a new film adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden, starring Colin Firth, Julie Walters and newcomer Dixie Egerickx as Mary Lennox. The film will be bringing the magic of wildlife, childhood and gardening to the big screen this spring when it blooms in cinemas across the UK from Good Friday, 10th April.
The Wild About Gardens campaign, run jointly by The Wildlife Trusts and Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), looks at butterflies and moths as important pollinators, who, along with caterpillars, are vital food for birds like robins and blue tits as well as bats. However, their habitats have faced catastrophic declines and once-common species like the small tortoiseshell have dropped by up to 80% in the last 30 years in some areas.
An ideal butterfly garden has a wide variety of plants throughout the year to support their life cycles – for butterflies and moths emerging from hibernation, egg-laying females, caterpillars and then as adults. Early-flowering species such as dandelions, aubretia and native bluebells are good sources of nectar; these could be followed by buddleia and red valerian and, finally, ivy flowers which are a great late-season asset in the autumn. Many wildflowers and long grasses are also excellent larval food-plants. Whether your garden is large or small – or simply a flowering window-box – it could throw these declining insects a lifeline, especially in urban areas.
The Wildlife Trusts’ gardening champion, horticulturist and TV presenter Frances Tophill said: “Our garden flowers and plants provide a rich source of rejuvenating nectar for these much-loved garden visitors as they emerge from hibernation to herald the start of spring.
“Go wild in your garden and leave the dandelions and daisies in the lawn to provide a meal, aim for year-round flowers and include a wildflower area for egg-laying females as well as gardeners’ favourites like lavender, nasturtium and verbena.
“The Wild About Gardens website is packed with information and easy actions we can all take to support butterflies and moths throughout their impressive life cycle.”
The Wildlife Trusts and RHS believe every butterfly garden counts and want to know about every new wild area, box or border that’s being grown for butterflies. Each garden contributes towards the network of green spaces that nature needs to survive and they ask you to pledge a bit of garden for butterflies and put it on the map here www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk. In the story of The Secret Garden, the garden eases grief, heals rifts and brings the joy out in all who experience it. Make a special place for wildlife – your very own Secret Garden where you can replenish your soul, reconnect with nature and help wildlife to thrive. You’ve probably noticed how spotting butterflies or birds, or walking through woodlands, or alongside rivers and streams can help to lift your mood. Make some time for nature today and enjoy the restorative benefits!
Download or pick up a booklet The Wildlife Trusts and RHS have published a beautiful – free – booklet with colourful advice and easy tips designed to make our outdoor spaces more attractive to butterflies, moths and their caterpillars. Available here https://wtru.st/butterfly and on the Wild About Gardens website from today, 12th March. These will be available at special events during the spring including the Chelsea Flower Show and promoted through Wildlife Trust events, visitor centres and community action groups including the In Bloom network.
1. Rose expression gin & other gifts, Silent Pool Distillers
2. Cashmere socks & rose quartz face roller, The White Company
3. Card with gold flake detail, Juniper Stone
4. Geometric terrarium, www.theurbanbotanist.co.uk
5. Sleekster Luxe chocolates, Hotel Chocolat
6. B******* tankard, part of a rude & funny range from www.outlandishcreations.com
We also have this amazing set from It Won’t Cost The Earth to win this month!
The registered charity is on a mission to give every child and young person a book and champions authors, illustrators and books generally.
This is the 23rd year of World Book Day which promotes a love of books and reading and gives children the opportunity to have a book of their own. Book tokens are sent to schools along with age-ranged World Book Day resource packs full of ideas and activities for book-related fun.
Children just take their tokens to a bookshop and can use it for one of the new and completely free books or to get £1 off any book or audio book over £2.99.
Among the £1 books you can choose from this year are Meet Amelia Fang, the tale of a young vampire by Laura Ellen Anderson; Evie in the Jungle by Matt Haig – meet Evie who can hear what animals are thinking; Chris Smith and Greg James’s Kid Normal and the Loudest Library; a murder most unladylike mini mystery The Case of the Drowned Pearl by Robin Stevens; teen super spy Alex Rider returns in Anthony Horowitz’s Undercover: Four Secret Files and Beth Reekles’s story of young love in The Kissing Booth – Road Trip among others for all ages.
With so many great recipes to choose from all you need to do is decide whether it’s savoury, sweet, crumble or pasty – why not make a different one every day this week and get all members of the family involved in the cooking too?
According to the most common internet search results, here’s our top 10, love them or loathe them:-
1: Cottage Pie
2: Fish Pie
3: Shepherd’s Pie
4: Chicken & Leek Pie
5: Chicken and Mushroom Pie
6: Steak and Ale Pie
7: Meat and Potato Pie
8: Pork Pie
9: Steak and Kidney Pie
10: Corned Beef Pie
• You will need an 8” (20cm) Pie dish.
• 500gm block of butter puff pastry.
