May Days - Episode 2 - TEND

Join editor of The Simple Things magazine Lisa Sykes and regular contributor and author of The Slow Traveller Jo Tinsley as they explore ways of tending to your patch and your flock, whether that’s pottering in the garden, looking after your local bees or exploring your local neighbourhood. 

If you are in the UK, you can try an immediate start subscription to the The Simple Things and receive the current issue straight away. Or buy current and back issues here

Thanks to our sponsor Titanic Belfast. Find out more and how to visit at titanicbelfast.com and on Instagram @titanicbelfast

Editing and music by Arthur Cosslett

In the May issue (167) available to buy here

A good life: On the edge of the Derbyshire Dales, Michelle Tansley grows food and flowers in her cottage garden. 

Pottering about: Clever ways to give old plant pots new purpose in the garden 

My Neighbourhood Frome 

Leave it and reap: Plant once and harvest for years: perennial vegetables are an easy addition to a plot 

Churchyard rewilding

Coming up in the June issue – on sale from 29 May or try an immediate start subscription to get it earlier

Simple ideas, using recycled materials, to help your garden grow and bloom. Taken from Way to Grow: Over 100 hacks for green-fingered greatness by Simon Akeroyd (DK)

From back issues available to buy here

Know a thing or two: bees (Flourish Volume 3)

DIY beeswax wraps (issue 96)

Gathering: For a Sunday lunch with a difference ask friends to BYOT – bring your own trowel – and share the joy of planting and potting for the new season (issue 141)

On the blog

Garden hacks | Turn a shoe-hanger into a tool rack

Garden hacks | Reuse cooking water on your plants

Garden hacks | Make a colander hanging basket

Garden hacks | DIY seed tapes

Beeswax wraps

Stress-busting Massage Balm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello, this is the Small Ways to Live Well podcast from The Simple Things, a monthly magazine that's all about taking time to live well. I'm Lisa Sykes, the editor, and today is episode two of our May Days and summer afternoon season. We're calling this one Tend because it's just that time, isn't it, when you want to enjoy your garden but also work in it, especially the veg patch. And we're going to be learning more about bees and a bit randomly, stick insects. More on that later. And also why exploring our neighbourhoods is good for you. And this season is supported by Titanic Belfast. So we're very pleased to be working through them. And for anyone who doesn't know, it is a visitor experience in Belfast that tells the story of the famous ship on the original site where she was built and launched. And there are interactive galleries where you can experience the sights and the sounds and the smells of the ship. And we're going to be sharing a few of the artifacts and stories during this episode and our all season, in fact. And you can find out more at titanicbelfast.com or follow them on Instagram at Titanic Belfast. So today I'm joined by our regular co-host, Joe Tinsley, author of The Slow Traveller, and obviously a regular contributor to the magazine. So, Joe, how is tending your garden going so far this spring?

Becs Frank 1:27

Well, I haven't I haven't done much so far, to be honest, but I've got a bit of a tricky proposition in my garden. I was trying to get some veg in and then I let the rest go a little bit wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, I think the thing is about a veg patch, right, is it's a great joy, it's very satisfying, but there's no doubt that however big your garden is, they take 90% of the effort, don't they?

Becs Frank 1:46

Yeah, yeah, so true.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah. And I think my own veg patch history has been a bit of a curve, really. And I think it's probably one that a lot of people follow. I started off, you know, with a little garden patch, then I had an allotment, which was like, you know, a big deal and it took a lot of time, but I loved it. And then I had a bigger garden, so then I had a veg patch in my garden and with hens. And then I kind of downgraded that to raised beds, which are now a bit fallow, and they're mainly got, I think that's a nice way to put it. It's kind of semi-cutting garden, but really it's self-seeded things. Yeah. And but there's perennials, there's like rhubarb and fruit bushes, and I still go tomatoes in my greenhouse because I love them so much. But basically, I've realized that I've kind of stopped growing veg and I'm really a fruit grower now. It just all feels a bit harder work now. I've got a bit older, I think. But I do like that idea, you know, that we've got this feature in May issue, haven't we? The issue that's on sale now about plant wants veg.

Becs Frank 2:40

Yeah, perennial veg, yeah. And mine's mine's similar. So I've got this fantastic legacy from the last owners who were really good gardeners, and then I've really just let it go. But yeah, they they left loads of perennial veg. So we've got an asparagus bed, perennial kale, rhubarb, two types of artichoke, so many berries and currants. And then we've got these veg beds at the top because it's like a detached garden on four tiers going up the valley side. And it's a really yeah, it's a really interesting garden. But I'm always like, I'm always quite envious of other people's gardens because like I've got a five-year-old who does not play independently at all. Um, she needs a lot. And there's people with attached gardens or kids that look after themselves for a few minutes, and they've got a lot nicer gardens than me. But you know, one day.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

No, there's definitely life stages where gardening gets more attention from you, I think. Yeah, um, and you're probably not in it right now. But you've got an asparagus bed. I'm so jealous because they take really long time to kind of get established. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're really interesting. Do you harvest it then?

Becs Frank 3:35

Yeah, yeah, we do. Yeah, for I don't know how long it is. It's only a very brief window and it stops on June 21st, you know, precisely that day. You have to stop cooking it, and then you let them go, which is really cool because they turn into these huge kind of fern kind of plants. It's very interesting. But oh, lovely. No, it's really cool because perennials are fantastic because they like they deal they deal better with bad weather and with drought and with floods and everything that you know, we get a lot of that around here.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, no, you don't need to look after them so much, do you? Because they're already established, yeah.

Becs Frank 4:04

Yeah, and they're great food for pollinators, they need less weeding, they're often native plants. They fill the hungry gap, which talked about this before.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, yeah.

Becs Frank 4:12

When when there's very little to be harvested. So between sort of March and May, when you're putting seeds in perhaps, but there's nothing coming back, you've got always got your perennials.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

No, because if you think about it, they don't have to start from scratch every year, do they? So they're already like, you know, getting going come the beginning of March.

