The Spring Tonic Episode 3 - RELISH

Join the discussion about could-do lists and spontaneous day trips, following a quest, unusual sources of inspiration and the best ways to play truant... oh, and satisfying stuff you can do in a day.  In this episode Editor of The Simple Things magazine, Lisa Sykes seeks out small ways to seize the moment with regular contributor and author of The Slow Traveller, Jo Tinsley. Relish a moment of calm yourself and listen to this week’s original short story. 

A Spring Tonic is supported by Pause, the subscription box from Mind

To subscribe to The Simple Things Magazine, click here...

Transcript

Lisa Sykes (00:07):

Welcome to our Spring tonic. This is season two of our Pick Me Up podcast. I'm Lisa Sykes, editor of The Simple Things, and with the help of my colleagues, we'll be here every week until May, exploring small ways to put a spring in our step and enjoy life as the season turns. We're very pleased to be supported this season by Pause, which is the monthly subscription box from Mental Health Charity Mind. Each box offers you something you might not have tried before. It could be a craft or a way to connect with nature. You'll be guided through an activity to boost your wellbeing, and I'm definitely going to be trying one of these later in the season. You can find out more at pauseformind.org.uk slash simple, and the link's also in the description on your app. So we're calling this episode Relish. And to joining me today is Jo Tinsley, who's editor of Ernest Journal, author of The Slow Traveller, and she's a regular contributor to the Simple Things. And together we're going to explore some small ways to seize the moment. Are you up for that, Jo?

Jo Tinsley (01:01):

Yes, definitely. Yeah, it's good to be back.

Lisa Sykes (01:04):

Yeah. Hi. Hi. So one thing I find interesting is that seizing the moment is not simply about being spontaneous and maybe having a few could dos up your sleeve, opens up the possibilities. Would you say you're naturally spontaneous, Jo?

Jo Tinsley (01:18):

No, I wouldn't. I mean, it's quite surprising perhaps because I've written a book called The Slow Traveller, which is about being spontaneous and intuitive. But no, I'm an editor. I'm a meticulous planner in everyday life and slow travel and being spontaneous doesn't come naturally to me.

Lisa Sykes (01:34):

Yeah, it's tricky, isn't it? It's you almost need to plan to be spontaneous, don't you?

Jo Tinsley (01:39):

Yeah. Yeah. Because time is so precious, isn't it? That when you have a day off or week off or whatever, you feel like you need to use it really well. And yeah. So I've developed these strategies over the years to sort of help me slow down and be more spontaneous.

Lisa Sykes (01:53):

Oh, interesting. So tell me a bit about them then. How do you make it work?

Jo Tinsley (01:57):

Yeah, so I mean, these work both on longer trips and on day trips as well. So I mean, it really boils down to not setting yourself an end goal, but instead setting yourself a quest. So yeah, so when you set yourself an end goal, that might be a destination that you're trying to get to, journeys can become sort of something to be endured a means to an end. And when you don't do that, it kind of invites more spontaneity. If you are on a road trip, for instance, it sort of frees you up to follow handwritten signs on a whim, ask for local recommendations.

Lisa Sykes (02:28):

Yes. Because you're not just going from A to B.

Jo Tinsley (02:30):

Exactly, yeah. Not constantly focusing on where you're going to go. And so you can take these spontaneous detours, and I found so many remarkable things while taking spontaneous detours on holidays and day

Lisa Sykes (02:44):

Trips. It's true, because you just don't know what you're going to find, do you? And often the most memorable things are not the things you've booked in advance are they're the things you just stumbled across.

Jo Tinsley (02:55):

And especially signs. So when I've been road around, say, Scotland, you can see these handwritten signs saying farm shop or honesty box this way.

Lisa Sykes (03:05):

Yes.

Jo Tinsley (03:06):

And you follow them down these dead end roads and you find amazing sheds selling homemade ready meals.

Lisa Sykes (03:14):

But so often you see as you're driving past and then you'll go, oh, that looks interesting. And then there'll be a small pause and you did that and then you've just gone slightly too far, haven't you? And you don't turn back. Yeah,

Jo Tinsley (03:27):

Because you've got somewhere to go.

Lisa Sykes (03:29):

Yeah.

Jo Tinsley (03:29):

Yeah, exactly. But if you don't know where you're staying that night or you don't know what it is that you are aiming for, you've got that time. And I think one of the nicest ones, when I took a road trip around the West fjords in Iceland, they have these signs which are the shoulders of a beaver and these little wiggly lines, which means there's a hot pool nearby. Oh, wow. And then you've got, yeah, so you've got this sort of opportunity to just say, right, we're stopping and to explore and to explore. So yeah, so not setting an end goal is the first one. And creating a quest.