• 1 large leek – cut into large chunks
• 120g button mushrooms
• 300g cooked turkey meat
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tblsp oil
• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 1 pint milk
• ½ tsp onion salt
• White pepper
• Beaten egg for glaze
• Place the oil and butter in a pan and add the leek, gently sweat for 5 minutes but do not brown.
• Add the mushrooms and thyme, cook for a minute.
• Stir in the flour and gently cook for a minute.
• Slowly add the milk until you have a nice thick sauce, add the turkey meat and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Add the onion salt and a little pepper then pour into your pie dish
• Roll out the pastry and cover the pie, sealing well and fluting the edges.
• Brush with beaten egg and cook for 30 minutes or until the pastry is well risen and golden brown.
N.B. If you are making the pie to freeze, do NOT add the turkey meat until the leek and mushroom sauce is completely cold. Use fresh puff pastry if you are freezing, not frozen!
If you enjoy food, friends and fun while raising money to change children’s lives then Eva’s Friends Supper Club is the event for you.
It couldn’t be easier to get involved – just invite some friends round for dinner on Saturday, 7th March and ask them to donate to Eva’s Friends what they would have paid if they’d gone out to eat and if you don’t fancy cooking, drinks and nibbles works as well.
Last year more than 40 supper clubs were run in aid of the Oxfordshire-based charity and they’re hoping for more this year which will also feature an online auction and competitions too. Chefs Tom Kerridge and Richard Bertinet donated raffle prizes last year.
Eva’s Friends works to fund research into rare neurological conditions in children and is currently helping to fund a gene therapy project to find a cure for Rett Syndrome which affects thousands of children, almost exclusively girls, leaving them unable to walk, talk or use their hands.
There is no known cure and it is thought to affect about 1 in 12,000 girls born each year such as Eva after whom the charity is named.
If you can’t make the main Supper Club event on the 7th, why not arrange another foodie treat in the week beginning 2nd March, how about brunch with friends, afternoon tea, cakes at work – whatever you fancy.
Simply register by emailing [email protected] to receive a fundraising pack and get cooking!
As the world celebrates 250 years since Beethoven’s birth, Chiltern Arts is celebrating overcoming adversity in the arts, with its usual array of venues including those in Henley, Marlow, Wallingford and, for the first time, Princes Risborough.
‘It’s a busy year for Chiltern Arts,” says founder and creative director Naomi Taylor, “and an exciting one! I’m particularly excited to have a theme linking all events for the first time and I hope people will get on board and follow the festival as a bit of a journey of discovery. There are also lots of opportunities to get involved as well as sitting back and enjoying; a Come and Sing day, poetry competition and Youth Music and Art Day… come and join us for what we think will be a brilliant week!”
Chiltern Arts offers an array of concerts for all musical tastes: Septura Brass Septet celebrate the music of female composers; the Come and Sing Company invite you to explore Tippett’s Five Spirituals alongside Tippett’s biographer Oliver Soden; the Marian Consort uncover the Catholic music kept under wraps in Elizabethan England; the Phoenix Piano Trio present piano trios from Beethoven and Fauré, both of whom suffered hearing loss; pianist Danny Driver presents Beethoven and the loss of Vital Senses with music from Gabriela Lena Frank and Rodrigo partnering Beethoven’s impressive Hammerklavier; and the City of London Sinfonia close with Beethoven’s famous Septet.
One of the highlights is undoubtedly a mini-residency from eminent solo percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, performing with Trio HLK a piece called Extra Sensory Perception; and we’re thrilled to be commissioning a piece from Stephen Goss for Dame Evelyn and Matthew Wadsworth. The piece will be premiered at the Candlelit Lute recital in Great Missenden on Thursday 5th March. Dame Evelyn and Matthew both also precede their respective events with pre-concert talks.
Chiltern Arts’ popular concert and dinner event returns to The Gatsby in Berkhamsted with music from members of the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, featuring cabaret and a seven-piece band.
Three outstanding young professional ensembles feature at the festival: the Salomé String Quartet, baroque quartet Ensemble Hesperi and wind group the Magnard Ensemble. The first entirely youth-focused event features music from several local young musicians and performers, including students from the Mary Hare School for the Deaf, Amersham Music Centre, Tring School and Chiltern Music Academy, as well as a massed choir led by the Marian Consort.
Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Large onion, finely chopped
• Two medium carrots, peeled and chopped into cubes
• Salt and pepper
• Two cloves garlic, crushed
• Two sprigs of rosemary
• 200g dried green lentils
• A glass of red wine
• Two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 60g walnuts
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Cooked pasta of your choice
• Grated cheese, to serve
(optional)
This one [inspired by Joe’s wife Rosie] is a great recipe to make ahead. It will keep in the fridge for two or three days and freezes very well.
Method:
Add the oil to a saucepan over a low heat. Tip in the chopped onion and carrots, along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for six minutes until mostly softened. Stir in the garlic and rosemary sprigs. Cook for another minute until it smells fragrant, then tip in the lentils. Give everything a good stir, then pour in the wine.
When most of the wine has bubbled off, chuck in the chopped tomatoes, then re-fill one of the tins with water and pour it in. Stir in the tomato puree then leave to cook for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the lentils are soft. When the lentils are nearly cooked, toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until lightly browned and smelling nutty.