Becs Frank 4:28

There's always something to pick in the garden. It's like this permanent larder, which I really like.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, no, I I think that's great. It's just really nice to have that, isn't it? But I'm interested about your veg patch not being attached to your house because it's up the hill, right? Because you said to me you're in a frost pocket at the bottom of the hill.

Becs Frank 4:46

Yeah, so we're in a valley of like silk, old silk mills, and I think my house is like a stonemason's house, right? Down down in the valley, which has loads of frost, and it's you know, it takes a while for the sun to hit it. Yeah, yeah. But every house has a patch up the valley. So I have to go past two other houses up these wonky steps, and then when I get there, it's like four different tiers. Yeah, it's I mean, it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

That's so interesting. No, because it the builder who built those houses, presumably, or somebody knew about gardening, didn't they? Somebody knew putting those plots up at the top, because every house has got one, it's really clever. And I'm very sadly watching these houses being built in an old yard behind our house at the moment, and they've crammed, you know, four huge houses into a tiny space, and you know, they're all looking into each other's windows and stuff. But what hasn't been considered at all in the planning of these houses is the garden and the aspect of the garden because aspect is so important in a garden, isn't it? Yeah, you know, depending on what you want to use it for. And the the most expensive house of the four, i.e., the biggest, has got the worst natural light and the smallest garden.

Becs Frank 5:56

So silly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

They're just really sad little gardens that have got no afterthought, and they, you know, they're gonna just bung a load of topsoil on it and they've removed trees to build them in the first place. And it just that wasn't always the case because obviously the people who built your house or your uh you know, few houses there or knew to put the gardens somewhere where people could use them. But of course, that's the thing. Everybody would e even if you worked in an urban job, you would have had a little plot, wouldn't you?

Becs Frank 6:23

I think that I think the interesting thing is it's a completely different climate. So, like, you know, we once you go up top, it's it's baking, and that's really hard for the seedlings because you know I'm growing them down at the you know terrace level where I am. Oh yes. And they're they're you know, they're sort of frosty little things. And then and then you take them up and they're suddenly baking. And it changes because it goes up into the mendips, it goes up into you know fields and and woodlands above.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

It's so yeah, no, because I mean my garden's like a nature reserve, it it never needs water in apart from pots because there's so much natural shade from trees and shrubs and stuff. But yeah, yeah, so it's water a big issue then. It's a really big issue. You must like that feature we just did. Sorry, I just got excited because uh it's relevant. No, I know. I was really excited to see this. Yeah, so it's in the also in the May issue, and it's about making things with old plant pots. But one of them, and you're gonna tell me how to pronounce this because as we know from previous episodes, pronunciation is not my strong point.

Becs Frank 7:18

It's written OLA, but apparently it's oh yes. And so it's when you get two terracotta pots and you kind of seal them together upside down, dig them into the soil and then and then pour water in, and so it kind of seeps through slowly into the into the ground, which I think I'm actually gonna do this because we don't have, you know, I've got a tap down in the valley, yeah. There's one water butt at the bottom of the garden just to take it up to the veg patch at the top, it's a slog, isn't it? So, yeah, this is a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Really good. Because, you know, one of the reasons I stopped growing veg, well, and keeping hens, actually, is because we go up north a lot to see the family, and so I'm not always there, you know, at regular weekend times to tend the patch, water everything.

Becs Frank 7:59

Things can change so much at this time of year as well, can't they?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah, and so actually doing something where you can have the water trickling out, irrigation would be quite good. Yeah. Um, but I I like the wind chime though. The wind chime was very sweet. People will just have to buy the issue to get all the instructions. But there's lots of clever ideas for coming up with, you know, things to do with pots, but also coming up in June, there's this new book that we've come across called Way to Grow 100 Hacks for Green Fingered Greatness by uh Simon Akyroyd. And we'll put the link to that in our show notes. In fact, I should just say we'll put links to any blog references, issues of the mag books in our show notes that come on your app. But he had they had some great ideas in this book. So we we've put a few in this feature. One of them, using camembert boxes for seeds, because they're really light, you can stack them, they keep the seeds dry and dark. So that but you know, it begs the question, doesn't it? How much camembert do you eat?

Becs Frank 8:57

No, but I feel I feel like it's a reason to eat can and bear, which I quite like. It's like reverse engineering it. Because I found this with you know, you know, the goo pots, you know, the little fancy desserts. When I realized that you could put tea lights in them for camping, I was like, well, I need obviously I need to eat more goo.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Eat more of those cheesecakes, yeah.

Becs Frank 9:13

Yeah, and I lol lollysticks for plant labels. It's like um, you know, you're literally doing it for the plot.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I know. I mean, frankly, lollysticks, goo pots, and camembert, that's a good summer, right there, isn't it? You're doing it for the plot. That's what we need to do. But actually, some of it's about thinking laterally if you're about to throw something away, isn't it?

Becs Frank 9:31

And you know you don't like throwing things away, do you?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

No, I'm I'm really bad. I always think I'll save it and I'll mend it. Can I reuse it? And of course I don't end up mending it. But like, for example, right, I could use instead of camembert boxes, I could use gift boxes because I never throw away a little gift box when I've had a gift, right? How many gift boxes have you got? So I have got a box full of boxes. Box of boxes and and also ribbons, right? I've got a box of ribbons that have been tied riding things that I just can't bear to throw away. And I've got a whole box of those, right? And it's like, what when am I ever going to use ribbons? Actually, there is one idea because one of the other ideas in this feature was about ways to use old tights. Yeah, right. And they they make really good tree ties because they don't cut into the bark and they're sort of hidden in the foliage. But I'm not sure I want to see my old tights hanging around in my trees, to be honest. But I could use my ribbons, maybe. You could. You know, if they're quite thick, it'd be like some kind of wish tree. Yeah, then wouldn't that look pretty? You know, my little nieces and nephews would love all that when they come round as well. Yeah. So it'd be good. Yeah, so I quite like that. So maybe I will find a use for my ribbons after all.