Lisa Sykes (04:03):

Yes, I like this. Creating a quest. It sounds important, but actually that's the thing, it declaring your intention for seizing the moment is key because it's what we were saying, if you're just sort of fanny around, you're not going to really get much done. But do you remember this article we ran? It was called The Secret Day Off, and one of our writers basically ran away to the seaside for the day, but without telling anyone where she was going, she switched off the phone. She's a very online person as well, and she basically just disappeared for the day. I mean, she kind of made people know that she was going to do this, but she didn't say where she was going. And of course then you've got this entire freedom, haven't you, to go somewhere that's just for your own enjoyment,

Jo Tinsley (04:48):

Like a date for yourself. Isn't it

Lisa Sykes (04:50):

Nice? Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. And you just have to do it. I once did it, actually, I woke up in the morning and I thought it was when I was freelance, so I didn't have a kind of nine to five in the same way. And I thought, I'm going to go somewhere for the day. And I went to the isle of, this is when I was living in London.

Jo Tinsley (05:07):

Oh, I love the isle.

Lisa Sykes (05:08):

And I'd always liked the idea of it. You see it on the map, don't you? Right on the watery edge of the Tham estuary. And I thought, I'm going to go there. And I set off, and I was so disappointed of this. It's really industrial when you drive onto it. And I thought, it

Jo Tinsley (05:21):

Doesn't look good on a first viewing, does it?

Lisa Sykes (05:24):

No. And I thought, this is not going to go well. Why did it, where on earth did I come here? But then I just carried on going again. I suppose you were just saying I wasn't A to B, I was just wondering. And I ended up and I found creeks and dead ends, and then I've had this lonely pub with the fire. It was one of these real, it was such a memorable day, and I kind of haven't done it enough. So where would you go if you were doing a secret day off?

Jo Tinsley (05:49):

I think I'd go to Dungeons, which it's this similar sort of place. It's a shingle beach in Kent with this nuclear power station there, an old lighthouse and this little one third scale railway, and it's really bleak and over worldly.

Lisa Sykes (06:03):

Yeah.

Jo Tinsley (06:03):

And yeah, it's interesting. We both chose end of the world places.

Lisa Sykes (06:07):

I know. We absolutely did. We, and maybe that's the thing, you want something that's really removed from your usual life or where you live, don't you? Yeah.

Jo Tinsley (06:15):

You want cup of tea and that doesn't matter because it's your day and you can just spend that time doing whatever it is that you enjoy. So if I went to Dungeness, I'd get a crab roll from the Dungeness Fish Hut and just sit on the beach

Lisa Sykes (06:28):

Nice.

Jo Tinsley (06:29):

With no one rushing me. It'd be really lovely.

Lisa Sykes (06:31):

No, and that's the thing, you're just pleasing yourself, aren't you?

Jo Tinsley (06:34):

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Sykes (06:35):

We're actually about to start a new series in the magazine about called Please Yourself. That's about cooking for you. But doing it in a kind of, not a convenient way, but a slightly, I'm going to treat myself way. So I think it'd be good. Sorry, I'm, I'm diverging from our Seizing the Moment. Let's go back to Seizing the Moment. So I know you've done a little project, haven't you, because we should own up here because you and I have large collections of paper ordinance survey maps, because we both like a map. But tell me about your project. I think this is great.

Jo Tinsley (07:08):

Yeah, so this was a few years ago, but I think I'm going to pick it up again. So on the front of OS Maps, there's a picture of one of the most amazing places that you can see in that region. And I got into the habit of going to these places and taking a photo of them that matched the photo on the map. Brilliant. And even holding the map up in front of it and trying to get the landscape to sort of align.

Lisa Sykes (07:33):

So it lines up. Yeah, it

Jo Tinsley (07:35):

Lines up. And I'd post these on Instagram and there's other people doing this, and it's a really fun thing to do. But I once had a spontaneous day out that was based on that. So it was my birthday and I didn't have any plans. I was a little bit hungover, and I woke up and I didn't know what I was going to do. And so I posted this picture of this map of R and Romney Marsh, and I said, does anyone know where this church is? It looks really beautiful. And people did, and they told me where it was. And so I set off by train and on foot to find this sort of quirky Georgian timber church in the middle of these water channels and sheep. It's really, really remote. It's really beautiful. And I managed to find it, but people had also told me that if you go to the local farm near it, you can get this enormous metal key and you can go inside the church, which is really, it's really quirky for lots of geeky ways inside as well. Fantastic. And so we just had this really memorable day out. When that morning I'd been twiddling my thumbs thinking,

(08:31):

What am I going to do?