Allow to cool and roughly chop, then add them to the pan. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and season your bolognese to taste, removing the rosemary sprigs. Serve with cooked pasta and, if you’re like me, loads of grated cheese on top!
l To support this fantastic charity please visit www.macmillan.org.uk
Ingredients:
• 3 tbsp peri-peri sauce
• 100g halloumi, cut into four slices
• 1 tbsp mayo
• One baby gem lettuce
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• One medium tomato
• Burger bun
Method:
our two tablespoons of the peri-peri sauce into a shallow bowl. Add the halloumi slices to the bowl and turn them so that both sides are covered in the sauce. Leave to marinate for a few minutes.
While your cheese is marinating, stir the remaining peri-peri into the mayo. Separate the lettuce leaves and slice the tomato into rounds. Warm a dry non-stick frying pan over a high heat. When it is hot, chuck in the halloumi slices. Dry fry for two minutes each side, spooning any of the leftover marinade over the cheese as it cooks so that it becomes sticky and crisp. Take off the heat. Toast your burger bun, then spread the base with spicy mayo. Stack in the halloumi, lettuce and tomato.
Ingredients:
• Half an avocado, flesh scooped out\
• One small banana, roughly chopped
• Two handfuls of mixed frozen berries
• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 1 ½ tbsp rolled oats
• 1 ½ tbsp. mixed seeds
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• Drizzle of honey
Make ahead – You can blitz the fruit and yoghurt the night before and keep it in the fridge
Method:
Place the avocado, banana, frozen berries and natural yoghurt in a blender and blitz with a splash of water until smooth. Tip into a bowl or pot to take to work. In a dry frying pan, over a medium heat, toast the oats and seeds until the seeds start to pop. Take off the heat. When you’re ready to eat, top the avocado berry pot with the toasted oats and seeds, almond butter and a drizzle of honey
Waylands Volvo in Newbury, Oxford, Reading and Swindon has announced it is now offering the UK’s first plug-in hybrid premium compact SUV to customers. Volvo is the UK’s first car manufacturer to offer plug-in hybrid versions across its entire model range, and its new petrol-electric XC40 T5 Twin Engine completes a full line-up of hybrid cars.
The XC40 has also seen enhancements, with new engine features and generous specification levels adding to its desirability, connectivity and safety – including technology such as the Blind Spot Information system, which monitors and alerts the driver of rapidly approaching vehicles.
John O’Hanlon, CEO of Waylands, said: “We’re pleased to announce that customers can now come and test drive the new petrol-electric XC40 T5 Twin Engine, which is set to be hugely popular.
“Volvo is committed to giving customers the best possible choice when it comes to cars that are better for the environment, practical for their lifestyles and safe for their families. The electrification of our model line-up is just the tip of the iceberg for our sustainability journey, and we’d encourage people who are looking to reduce their environmental impact to come and test drive one of these amazing cars.”
Waylands also offers a wide range of new and Volvo Selekt Approved Used cars, in addition to the plug-in hybrid XC40, and later this year customers can look forward to the pure electric XC40, Volvo’s first all-electric car.
Start your engines! March is considered by many petrolheads & motoring enthusiasts as the real start of the year. With the start of the Formula One World Championships (in Australia 13th-15th March), the Techno-Classica Essenin (Calais, 25th to 29th) and the British Touring Car Championships (Donington, 28th & 29th), there’s tiger in the tank for car fans of all persuasions.
One familiar broadcaster who is looking forward to seeing Lewis Hamilton et al coming off the blocks is ITV sports anchoman Steve Rider. “I’m always excited about the new F1 season,” says Steve, 69, who lives in Bucks. “This year I look forward to a greater injection of competition but am more pessimistic about the sports ability to make the commercial and sporting changes required to make this possible long term.”
Round & About Towers is populated by your larger-than-average number of petrolheads and we’re always interested in what people drive. “My first car was an electric blue Austin A35,” says Steve. “Today I drive a Land Rover Discovery Sport.” Steve, who was the lead presenter for ITV’s Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2010, has seen his fair share of supercars… so what’s his dream car? “I’m not flash! My dream car was an MGB and it still is.” What about Steve’s perfect road trip – what would be his ideal route and who would be his lucky passenger? “The Pacific Highway on the west coast of America. I would auction the passenger seat to the highest bidder to enable me to make the trip in the greatest luxury.”
Industry analysts have heralded 2020 as the year of the electric car, with Oxford car giant Mini, Vauxhall Corsa and Fiat 500 joining the rapidly expanding European EV market. “Electric cars seem to be the future and now we’re being told it’s official,” says Steve.
However, when it comes to technology Steve is very much of the mindset that older can certainly sometimes better… “There is information overload every time you step into a modern car. I look forward to a serious reduction in the constant data a car bombards you with. I also own a 1971 Fiat 500 and am President of the Fiat 500 Club of Great Britain. Motoring at its most basic and enjoyable.”