Becs Frank 10:43

There was loads of good hacks, wasn't there, in that feature? Because there's um there was one about the white thing. So this is about they do it in vineyards, putting white rocks or stones, lumps of chalk, things like that around the base of the plant and it reflects the sunlight. It speeds up the ripening of the grapes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

But I could put do that in my greenhouse with my tomatoes because they always get some tomato, you know, with it's unreliable to get stuff to ripen here, isn't it? But I could put it in my greenhouse and they'd all ripen then. Very good. I love this idea of just thinking about things differently. Anyway, well, I I got quite into this, so I found a load more on our blog actually that we'd done previously. So, like using cooking water, this is good for you. Using cooking water in your garden, actually, you still have to lug it up the hill, sorry, Joe. That's pretty obvious about using cooking water, but I of course I what I hadn't thought is because I always think, oh, you've got to wait for it to cool down. But if you use hot water, you can use it to kill the weeds because it'll just actually kill them. But also, some of your water, your cooled water, will have nutrients in. Like if you've boiled an egg, it'll have calcium from the eggs and stuff, which is good for the plants. So, um, yeah. And there's DIY seed tapes. You know how fiddly it is to plant individual seeds. So you basically get a tape that's a biodegradable one and stick just stick the seeds on the tape and then plant the tape. Oh, I see, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I know, it's good, isn't it? We've got links to those, so I'll put them in the thing. I think we could go on sometime, but we've got lots to fit in.

unknown 12:03

We do.

Becs Frank 12:03

It's like it's gonna be our longest episode.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

I know, I think so, because it's quite an exciting time in the garden, though, isn't it?

Becs Frank 12:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

So we did a we did one of my favourite gatherings. So a gathering for anyone who doesn't read the magazine regularly is like the heart of what Simple Things is about. It's about sharing good food with family and friends and you know, just really enjoying it. It's not about spending hours in the kitchen, so the recipes are quite simple. But this was about inviting friends over. It was a bring your own trowel gathering, which I love. You're basically getting people over to sow seeds and swap seedlings and then thank them for their help with an alfresco dinner. And I know you like the what was it, the bruschetta bar.

Becs Frank 12:40

The bruschetta bar, yeah. So they had homemade bruschetta and then this whole table of toppings. I love that kind of thing. They had like pea and mint and blue cheese, pear and walnut, artichoke and pecorino.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

It's great because it's basically just laying things on the table, isn't it? I know. But they they did do a little project which was cool, which is using eggshells to sow seeds in.

Becs Frank 12:59

To then give them away to share them.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yeah, and then when the seedlings big enough to plant out, you just crush the eggshell and then the root can get going. Yeah, yeah. I do love when you find because I always think I'm gonna grow my own seeds and and then I don't get around to doing as many as I want, or I've done too many of wanting.

Becs Frank 13:16

Or you do too many, I end up doing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, exactly. So I love it when you find seedlings and plants for sale on a table outside someone's house.

Becs Frank 13:25

In a little honesty box, yeah, yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I I I'd actually love to do an honesty box outside my house, but when I got thinking about it, actually we were talking about this the other day, weren't we? And we were trying to work out if we had enough skills to fill one.

Becs Frank 13:38

Yeah, I feel like it's something that you'd want to do with a community. You know, like you know, I've won it like a little hamlet on the edge of a town, and um yeah. I if we all put stuff in at various times and you wouldn't feel the pressure towards doing it, all this could be like a bit of a swap shop. I think that could uh I think that could be nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

What would you put in one? I I think jam and chutney are pretty much uh you know essential, aren't they? Because it's about using up your glutes, isn't it?

Becs Frank 14:00

Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure of seedlings, definitely. I mean, I always like this is a completely different topic, but I always like the idea of one of those free little libraries. Oh, yeah, you could put books in, couldn't you? Yeah, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

No, that would be great. I'd love another I'd I might do a book box, you know, because I'm always taking books to charity and actually I could just put them in the book box outside the house. And they're such a joy to stumble upon, aren't they, these things? Yeah, really nice. You do get interesting things in them, don't you? And it because it what was that one you were telling me about near you in Wells the other day? Oh, it's microgreens, which is quite shishy, wasn't it? This is very random, isn't it?

Becs Frank 14:34

Very random, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

So um Lucy Brazi, who writes for us regularly, she did a whole series for us on Odyssey Boxes because she keeps one. She lives down in Devon. She kind of has ebbs and flows with it, doesn't she? Sometimes she can fill it and sometimes she struggles to fill it. But she had loads of great ideas, didn't she, about you know making a speedy fridge jam with raspberries, you know, that you can just put in there.

Becs Frank 14:58

Yeah, she was writing about um what to do with gluts, you know, of things. And she she had one phrase which was like, a chutney full of homemade produce is a certain sort of smug, which I think is quite good. I'd be very smug if I actually made chutney. So she had all these ideas for you know things to do with marrows and and and stuff that you could then, you know, offer out in the honesty box. Or sometimes she just says she just makes oat cookies when everyone's hard at work and nothing's necessarily growing, but everyone's like mixing stuff in the garden. She puts out oat cookies for for people who are tending their gardens, and it's like it's really nice.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, no, you've got to you've got to think about kind of what white people want at that time of year, haven't they? And you know, you could obviously put little jugs of flowers, little jam jars of flowers in the things, couldn't you as well, which people might like.

Becs Frank 15:40

Yeah, I mean, I love honesty boxes. I I wrote about this in The Slow Traveller and I was writing about it in this uh chapter that was about road trips, it was about not setting an end goal and kind of freeing yourself up to go on spontaneous detours. Oh, yeah. And I once followed a sign saying honesty box this way for miles, for miles down this single track road in Scotland, which I was fine with. Was there anything at the end? Oh, it's fantastic. It was this shed selling delicious homemade ready meals like venison casserole and stuff like that, and like this gorgeous secluded beach. I mean, we didn't have an oven, so we couldn't use it. But it was there was there was stuff we could buy there. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's just the the joy of following those signs. Like, how can you not take the turn?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I know. I stopped, I stopped at a cake shed near Sedba in Cumbria last week. It got me at Cake Shed This Way.