Lisa Sykes (08:32):

Yeah. No, and that's the thing. Inspiration can come from the most strange places, but the key thing is recognising it as inspiration, I think.

(08:41):

So my daughter has a different surname from me, and her last name is Burwell. And she discovered that there was a place called Burwell in Cambridge. And she said, oh, I wonder what it's like, I wonder what it's like. And I said, let's just go there. So we went there for the day. And actually it was fascinating because there's a windmill there and a museum, and it's actually quite a historical place, not a very big place, but we found a good coffee shop, which is always a result. And it was just, we went somewhere with a purpose. And I think that's again important isn't it, to seize the moment. You want to know what you're trying to seize really, don't you?

Jo Tinsley (09:14):

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Sykes (09:15):

And we're relishing it really when you've been there, that's the point. You come back and you've really appreciated what you've done that day, but perhaps the best way to seize the moment is by playing truant. There's something very naughty and a little bit reckless about going somewhere when you should be doing something else. And I think this has to be a weekday when you should be working, don't you? It doesn't really quite work at the weekend the same way. No. And again, we've done an article about this and I think the question is do you want to skive solo or do you like to lead others astray with you?

Jo Tinsley (09:52):

I mean, yeah, I love this idea of bunking off I'd sky solo. I think I'd the idea of not being answerable to anyone having no obligations, how refreshing that would be for a day out.

Lisa Sykes (10:06):

No, I think I'm with you too. I like, for example, cinema in the afternoon when you come out and you're blinking because it's sunny, but you've been in the dark watching a film and it's just you and you've been by yourself, it's so

Jo Tinsley (10:17):

Luxurious. Isn't

Lisa Sykes (10:18):

It? So luxurious. Or a long lunch with no deadline or somewhere to be, but maybe I wouldn't do that solo.

Jo Tinsley (10:25):

Yeah, a long lunch that kind of spills into the afternoon.

Lisa Sykes (10:28):

Yeah,

Jo Tinsley (10:28):

Yeah,

Lisa Sykes (10:29):

Yeah, definitely. Like you did when you were a student.

Jo Tinsley (10:32):

Yeah, definitely.

Lisa Sykes (10:34):

Birthdays are a good excuse though, aren't they? I mean, mine was actually this week and my request was, granted, I had a long lunch with no deadline, so that was very nice. But yeah, I think it's an opportunity to be impulsive playing truant.

Jo Tinsley (10:47):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I would just take the day off, go to a local market, browse some shops have a coffee.

Lisa Sykes (10:53):

Very

Jo Tinsley (10:53):

Nice. These are the kind of days that I dream about.

Lisa Sykes (10:57):

I know, because the thing when you're busy and you've got a young daughter as well, aren't you? So there's not much opportunity to get time to yourself, are they? But sometimes, of course, it's nice to have a day just to do stuff, just to relish what you're doing. So not actually a day trip's. Lovely. But you don't actually have to go anywhere. Sometimes there are things you can do in a day that have their own special appeal. And again, I think it's about planning though, isn't it? Maybe just picking one thing. I always start off with a big could do list when I have a day off and end up doing a bit of this, a bit of that, and not finishing any of them and feeling like it was just chores in the end.

Jo Tinsley (11:34):

I think the key is to pick something that you can do in a day.

Lisa Sykes (11:37):

Yes.

Jo Tinsley (11:37):

Because if I start something, there's no way I'm going to pick that up again.

Lisa Sykes (11:41):

Nope.

Jo Tinsley (11:41):

And so yeah, just working out, whether it's a craft project or perhaps just having a A box that day and watching a whole thing.

Lisa Sykes (11:51):

No judgement , no judgement . Watching TV all day

Jo Tinsley (11:54):

Or finding, I think we had a feature about this in the magazine where it had a list of books that you can read from start to finish in a day that would feel so good to be able to start.

Lisa Sykes (12:05):

Well, I think an Agatha Christie Suits fits the bill very well there because they're very quick to read and I could absolutely curl it with one of those in a day, but there's loads, isn't there? I think actually rereading a favourite book is quite a nice thing to do on a day like that, isn't it?

Jo Tinsley (12:21):

Yeah. You can often read those a bit quicker. It don't you and just really enjoy.

Lisa Sykes (12:25):

Well, and also whether you like it or not, don't you before, because imagine if you'd set aside a whole day and you get three quarters of a way through a book and you think, I'm not really enjoying this.

