Table of contents for 07-Sep-2021 in Woman's Weekly

The plum line My parents’ first house was a little Victorian terrace, and they felt themselves lucky it had a tiny patch of garden, containing a plum tree. That tree produced juicy fruit every year, until one summer’s colossal crop, after which it sadly died. My mum, in particular, remembered that plant with great affection, so when we moved to our current home, we planted a plum tree too. From a tiny sapling it’s now fully grown, with bags of fruit every year. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, we now have more plums than we know what to do with, so I was keen to see our recipes on page 34. I hope you’re inspired to have a go at making them.…

NEVER GIVE UP I’ve read Woman’s Weekly for years – I loved hearing about the things I could make for my children, grandchildren and myself, the tasty recipes, and the exercises. Then one day last November, I had a stroke: no more going to the gym, riding a bike, leading U3A groups, playing the piano – everything was gone. I had lost feeling down my right side and was unable to speak. I told my husband he may as well cancel my subscription. He suggested that I could give them first to my friend and have them back and then see if I wanted them myself. And I’m so glad I did. After five months, I came out of hospital/rehab and I’ve been reading more and more. I’m reading my…

‘Being able to go to work on Loose Women made all the difference’ We’re used to seeing Linda Robson being her bubbly self on Loose Women or making us laugh when she’s starring in Birds of a Feather. But the 63-year-old admits that, during lockdown, she struggled like a lot of us. ‘It was just the most depressing time,’ she tells Woman’s Weekly.‘ It was just like being in prison, wasn’t it? Not being able to see my grandchildren and my family was really difficult. My sister’s had breast cancer and, while we were in lockdown, her daughter got diagnosed with breast cancer, so not being able to see them was really hard.’ Luckily, Linda did have a distraction in the form of Loose Women and she says being able…

Color Wow Xtra Large Bombshell Volumizer, £23, colorwowhair.com They say Texturisers usually contain drying ingredients like alcohol and salt to rough up the cuticle so hair looks pumped up. This kinder alternative uses a bamboo extract blend that only mimics raised cuticles, so you can amp up the volume without ramping up damage. We say This stuff really works. I’ve tried everything to recreate the bounce you get from a salon blow-dry, but I struggle to master the brush-and-hairdryer technique. I apply three pumps into the roots and mid-lengths, blast my hair upside down for five minutes then, when it’s all dry, I give a final smoothing with my straighteners and I’ve got the kind of swish I only ever get from visiting the pros, and it lasts for days!…

My cousin Susan has never been the cheeriest person. Even on this glorious September afternoon, she’s no different. She says the leaves turning brown remind her that we are in the autumn of our lives. When we sit down, I want to tell her my news, but now she’s going on about her daughter-in-law, Georgia. We’re in my garden with tea and a freshly baked orange cake. Whiskers is leaping towards a butterfly. I try to draw Susan’s attention to the cat, but she’s having none of it. ‘She lets Lyra play on her tablet thing. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous?’ ‘When we were kids we’d watch The Woodentops or Sooty,’ I remind her. ‘A tablet is more stimulating for a four-year-old.’ ‘Huh!’ Susan snorts. ‘You don’t have grandchildren, so…

THE STORY SO FAR: At a tournament to mark her 17th birthday, Lady Elinor de Bohun was captivated by the champion knight, Sir Henry Latimer, a surprise late arrival. This annoyed her uncle, Sir Gerald, who has appointed himself head of the household following the death of her father, Sir John. Sir Gerald wants Elinor to marry Sir Richard Tremaine – her dowry and lands will settle debts Sir Gerald owes him. Sir Gerald’s men manhandled Sir Henry away, causing him to miss Elinor’s birthday feast, to her great distress. Next day, lowly scullery maid Joan risks her job to smuggle Lady Elinor out of the manor to meet Sir Henry in the nearby forest, but before he can have much conversation with Elinor, Sir Gerald and his men arrive.…

VICTORIA PLUM Having too many plums is still far better than having no plums, and these ones are gorgeously sweet and very juicy. BRAMLEY APPLE A dessert apple tree will fill your fruit bowl, but a cooking apple will give you pies, crumbles, cakes and lots, lots more! BLACKTHORN A tree, as well as a shrub, blackthorns have a secret fruit – sloes – to make the classic winter tipple, sloe gin.…