Becs Frank 16:27

It got me at Cake Shed.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I just as soon as I saw Cake Shed This Way, I was like swerving the car, you know. And I just think so I got there and it was like it was a really sweet, like bright pink cabinet that they'd made. And it was so organized. It was like you opened the door and they had QR codes for the different things to pay online. Or they did have a traditional cash box as well, but it was all wrapped and kind of, you know, and there were cheese straws, there was Belgian buns, there was cake. I mean, it wasn't cheap, it was kind of like cafe prices, you know, it wasn't like a bargain. No, that what they've got, but it was great because we were in that tricky time, you know. We were about to do a long car journey, and it wasn't, it was like we needed something to push on to lunch, you know. Yeah, so it was perfect.

Becs Frank 17:11

I came across one of those when I was in um British Columbia. There was this um kind of off-grid self-sufficient island called Skeetie, and um, yeah, there was a cookie stand.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

So that's a little bit more exotic than I was in Cumbria. This was a while ago. All right, Joe, with your well-travels.

Becs Frank 17:26

So they had like 20 varieties of cookies with all the like ingredients and all of them, and it was just like, this is amazing. Like, who needs a bakery? We've got this.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

I also like it when people just leave stuff saying free, please take.

Becs Frank 17:40

That's a city thing, isn't it? We don't we get that a lot lesser.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

You see, I live in quite a big village. So you know, there's quite a lot of new newer houses there, so it's sort of spread out. And I was doing a run, and fortunately it was on the way back from my run, but I came home with a 50s four mica table.

Becs Frank 17:57

That's gonna at least make you slow down to a geography.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

It had a wobbly leg, but it was like, it was so I could not resist bringing it home. It was and it was just outside someone's house, and I've also got a trolley that I was now in my bathroom. Yeah, I found a wooden letter holder that I've got in my kitchen. Uh at the office, obviously, we get our magazines delivered on pallets, and we never know really what because people don't want the couriers, don't want to take them away. And so we we I've used, you know, built compost heaps with them and I've taken them home, but there's too many really. But so now we just stick them on the end of the road and put free please take, and they don't even last a day.

Becs Frank 18:32

Yeah. People do so much with pallets, don't they?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, and it also it's nice to know someone's got something for free. I think it's good.

Becs Frank 18:38

We we've got someone down the road who always has honey out, and I always think that's good because you there's this thing, isn't there, that if you've got hay fever, yeah, you want a local honey, you want a local bee. Yeah. So I thought that was good because it, you know, it helped with allergies. But I actually looked it up and it comes from this um sort of folk remedy-based idea where you if you have trace amounts of local pollen, it will train your immune system to become less sensitive to it. It makes sense, but then I think most people, I'm no expert in this, but I think most people are allergic to tree pollen. And of course, the bees are it's a different type of pollen that they're that they're eating.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And so I don't know if it works. Okay, so it's not going to help quite as much as people think.

Becs Frank 19:14

But the thing is, like it soothes hay fever symptoms because it's got that thick consistency, it soothes the throat, it's a natural cough suppressant. Yeah, it has anti-inflammatory properties. So it's like there's no problem trying it.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

No, it's weird because I've only just got into honey. I never really liked it, but I think it's because I've developed more of a sweet tooth as I've got older. Yeah. So I love a ginger, honey, lemon, yogurt, berry, seed, second breakfast kind of thing. That's a lot. Yeah, I suppose it is. But this is kind of like, you know, mid-morning when you're really hungry, and you know, when you'd normally just scoff some biscuits or something. It's my second protein. Bex told me to eat protein mid-morning, so I'm I'm I'm going with that. I, you know, Bex is my my guru when it comes to well-being advice. The thing about honey though, you do need bees. And could you keep bees? I like A B, but I can't do B's en masse. B's on mass, they just scare me a little bit, really. I I love watching them in my garden, but I couldn't. I could you could you do bees in a high?

Becs Frank 20:14

I mean, I I didn't think I could, but now that now that I'm an insect keeper.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Warning, stick insects coming up. I know when we were when we were talking about this before. Come on, tell the story. Tell the story about your stick insects.

Becs Frank 20:27

Yeah, so my daughter asked for a mouse for Christmas, which I thought was really boring. So I bought her six stick insects instead. Six stick insects is like a tongue twister. It's easy for me to say. But uh, yeah, we all know they're really for me. She's got this real knack with names, so she just reeled them off without hesitation. So we had Tommy Brock, who's uh Grumpy Badger from Peter Rabbit, Better Shoe, Elephant Jones, Brian, Telemachus, and Jemima were the original stick insect. Who's Brian Temellichus? Brian and Telemachus. I think I think Telemachus is from Blue E. I've no idea. But yeah, it's this it's a great project for a kid because you get to forage for their food every week. So you've got to learn to identify, I don't know, six different plants that all grow on our lane. They're all spiky, so I get covered in scratches, or most of them are spiky. It says hawthorn and brambles and rose and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Oh yeah, so that's so you just forage for their food.

unknown 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

That's cool.

Becs Frank 21:16

And then every week you take them out and you remake their kind of stick world and then you put them back in.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Are they like a pet? Do they are they individuals or well?

Becs Frank 21:24

I think so. We've got three different species. And to be honest, like two of the species are a little bit boring. But we've got these McLay spectres.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Oh sorry, there's different species of stick insect.

Becs Frank 21:34

So many different You're gonna hear me say the interesting thing about stick insects, you're gonna hear me say so many sects. I'll m I'll move it along when we feel right we've had too much. Yeah, okay. But yeah, the McLay Spectre ones, which look they're actually stick insects, but they look like leaves. They're so interesting. And we had Tommy Brock and Betty Shu, and they're really hard to tell apart until you picked them up. And then it was really obvious because they had such different characters. Like Betty Shue was always waving. It was so sweet. So what did

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Do anything?