Jo Tinsley (12:35):

So disappointing.

Lisa Sykes (12:36):

That would be calling.

Jo Tinsley (12:38):

Yeah, go on. I love the idea of doing a craft in a day as

Lisa Sykes (12:44):

Well. Yes.

Jo Tinsley (12:46):

And say you made something to wear. Imagine swanning back into the office the next day and being like, oh, this old thing. I just knocked this up yesterday.

Lisa Sykes (12:53):

I've always wanted to be that person. I remember having a friend who was like that, oh, Giselle, yeah, I made it last night. And you just think, really? But I have mentioned it before, but I am doing this sewing class that I've been doing for a couple of years now, and I've just recently made this very simple dress that took me a while to make for the first time, but now I know how to make it. I think there's a possibility if I got organised, I could make that in a day. And that is on my list of things I would like to do this year. Definitely. Because you just relish doing it, don't you? Because it's something you know how to do. But actually having a whole day to do that would be great. And the other thing you can do of course, is pick something bigger that you never find time to actually start. So for me, that would probably be where you've, you've got to set a goal though, having achieving a chunk of something. And I would tackle a problematic link in my never finished family tree, I think, and try and tease out what's actually happened there. How about you? Is there anything like that? Would you write a

Jo Tinsley (13:55):

Novel? No. At the stage of life that I'm in, I couldn't do this. I've got so many books piled up next to my bed where I've read a chapter and said, I'll pick that up and then haven't had the time to do it. So yeah, no, it has to be something I can complete in a day for me, but maybe in a few years when my daughter's a bit older and I've got a little Fair enough, more luxury of

Lisa Sykes (14:18):

Time. Well, we're going to seize the moment now and because in our short story in this episode, we're going to be joining a person who is relishing a spring walk in the woods,

(14:33):

The naming of things, A short story by Harriet Dios across the Daffodil Strewn Garden. I can see that the post van has paused beside the gate. A weathered elbow per is on the open window. Oh, you must be the new tenant. That's lucky. Gorgeous day. You're just so lucky to have this view. Lucky puppy too. She smiles at my new companion and waves her arm at the landscape behind her. She sees a patchwork of fields head just stuttered with hypericum, sprinkled with pale prim roses all the way to the hazy sponge of bluebells in the cops in the distance must get on. She calls and leaves me nodding, clutching the envelopes and catalogues that she's just delivered. I stare hard at the view. I see little of value, just farmer's fields and grey clouds seeping across the edges of the sky. The puppy stands close to me.

(15:24):

Are you lucky? I ask her. She's the rescue puppy. She needed rescuing. I reached down and stroke her inside out ear. It's pink, soft, and vulnerable. I folded over neatly for her. We go inside and I dump the letters on the table, decisions on where to put things, what to call. Things have not yet been made. I stand at the window and watch the rain clouds spread thickly until they almost reach the ground. A tap drips. The clock ticks. I find the lead that she arrived with and open the back door. Everything sounds far away. Birds sing. A plane flies over the hum of a school playground. At break time in the distance, always threatening to burst. The dark clouds finally open as we cross the backfield and we run together through the downpour. We are drenched. I feel different, more alive, somehow more awake.

(16:16):

Back at home, we make muddy footprints across the hall. I dumped the last of the daffodils that I gathered from the garden to an old blue jug. Placing the jug carefully in the centre of the kitchen table. I open the letters, make coffee, turn the computer on and find that I can work for the first time since we arrived. Curling around my feet, she sleeps wrapped in a blanket, her chin on my ankle, repeating this routine daily. We plunge outdoors whatever the weather we walk deliberately stopping to sniff and examine everything we see or smell. She likes lampposts and bins. I like flowers. Hedgerows in the riverbank, we bring home daffodils lily of the valley and fistfuls of bluebells. I save jam jars and we pick up unwanted jugs from the local market to display on the window sills on the bathroom shelf by my toothbrush and on the kitchen table putting away my thick coat until next year, I wear my yellow mac by a ball, a green leather collar wellington's and walking boots, lucky barks and runs to the gate. Sue is leaning out of her van, waving as usual. She hands me some tiny brown eggs and tells me how the bantams are now laying generously after a long winter. Lucky jumps up to say hello, leaving po prints on the dusty van. I hand her a coffee and we pause together in our working day, looking at the view, I see all the treasure of the greenfield and spring sunshine as far as the eye can see.

(17:42):

Maybe one thing we could start and possibly even finish in a day is one of the pause subscription box activities. It's a project from the Mental health Charity Mind, which is supporting our podcast this season. And subscribing gives a donation to help fund their work. I really love this idea that you can support your own wellbeing by doing something really fun and calming while at the same time your cash helps mind ensure that no one has to face a mental health problem alone. I think that's great. Don't you find out more@pauseformind.org uk slash simple.

Jo Tinsley (18:12):

Gosh, listening to that story really makes me want to get out and go for a springtime walk. But I guess changeable April weather can really scupper the chance to be spontaneous in that way. I guess that means you've got to really seize the moment and relish those sunny days when you get them.

Lisa Sykes (18:28):

Absolutely. I think my rule in spring is if the sun comes out, drop everything really,

Jo Tinsley (18:33):

Because

Lisa Sykes (18:35):

You just have no idea how it's going to last. Well, actually, you do know how long it's going to last, and it's not very in the spring, isn't it? But one thing I like to do is the first picnic of the year, and I don't mean a sort of lay on the rug in the sunshine for three hours, having a picnic, a bit dump for that, isn't it? But a sort of moving picnic, a portable picnic. There's something about eating outside that sort of signifies the start of spring. I love that.

Jo Tinsley (19:02):

Yeah. And I guess you don't have to bring along sandwiches and things like that. It could be flasks of soup or jacket potatoes wrapped in foil or things like that. Things that are going to keep you feeling warm, but it's just stopping to have that moment together is really nice, isn't it?

Lisa Sykes (19:19):

Definitely. I've got a little wide mouth flask that I take. And the thing is, you can still do nice bread with it, and it doesn't have to be a sort of few cereal bars in a pocket. You can make it actually quite nice. And we nearly always run a feature in the spring about this, which is kind of recipes for trail makes and chilli choto, chilli in Jackie, potatoes wrapped in foil that you just get out of your pocket halfway round and then somehow the weather doesn't seem to matter. You've got your little snacks and you're seeing all nature coming to life. It's just nice, isn't

Jo Tinsley (19:52):

It? It's really nice. And I think you don't even have to go out to the woods to do this sort of thing. You can pop a chair outside and chat to your neighbours as they pass, or just have your lunch out on the terrace. Whatever outside space you've got is enough, isn't it?

Lisa Sykes (20:07):

Definitely Just taking the chair out from the dining table and sitting by your back door with a cup of tea and it's just, I don't know. It feels

Jo Tinsley (20:14):

It's a lovely moment.

Lisa Sykes (20:15):

It really does. And you appreciate it, I think when you live in a country like ours where the seasons are really distinct

Jo Tinsley (20:21):

Because

Lisa Sykes (20:21):

It does signify spring, doesn't it? And it's something to relish,

Jo Tinsley (20:25):

Which

Lisa Sykes (20:25):

Is what we're talking about. But it's interesting though, isn't it? Although weather is, sun is good, everything else is bad. And we've obviously just done an extract from a book about this, haven't we? But actually, I know you're going to talk about that in a minute, but some of the most vivid memories you have are from weather related incidents, aren't there? It's true. It's true. You had to shelter under that tree in a storm and wondered if the lightning was going to hit it, or even just watching a storm. It's really memorable. I remember driving in thick snow accidentally, really, we shouldn't have really gone on this narrow road. And the weather was getting worse. We realised we were climbing this hill and we were sort of a bit unsure about this. And then suddenly out of the blizzard, this guy came along in skis and this was in North Yorkshire, and we realised this was a really bad idea. But having made it safely down the other side in one piece, that is now a really memorable instance. You know what I mean? Yeah,

Jo Tinsley (21:25):

Yeah.

Lisa Sykes (21:26):

And hopefully we're not going to have snow in March, but yeah, you must have some too.

Jo Tinsley (21:30):

Yeah. Just obviously as a child, kind of laughing, being pushed down a hill by the wind. But I like walking up to hilltops and leaning into the wind and laughing with groups of friends. They are the moments that you remember. They

Lisa Sykes (21:44):

Definitely, so tell us about Matt Gore's book. I can't remember. It's whatever the weather is it.

Jo Tinsley (21:49):

Yeah. So his point is that weather is often judged as simply good or bad,

Lisa Sykes (21:54):

Right?

Jo Tinsley (21:56):

That wet and cold weather are things to be endured and avoided.

Lisa Sykes (22:00):

Yes.

Jo Tinsley (22:01):

And that's fair enough because the sun feels good. It gives us these boost, these feelgood hormones and your serotonin levels. It gives us vitamins, it helps us sleep. So there's a reason to relish good weather.