Becs Frank 22:01

Yeah, what do they do? Well, they just they're just really fascinating to watch because they they shed their skin about sort of six times in their lives.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Well, that's pretty interesting, yeah.

Becs Frank 22:11

Yeah, and each time they double in size. So you come downstairs, because they do all this at night. You come downstairs and there's suddenly a massive stick insect. Oh no, they double their size. They double their size each time, and then they eat their skin. Wow. So with a five-year-old, this is this is really, really interesting. But like also it's really dangerous for them when they shed their skin. So Tommy Brock recently got stuck in his skin and he died, which is really which was really sad. Oh poor Tommy. Poor Tommy, exactly. And my daughter was building him a casket the next day and saying some words. And I was thinking, how long do I have to wait before I'm like, should we go get another stick insect? I didn't have to wait long because she came up and she was like, should we get two? And I was like, let's get three. We went and bought three baby, like tiny baby stick insects. Right. Which she's named after K-pop demon hunters. Of course. Of course. They are adorable. I think because they're they're insanely cute, because they look exactly like an adult.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Okay, so when we promote this podcast on social, we need a video of your stick insects. Okay.

Becs Frank 23:08

I have a video. Yeah, yeah. They're like the size of.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Of course you have a video. How long do they live then?

Becs Frank 23:13

About a year, two years.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

So I mean it's it's No, because the reason I ask is my I my friend's son went to uni and she announced that she was now a stick insect carer because she was able to look after these. So they obviously live a while.

Becs Frank 23:26

But the thing is they can also reproduce without a male. Whoa, so you can suddenly end up with lots of stick insects. I think that's the sort of story you hear a lot of. So but that's another interesting thing because if they reproduce in a normal way of a male and a female, you get like a normal egg. But if they produce reproduce without a male, you get they clone themselves.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

I would actually like to know more, but I think we probably need to get back to bees. But there you go, a whole world of stick insects. Who knew? And now and they do sound cool though. They do sound cool. Like you say, a great project with a kid as well. Yeah.

Becs Frank 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

But um, but back to bees, yeah, it's the swarms that scare me. That's what it is. You know, I I would I would really find it difficult if they suddenly swarmed and then I wouldn't know what to do. But you there is lots of advice out there, isn't there? There's lots of, you know, you join a beekeeper society, don't you? And you can they, you know, they support each other.

Becs Frank 24:14

Yeah, but I think the swarms aren't actually scary because we had to know a thing or two about bees feature, didn't we? That if you find a swarm, because they can just suddenly decide to move house, they're really docile and they're very unlikely to sting. And apparently you just call the British Beekeepers Associations. Okay. Chances are an excited hooded figure will arrive with surprising speed and take them away because they're really highly priced and they cost a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, because you've got a ready-made um hive, basically, haven't you? Yeah.

Becs Frank 24:42

Yeah, free bees. And so um, yeah, it's uh it's never a problem.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Very good. But I do like the idea because I do like to see them in my garden. I like the idea of growing things for bees, you know. So we and obviously we we've talked about this quite a lot, and and I think probably in the same piece, we'll put a link to it. You know, lavender is obviously great for attracting pollinators, but what I didn't realise is that not all lavender is as good as other ones. So Hidcoat, which is a quite a common one, is very hardy and bees love it. And obviously, that flowers all summer, really. So that's good. The one that I'm very keen on is blackberries because I have a and I'm going to call it a bramble patch when it's as though I've actually created it and intended it, but it's really just you know the bottom end of my garden that has gone a bit mad. But it it's great. Well, there are loads of bees, but I didn't realise brambles were so good because their season for blossom is much longer than loads of plants, you know, June right through to September. So actually, it can be a crucial food source, especially if you know spring blossoms haven't done as well as normal. So yeah, loads of stuff on bees there. And just before we leave bees, what about beeswax? Beeswax is great, isn't it? We we you can make so many things from it.

Becs Frank 25:54

Yeah, we had this feature about um making I can't even say this, beeswax wrap wraps. Beeswaeswax wraps they're great. I use them all the time. But actually they're they're they're really fairly simple to make, right? So you cut out these fabric squares. How do you make it then? So you cut out the squares and then you melt pine resin, beeswax, and uh, how do you say it, Jehovah oil? Jehovah oil? Yes. Line a baking sheet, pop them on it, sprinkle over the mixture, and bake it, and then you kind of brush it on, bake it again, and then hang them to dry, and you've made your own wraps.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