Lisa Sykes (22:12):

Absolutely.

Jo Tinsley (22:13):

But we can find equal joy in other weathers. I think that's Matt's point. And learn to kind of appreciate the refreshing beauty of rain pull, the wild freedom of a whipping wind or the otherworldly nature of a fog. There's real wonder to be found in these things. So I guess it's just working out how to seek those out.

Lisa Sykes (22:36):

And it's about using our senses as well, isn't it? We rely a lot on how things look, but I went on this retreat a few years ago and I've not really done any retreats. And this was really interesting. And one of the things they made us do was go outside but close our eyes. And it was a really windy day, and it was about feeling the wind through, hearing it, smelling it, just sort of leaning into it and feeling the pressure it gave you. So rather than looking around and seeing the trees blowing and thinking, oh, it's windy. It was a much more sort of inner experience than that. And I think there are sort of amazing things to be seen, heard, and felt in weather, aren't they?

Jo Tinsley (23:23):

Yeah. I think one of my favourite things is, have you ever been walking on, I get this on coast paths sometimes, and you hear the rain approaching you before it even gets to you.

Lisa Sykes (23:33):

Oh yes.

Jo Tinsley (23:34):

And so you can hear it kind of pitter. And also the birds go really quiet and you can sort of sense something's happening and the wind changes direction or it just picks up and it feels cooler. And I always say it's going to rain. It's like a joke in my family that I have this rain sense, but then you start to hear it approaching through the bushes and then you feel it. I love those moments.

Lisa Sykes (23:57):

Absolutely. And I think because the thing I like is in the wind, when you see a waterfall going the wrong direction

Jo Tinsley (24:05):

And it gets blowing upwards

Lisa Sykes (24:08):

And it literally blows up into the air. And I remember showing my kids this when they were quite small. I mean, I told them it was magic, and they believe me the way they do when they're very small. But actually there are spectacular things. And I know one of the things you are really into and you've been looking at is British rainforests, which when you first talked to me about this, I was like, rainforests in Britain really? Go and tell us a bit about

Jo Tinsley (24:37):

Them. Well, they're just such incredible places, but you might have been to them and not even realised because they're just marked as woods or forests on maps. The first time I found one, I found it completely by accident. So I was walking along the cri and canal in Argyle, and I saw these stone steps that were vanishing into a mass of ferns. And I was like, okay, so I can't resist a path like that. I, I'm going to walk up there.

Lisa Sykes (24:59):

No, you've got to follow that. Right.

Jo Tinsley (25:01):

So I stepped away from this gently bustling towpath, and I found myself in this really hushed still rainforest. I didn't know at the time that that's what it was, but it had these sort of stunted oak trees and hazel trees, and they were clinging to the hillside covered in lichens and moss and ferns, really other worldy place.

Lisa Sykes (25:19):

Wow. Yeah. You see, I think I've been to some, but just not realised because they're proper seeping with water, aren't they? And so where do you find them?

Jo Tinsley (25:30):

So you find them generally on the western coast. So North Wales, Western Scotland, cumbia, Southwestern England. And they're actually, these are really rare habitats. They're more threatened than tropical rainforest.

Lisa Sykes (25:41):

Wow.

Jo Tinsley (25:42):

But there's so many that you can see. But yeah, they're just such gorgeous places. They're so green, they're like startlingly green all year round. And because the air is

Lisa Sykes (25:52):

Because they're really moist, aren't they? Yeah. I mean they don't dry up at all, do they?

Jo Tinsley (25:56):

No. And because of that dampness in the air, you get what's called epiphytes, which are plants that grow on plants. And so these are ferns, Moss, lichens, and the lichens have really wonderful names like Elf Ears and Old Man's Beard, which is Whiskers and Black-eyed Susan. They're all really sort of wonderful names.

Lisa Sykes (26:14):

It all sounds a bit talking, doesn't it? It's all a bit Lord of the Rings, isn't

Jo Tinsley (26:18):

It? It is, yeah. It really reminds me of Fango Forest.

Lisa Sykes (26:21):

Absolutely.

Jo Tinsley (26:22):

And people do in Westmans Wood on Dartmore, this is the place where people, there's most fairy sightings reported. They are. They're magical places that can really transport you. But I think Guy Shrub wrote a book about it and has a campaign to save these spaces

Lisa Sykes (26:38):

Because there's hardly any left. Right. They've mainly been used for other things. Yeah,

Jo Tinsley (26:44):

Yeah. They used to cover 20% of the country, and they're just little fragments of them nowadays. But he talks about these air trees, which is where a seed, a tree seed has grown on a branch of another tree. And you get these kind of miniature kingdoms growing up, or phoenix trees where trees fall down and regrow in strange shapes. So they're just such interesting places to visit.

Lisa Sykes (27:09):

Oh yeah. And I mean, I definitely want to go, especially now I know a bit more about them. Your article in fact is in, I'll give you a little plug. Joe is in our new April issue, which is on sale now. No, but it's a fascinating world because you really didn't know they existed. And once you are in them, I think you can appreciate why rain is so important. But also they're just meant to be wet. They just wouldn't exist if they weren't that wet.

Jo Tinsley (27:35):

No, it's true. And just they've found recently that they can glow in the dark as well if you have UV torches. So even in the dark, they have these sort of fantastic colours running through them. They look like a coral reef or something.

Lisa Sykes (27:50):

And quite a few of them open access land or are they mainly private?

Jo Tinsley (27:55):

No, quite a few of them you can go to. And there's actually on guy's website, you can go and find a map of them. That's what he's been doing is mapping them so that we know where they are and appreciate them and protect them.

Lisa Sykes (28:06):

So you see us being a nation have been obsessed with the weather. This is a good example of why that's important. Yeah, because we do talk about rain quite a lot, don't we? In this country?

Jo Tinsley (28:16):

We do. We do. And I guess that's one of the reasons why we've got so many words for rain as well, like regional words. They're all different around the country.

Lisa Sykes (28:24):

Oh yeah. No, it depends where you come from, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. No, I'm trying to think of what we call it up in Yorkshire. Actually, I can't remember this, but quite a lot. Quite a lot of words though, isn't there?

Jo Tinsley (28:34):

I've actually prepared a few here. I thought we could have a little game, Lisa, where I tell you,

Lisa Sykes (28:40):

Okay, so you didn't tell me about this. Okay, right. I'll prepare to embarrass myself. Go on then throw one at me.

Jo Tinsley (28:46):

I'll tell you some regional words for rain. I want you to tell me what type of rain it is, and if you can where that words from. Okay.

Lisa Sykes (28:52):

Okay. So I'm hoping they're going to be quite on a must then, so I can feel what kind of rain it is.

Jo Tinsley (28:57):

Well, I think the first one will be, okay, so the first one is donk. And you should know this one because it's from Yorkshire.

Lisa Sykes (29:02):

Well, it's not from my part of Yorkshire, but I'm guessing it's really heavy rain. It sounds like plunk a bit, doesn't it? Is it really big drips of rain?

Jo Tinsley (29:11):

Yeah, this is heavy dripping rain. Nice. Well done.

Lisa Sykes (29:14):

Okay, go on then. Keep

Jo Tinsley (29:15):

Them coming. The next one is cow Quaker.

Lisa Sykes (29:19):

Well that's got to be something. Don't cows lay down when there's a thunderstorm coming. Is that something to do with that? I mean,

Jo Tinsley (29:26):

You are almost right. So this is a sudden storm in May. That's quite specific. That happens after the cows have been let out to graze. So it is something perhaps a bit unexpected.

Lisa Sykes (29:35):

Yeah, that sounds like farmers woods for rain, doesn't it?

Jo Tinsley (29:39):

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Sykes (29:40):

Okay. I'm not doing too badly. Keep going then.

Jo Tinsley (29:43):

Okay, you might know this one. How about

Lisa Sykes (29:44):

A quiz?

Jo Tinsley (29:46):

How about Drie?

Lisa Sykes (29:47):

Oh, now I do know that because that is Scottish word and it means a really bleak, miserable day actually sometimes just sort of every day. Nothing day, isn't it? It's just a bit,

Jo Tinsley (29:59):

Yeah. It's a gloomy miserable day, isn't it?

Lisa Sykes (30:01):

No, it's such an expressive word though, isn't it?

Jo Tinsley (30:05):

Yeah. And how about the word dimp Sy, have you heard that one?

Lisa Sykes (30:08):

Oh, well I know the word. I didn't know it meant rain, though.

Jo Tinsley (30:11):

You might know the word because it's actually a Pharaoh and ball colour.

Lisa Sykes (30:15):

Well, that would be why there. Yeah, I do have a few faren bore colours in my house.

Jo Tinsley (30:21):

So this is a low cloud with a fine rain. It's actually a word that originates on.

Lisa Sykes (30:27):

Oh, interesting, interesting. Yeah. And of course I do know missile. I was trying to think if I knew any words. And I do know missile, and that's the fine rain that you get a really soaks you through, which is kind of like a mixture of mist and drizzle, isn't it?