You know what? I'm gonna have a go because I bought some the other day and it was like 17 quid for three, which you know, they do last quite a long time. And then you can re-coat them, I think, can't you? But I'm gonna have a go. They'd be a good thing to put in your honesty box, though, wouldn't they? You see, I've filled it already in my head. It's already built, filled, being a huge success. Yeah, exactly. But we we've got a couple of links that we'll put on there for other things about beeswax as well that we'll put on our show notes. But I feel like we could go on, Joe, but I I feel like it's time for our story. It's actually very late in the day for our story. So I'm going to make myself a ginger and honey uh cupper while we listen to it. Twelve year old Lucas couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. I don't understand, sir. You want me to put the pigeon back where I found it? That's what I said, replied Mr Enfield wearily, as he stood in the staff room doorway clutching a steaming cup of coffee. But sir, pleaded Lucas, didn't you hear me when I said I think its wing is broken? It's scared. Just then the bird, which was in a large walker's crisp box in Lucas' hands, flapped its good wing and cooed. Mr Enfield looked pointedly at the box for several moments, before returning his attention to Lucas. I understand you want to help this pigeon. I really do, and it's a good thing to want to help animals, but to be honest, there's very little that can be done for the poor thing. If we had the time we could, I suppose, take it to the RSPCA, but all they're gonna do is put it down. Lucas stared at Mr Enfield scandalized. But sir, he's only got a broken wing. They can mend broken wings, can't they? Before Mr Enfield could reply, Miss Merritt, the German teacher, strode towards the staff room. As Mr Enfield moved to get out of the way, she looked briefly at the box, then at Mr Enfield, and then wordlessly carried on her way. Do you have any idea how many pigeons there are in the world? asked Mr Enfield. Lucas shrugged. Go on, have a guess. Lucas had no idea. He also knew, however, that he couldn't just shrug again, so he said a million? Try four hundred times that. Lucas looked at Mr Enfield blankly. He wasn't really sure what point the man was trying to make, but he could tell from the expression on his face that one was certainly being made. That's four hundred million pigeons, which is an awful lot. I've got a class to teach in um he paused and looked at his watch. Seven minutes and thirty one seconds, so I can't take this pigeon that's one of four hundred million to the RSPCA just so they can put it down. And my guess is you've got somewhere to you need to be after morning break too. Double English with Mrs. Adabeo, said Lucas. See, said Mr Enfield. You haven't got time to take the pigeon to the RSPCA either, have you? Lucas thought for a moment. I can always miss it and catch up later. We're only doing poetry and I hate poetry. A flicker of a smile played on Mr Enfield's lips. That's hardly the point, though, is it? The point is I haven't got the time, you haven't got the time, and there are four hundred million pigeons in the world, so one less is not really going to make any difference, is it? Take the pigeon back to where you found him, put the box in the bin, wash your hands, and by then it'll be time for double English, okay? Lucas knew that Mr Enfield's okay wasn't so much as a question as an indication that the conversation was over. But it wasn't over for Lucas. This would be a conversation he would revisit time and time again throughout his adult life. Whenever anyone threw their hands up and said there was only so much you could do, or that some problems were so intractable they were impossible to solve, and even though they'd always look at him oddly, he would tell them what he'd never told Mr Enfield, what he should have said at the time. But what if it was you in the crisp box? I think it's such a common feeling, isn't it, that there's only so much you can do and you know you're powerless to help. In fact, we're gonna be doing an article on this very thing in the summer about how to do something when you can't do anything. Because, you know, when everyone's fed up with the world and doesn't feel like they can do anything to help, we're gonna do a piece about how to how to channel that and feel less powerless. But it's a good opportunity to mention our supporters this season again because Titanic Belfast, the the visitor experience that explores the story of the ship and the people who sailed on her, I mean, they must have felt like that on the Titanic, of course, on that fatal night when it was um, you know, had it hit the iceberg. And what's interesting, because we the obviously our story was about a pet, well, a pet pigeon, sort of. Um and um there were there were lots of animals on board Titanic that needed rescuing too, yeah, including pet dogs. And obviously they had the ship's cat called Jenny. But the two interest two interesting things, the dogs were exercised daily by a steward on the poop deck. On the poop deck, that makes sense, which I love, and also apparently, really sadly, they were planning to hold a dog show of all the dogs on board on the 15th of April. That would have been so good, and um, but two dogs did survive a Pomeranian called Bibby and a Pick and Ease. I guess they were lap dogs, of course, because they wouldn't be able to be carried. But actually, you know, the more I kind of look into the Titanic Belfast stuff, because obviously, you know, we we've been working we're working with them this season, I'm finding all these stories. And and they're not just actually about the sinking, but you know, the building and the engineers and the crew and the relationship with Belfast.

Becs Frank 32:17

Oh, I'd love, I'd love to go there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Yeah, I know, me too. Um, they there are lots of stories on the website and the Instagram, and uh, we'll share the links in our show notes. But back to the magazine, we've got a new series in our current issue. I don't think you've seen this yet, Joe, because it's it's it's the May issue, which has only just come out. And um, it's called A Good Life, and it's basically Michelle Tansley is a new contributor for us, and she and her husband, Luke, you know, had that dream that so many people have where they wanted a life in the countryside and they'd grown up in Derbyshire, but they moved to this Derbyshire cottage where, you know, it is a delicate, it's like bird, song, and sheep are the only sounds. We went to visit her, but she's not a kind of influencer whose job it is to produce Insta-Life pictures, you know, she works full-time in a invert comma's ordinary job, but she likes to grow and cook, so she makes the time to do it well. And it and it's a modest place, you know, it's not a huge garden, but she gets so much from it and she puts so much into it. And the really interesting thing is she was a relative newcomer to gardening, you know, she's learning as she goes, and this plot, she you know, she starts a day with a cupper and a bit of weeding before work, and then she returns to do stuff to you know wind down from her day. And she's got quail instead of chickens, because the chickens mess up your garden a little bit, you know, or can do.

Becs Frank 33:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

And she's got two cats, fig and bramble, but she also keeps bees. So she is obviously not got my slight scariness about bees. She sounds great. One of the things she does in this uh first of the series is hand churned her butter.

Becs Frank 33:50

Have you ever done that before? Have you ever made butter?

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Yeah, it's it's I mean, I did the sort of shaking method, you know, where you just shake it, and it's actually quite hard work because you have to shake it for quite a long time. But you know, it is kind of thing you think a kid's gonna do, but they get bored after five minutes, you know. But it is good and it does make really nice, uh, but it's like some sort of alchemy, you know, it just sort of happens, yeah, it just suddenly turns. But the she talks about, you know, she says it did she she just describes it as a little bit of elbow grease, but she thinks it's worth it because you also get this buttermilk from the process, which you can use in pancakes or for tenderizing chicken. And um, yeah, no, she I think she's got a little hand churn that you can buy to make it a bit easier as well.

Becs Frank 34:30

I've seen those, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

But she also goes as a hot smoked trout and quail egg niisso's salad recipe in there, which looks really colourful and healthy. Because I I don't know whether I was telling you this the other day, but mackerel is in a bit of trouble in the Northeast Atlantic.

Becs Frank 34:44

You were telling me, and I didn't know this, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah, and this organization, which I love the name of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas.

Becs Frank 34:52

That sounds like someone I'd like to work for, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

But their job um is to decide, you know, whether fish stocks are uh okay or not. And they've recommended that mackerel is cut by 70%. Sorry, mackerel fishing is cut by 70% to rebuild stocks. So Waitrose have stopped selling it. I think the UK, Norway, Iceland, the pharaohs have agreed to cut it by only by 48%, which is not enough.

Becs Frank 35:13

That's why Waitrose did it, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Yeah, exactly, because it didn't meet their sustainability sourcing. So, you know, it's a good time to think about what else, what other oily fish you could eat instead of mackerel, and trout is actually quite a good one. So, um, but but also herring, I love herring. It just gets your taste buds going, doesn't it? Really nice. And sardines, of course, but obviously they're probably from further afield. I think there's Cornish sardines, though. I think they're certified.

Becs Frank 35:39

I feel like we're all just moving our seafood around, aren't we? Like that, you know, the Scottish seafood goes to Spain and the Spanish seafood comes here, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

It is a bit weird, isn't it? We ought to think more about um well, I I am actually going to the Canada this summer, to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and um, you know.

Becs Frank 35:55

Oh, I'd love to go there.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

You basically live off lobster, I think, when you're there, lobster rolls and the like, you know, they're their sort of ham sani equivalent. So um so yeah, so I'm looking forward to that.

Becs Frank 36:07

Tell me more about these quails.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, no, quails are quails are interesting. I mean, because uh she um she gave me some quail eggs to take home and they're a little bit fiddly if you're gonna like boil hard boil them and stuff because the the shells you have to peel them off. I think I'm not the most deft with my hands. I think if you're quite, you know, a detailed person, you would you would find it easy, but they need less space. But she has names to rival your stick insects. So they they the quail are called Gail Dale Sarah Smail, who's a friend's name, Christian Bale, Finley Quail, and Davina McQuail, which I love.

Becs Frank 36:43

They're great names. I wonder how she came up with those.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

She says they're very cute, but they don't like too much fuss. So you you she only picks them up now and again, and they're they can't be free-ranged because they don't have that homing instinct that chickens have.

Becs Frank 36:54

Okay, they just wander off.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah, so you you put them in a run with a nest box, but obviously it keeps them safe as well.

Becs Frank 36:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

And they produce these beautiful speckled eggs. I mean, they're so sweet. And one each day. So every day is an egg hunt. So she and and she, you know, she says they're really easy and they'll eat spare greens and dried mealworms. So this they sound great. I I I think I could quite quite into it. I'm just not sure whether I've got the you know, the wherewithal to deal with tidy eggs.

Becs Frank 37:22

Yeah, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

But you liked the granola, didn't you?

Becs Frank 37:26

Yeah, you were telling me about this. Yeah, the the granola, because I've made it before, and it's one of those things that especially if you like gift it, put it in a nice uh like kilner jar or something and give it for Christmas, people are always like blown away by it, but it's actually quite simple to make. And it's really fun because you know, it's everyone's got their sort of granola that they like.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Can I just say right? I struggle with granola because I don't really like nuts and they always have nuts in them, and I I don't I just don't really get them.

Becs Frank 37:50

But this is why you can make your own, because once you've got the formula right, you can just put in whatever it is that you that you like. So what makes a good granola then? So you've got to get this base ratio of like four to six parts dry, which is your oats, nuts, seeds, and then uh all fruit.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Hang on, so so four to six parts your dry ingredient, yeah? Okay. Okay.

Becs Frank 38:14

Um, and so it's really simple. You just you get rolled oats, not instant oats, and then you mix in your seeds and your, you know, coconut flakes, dried cranberries, things like that. Okay. And maple syrup, and then you bake it at a really low heat, and you put the fruits in later to avoid burning them.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

So do you just bake on like a baking tray in the oven then to sort of dry it, toast it basically.

Becs Frank 38:32

And it just becomes these little clumps.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Can you toast it in a frying pan or can you do you have to do it in the oven?

Becs Frank 38:37

I don't know. I've never done that. I think like a slow long and long and slow is good. But yeah, um, so you can do nuts and seeds of all of those times. You can do dried fruits, so cranberries, apricots, dates, mango, pineapple, and then flavour boosters like cacao nibs or orange zest or vanilla extract or tahini. You know, I'm sure out of that you could find some kind of flavour combination that you like. And and again, one one for the honesty box.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

See, we are filled it up.

unknown 39:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

So this new series, we we're gonna be following her all year, and uh, we we kind of shot shot it all last year, actually. So we I already know what's coming up. But the second one, she's got a greenhouse that was custom made by her husband, right? Yeah, and he's built her a greenhouse. It's so beautiful, it's tiny, but it's like a tool shed, potting space, greenhouse. Nice anyway. You get to see that in the next one, so it's very good. But the but this is a thing she also goes, you know, she gets out and about, she gets involved with her patch. And so in this next one, she's going to the farmer's market because she's not trying to be self-sufficient, she's just trying to grow what she likes growing, and then she'll buy other things. But she gets to know the people there, and you know, this knowing your patch thing is so part of the simple things, isn't it? And this new book scene that I just edited in the spring, Homebird, is all about making the most of what you have and where you live. And so it's not just about having a nice home and garden, you know, although we all love that, but it is about your neighbourhood and you know, getting involved in your community, maybe opening your house in some way, or your garden, or you know, finding out who used to live there and getting involved in the history of the patch. And it is it's a really interesting thing to do, isn't it?

Becs Frank 40:17

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I found this because I moved to the West Country, well, it's a rural West Country four or five years ago. And I was I was up in Bristol and I was trying to find somewhere in Devon or Cornwall that had that did everything. So I was trying to find that one town that you know was alternative enough, had a community, like, you know, I don't know, I had all this sort of list of things, it was near somewhere that I could swim outdoors, friendly, all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Yeah, and you add more and more criteria in, don't you?