Jo Tinsley (30:39):

It's a really drenching drizzle, isn't it? Yeah, we get a lot of that in here.

Lisa Sykes (30:43):

But I think if all, I like the word drizzle because I think if you get sort of down by all the talk of rain, drizzle of course has another meaning, especially in the land of simple things because you can also drizzle a lemon cake, can't you? So you can go and chew yourself up if it's drizzling by making a drizzle

Jo Tinsley (31:00):

Cake. And it used to have cake.

Lisa Sykes (31:02):

Absolutely. And that's the thing, you don't really need to go anywhere to seize the moment to relish the weather because I am a keen gardener, but I only really have the weekends to garden. And you can feel really thwarted by waiting for the weekend to get out in your garden and then it's raining or it's frosty or the wind's blowing or it affects what you can do. But actually there's always something you can do in the garden, doesn't it? Again, it's that whole planning to be spontaneous thing that we were talking about earlier.

Jo Tinsley (31:32):

Yeah. So it's good to have rather than a rigid plan, it's good to have this loose plan of if it's raining, you can do this. If it's sunny, you can do that. So yeah, planning to be spontaneous is a good idea.

Lisa Sykes (31:42):

I like that. So on a windy day, one of the things you could do is really high energy activities because I don't know, there's something about windy that gives you that kind of, it's like when I take my dog out and it's windy, they really want to run around a lot and I think we must have some of that sense in us. And so digging, turning, compost, mulching, doing things that take a bit of oomph, I think is quite nice in the wind.

Jo Tinsley (32:07):

That's true. And then on a sunny day, I mean that is your signal to just get out right now, drop whatever you are doing and get outside.

Lisa Sykes (32:14):

Absolutely.

Jo Tinsley (32:15):

But also follow the sun's warmth. So don't have a plan of what you're going to do. Just work where the sunshine is

Lisa Sykes (32:24):

And as it moves around your garden, because actually some jobs when the sun comes out and it's quite warm are actually too hot to do in the sun. But other ones, you don't want to be working in a little shivery bit of your garden if you're just planting something

Jo Tinsley (32:37):

And it helps you do those laborious that you might be putting off because you are having that moment definitely of kind of basking in the warmth of the sunshine, then you can actually make yourself do things that you don't really want to be doing.

Lisa Sykes (32:50):

And actually, if it's really raining, the thing to do is to go and visit a garden because they're a lot less busy. The famous gardens in the rain and the flowers look amazing, and you can just wander around with an umbrella and they've always got hard paths. So it's actually the best time to go. That's true. But how much more satisfying to feel you've made the most of a day rather than being thwarted by it? I think we've been quite successful and that we've managed to do quite a few things with relish here. Joe.

Jo Tinsley (33:14):

I think we have, yeah,

Lisa Sykes (33:16):

There's a choice. There's a choice. They, I mean, I dunno, whatcha going to do with, have you got anything you're going to do as been inspired by our chat today? I

Jo Tinsley (33:24):

Have. I mean, because I'm a freelancer writer, I didn't take the bank holiday off, so I think I'm going to reclaim the day and I'm going to have going to bunk off. Nice. I might not tell you where that's going to be right yet, but maybe after I've done it

Lisa Sykes (33:38):

I was going to say I was going to ask you, but that's absolutely fine. Well, I am going to be very open about what I'm going to do. I'm going to spend a whole day in my garden with no other responsibility, so I'm going to need the compliance of my family to make this work. But I am going to relish every second, whatever the weather.

Jo Tinsley (33:54):

That sounds lovely.

Lisa Sykes (33:55):

So thank you Joe for helping us seize the moment today. It's always nice to have you with us.

Jo Tinsley (33:59):

Yeah, thank you. And I'll be back soon. I I'll be back soon for episode five.

Lisa Sykes (34:04):

You will. You're coming back for episode five. Yeah. And we are calling that one bloom, which is going to be about finding small ways to flourish both for you and enjoying seeing Nature flourish as well. And I'll be back next week too with episode four where we're going to be talking about fresh air, fresh food, and fresh thinking. You can subscribe on your podcast app so you don't miss an episode. And thanks to Pause the subscription box from the Charity Mind for supporting this season. And I think relishing one of their mindful activities in the pack is a good way to spend a day this spring. Donations cost from seven pound 50 and you'll be supporting Minds Work, helping people with mental health issues. And you can find out more@pauseformind.org uk slash simple. And the links also in the description. And don't forget, you can also subscribe to the simple things through our website. Thanks very much for listening. Bye.