Becs Frank 40:45

And yeah, and it's because you're used to living in the city and it's just it's impossible. And then I realized, you know, we had a last-minute sort of shift to um to move to Somerset. So I wasn't thinking of all these things. And I realized that you can actually pull that all together from all the different little towns that you're nearby, especially here where there's so many places within 10, 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Yeah, so you've got like Bruton, haven't you, which is very shishy, which presumably has like good coffee, good restaurants, you know.

Becs Frank 41:11

You've got, yeah, and it's got culture, it's got the House on Worth, it's got the community sauna. So you've got Bruton for that, you've got Glastonbury for all things woo and spiritual and courts and music, really, you know, a different type of culture. You've got Shepton where I am, which is like really down-to-earth friendly, it's got a bit of an underdog vibe, which I I like from the north. Yeah, and so I just feel really relaxed. Yeah, and then Wells, which obviously know Hot Fuzz, you're no Wells. Um, so it's like a bustling market town, historic city. But it's it feels like a European city in the summer because it's got this gorgeous market square in the sunshine, and everyone sits outside of a glass of wine and a cake or something like that, and it's yeah, it's a nice place to linger.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

So you've basically created all the things you want in a hinterland rather than in one place, which is a really nice thing, isn't it? Because Yeah.

Becs Frank 41:55

Just put them all together and it's got everything that I need.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Yeah, and and that's and it also gets you out and about and plugs you into different communities, doesn't it?

Becs Frank 42:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

So our neighbourhood series that we do in the magazine is exactly about this, really. We find someone who's got a nice house that we want to ex, you know, go through the keyhole, but then we also go out with them for the day and see where they hang out, what they go and do, you know, which shops, which cafes they like, who they know, what they do there. And um, and we did one in May on Froome, which you must know because that's not too far from you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a really interesting town, isn't it? Yeah, we we once did uh a one of the markets, the market there's famous because they basically it's the biggest independent market in the country, I think. And it is a proper good. And we once did a little stand there with the magazine, but it it was a Christmas market and people weren't really buying magazines and it was freezing. So we didn't have a very good experience, but I did love the market. In fact, I bought loads of stuff, I just didn't sell loads of stuff. Where was the other one? Oh, the Piddle Valley we did in April.

Becs Frank 42:54

The Piddle Valley, yeah. I really enjoyed that one because I drive through there on the way to Dorset sometimes, and the village names are wonderful because you've got Puddletown, Puddleton, you've got Piddlehinton, Toll Puddle, and there's one that I can't even pronounce. Piddle Trentha?

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Piddle Trentide. I once went to the village faith randomly in Piddle Trentide. Did you? It's funny how some names stick in your mind, isn't it? So I must have been in my twenties and I was working for a magazine called Green Magazine, and I was doing a working weekend on an organic farm, a woof, as they I think they're still called, yeah. And uh we were helping haymaking and and it was proper exhausting. I I, you know, I lived in London, I'd never done anything like that. I was I was on my knees, but that on the Sunday they said, Oh, we there's a village fate nearby, we're all gonna go. Do you want to come? And it was, of course, at the Vicarage. And it was like being transported into a rural novel of the 1930s. It was so like every every tradition was there, you know. I loved it. But anyway, so I've always remembered that that village fondly, and I hope they still have their village fate.

Becs Frank 44:00

Yeah, I imagine they do.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

But this is the thing, isn't it? If you plug into your community, you know, you do get something else out of where you live. And I guess people used to get that that automatic community from going to church, but now it's more about joining community groups, really, isn't it?

Becs Frank 44:16

I think that's the thing, isn't it? There's a lot of people, probably myself included, that miss things about church, don't necessarily want to go to church because of beliefs, but like there's such a community around churches. So when you have an opportunity to volunteer or go to a Carol night or something like that, it's actually really nice to tap into that community.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Definitely. But the idea so we've got another feature in that in our May issue. Our May issue is tremendous. We've got so many good things in it. But this is a group that is in Henley, I think it is. Um, in yeah, in Henley on Thames, and they have re-wilded their churchyard, which I know quite a lot of people done, but this is particularly lovely, and you know, they let the wildflowers grow and it provides food for insects, and you know, they cut the grass after the summer so that they don't suppress and remove the grass so it doesn't suppress the germination of the wildflowers the next year. So it just is it must it must be such a special place to sit and remember people, you know, more so than a sort of you know, slightly scrubby lawn and you know a few odd flowers. I just think what a lovely time, what a lovely place to be. And it's a good way to get involved, isn't it, joining a group like that?

Becs Frank 45:25

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

So we are almost at the end. We only remains for us to basically talk about our you know slot that we're doing all season, which is time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. So, how are you going to waste time this week, Joe, inspired by our episode?

Becs Frank 45:44

Um, I want to say I'll make an honesty box, but I don't think I will. I I'm just gonna make some homemade granola because it's reminded me how how simple that is. So, yeah, some granola.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

See, that's not even wasting time. That's actually very useful. I am actually going to really waste time. I'm going to watch the bees.

Becs Frank 46:00

Just one bee.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Well, I might build up, I might be able to build up my bee tolerance. I think I'm going to find a sunny spot near the flowers that I know they love. I mean, currently they're all over the apple blossom. So um, but it actually the comfrey will soon be flowering as well, and they love that. And I'm practically a comfrey farmer because it's taken over all over my garden.

Becs Frank 46:22

I'm the same of Comfrey Farmer.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

But um, I'm gonna watch the bees. And so that brings us to the end of our tennis episode. Thanks to Joe. Oh, you're very welcome. And uh we all know a lot more about stick insects now, Joe. Yeah, that's good. And also to Titanic Belfast for supporting us this season. You find out more about how to visit and book tickets at Titanicbelfast.com. And all the links to blog posts, books, features from issues of the mag will be in our show notes on your podcast app. And if you'd like a copy of May, the tremendous May issue or June, do choose an immediate start subscription and you'll get them straight away. And so next week it's Bex Nyo back for our tonic episode, and we're going to we're just going to be reveling in the promise of summer to come, which is a very nice time of year, the anticipation of summer. Um, so see you then, and thanks very much for listening!