It was in May 2009, after she’d just watched the Champions League football final with her family at home, that Kathy Barber’s life was turned upside down. ‘We’d just watched the game – my partner John, my daughter Hayley, then 22, my son Danny, 24, and one of his friends,’ she says. After the final whistle, Danny had offered to walk his pal to the bus stop, about 200 yards away from the family home. Meanwhile, Kathy had been sorting some laundry upstairs when she happened to glance out of her bedroom window. And that’s when she saw a group of teenagers punching her son in the street. ‘I raced outside to Danny, who, by now, was on the ground covered in blood. Hayley got between the lads, stopping them…

The risk of burglaries often increases in autumn and winter*, but taking these precautions will help give you peace of mind. Inside your home Walk around the outside of your home to see what’s on view. Keep valuables out of sight and draw your curtains downstairs during the day to prevent anyone seeing inside. House and car keys should be kept away from doors and windows, and never left in the lock. If they’re nearby, a thief can fish them through your letter box. Keeping them in a box out of sight is ideal. Always lock doors and windows – even if you’re at home. An unlocked door, even if it’s only as you pop in and out, is an open invitation for an opportunist. Outside your home Invest in…

The commonest eyelid problems are lumps on your eyelid, or an eyelid that is swollen, sticky, itchy, drooping or twitching. Many will settle or go away without treatment within three to four weeks. The most common lumps in the eyelid are styes and chalazions (meibomian cysts). A stye is often caused by bacteria infection of an eyelash follicle or eyelid gland. It’s a small, painful lump on or inside the eyelid or around the eye, filled with pus, like a pimple. The skin around the stye may be swollen and red, and harder to see on brown and black skin. Your eye may be red and watery, but vision should not be affected. To reduce swelling and help the stye heal, soak a clean flannel in warm water and hold…

AILSA SAYS: Moving to the seaside 14 years ago for my husband Martin’s job was the start of an enormous change for us. He works for the RNLI, so has to be near the sea. We came from a 60s flat in London with concrete surfaces, but when we looked in Poole, Dorset, we realised we could afford a period house that needed some attention. I was about to have our daughter Martha – we moved in the day she was born! Then Bill came along soon after, so it made sense to have a bigger property with a garden. Because we were on a budget, we had to think carefully about how and when we would renovate the house. The downstairs at the back was a mess, with a…

Having been starved of going out, getting to know new people and enjoying live entertainment, being aboard the brand new Viking Venus ship – the seventh in the Venus family, a small ship at 745 feet with eight decks – and taking a tour of some of the most beautiful spots in the UK, is an absolute treat. My journey began in Portsmouth, where proving you’re double-jabbed is the order of the day. Once ensconced in my Penthouse Veranda stateroom cabin (every single cabin has its own outdoor terrace – heaven), I do a COVID-19 test immediately before being allowed to freely move around the ship. This is the first of daily tests for each and everyone aboard on the eight-day Scenic Shores sojourn from Portsmouth to Liverpool, the Isles…

Jenny, sorry I’m late. I had to wait for the courier to deliver my prize. Look!’ My younger sister, Angela, brandished the latest model of a smartphone. ‘I was at a charity do last night and won this in the raffle. It’s all set up and working.’ ‘As if you don’t have enough of phones at work!’ Angela’s been the receptionist at a trendy design studio for about five years. She sits behind her desk, answering the phone all day and looking gorgeous, greeting visitors with her beautiful smile, offering coffee and making them feel welcome. But after hours, she goes to media events where she meets guys she’s seen on TV, and she is invited to the kind of parties that get reported in the papers. She says it’s…

Amazing Amazon Celebrate our planet’s largest and most biodiverse rainforest on World Amazon Day on 5 September. This breathtaking jungle is home to 10% of the planet’s wildlife, including pink river dolphins, harpy eagles and jaguars. It’s so huge that the UK and Ireland could fit into it 17 times. Amazon Day is commemorated in Brazil with special celebrations and the date was first established there in 1850, but these days it’s a focus for calls to stop rainforest destruction, both in Brazil and elsewhere. Find out more at wwf.org.uk THROUGH THE ARTIST’S EYE Have you ever wished you could step inside a painting? Now you can. Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience features 360-degree wall-to-wall projections of the artist’s paintings. You’ll also walk alongside Vincent and discover the inspiration behind…

Imagine a time when, instead of blood pressure pills, sleeping tablets or antidepressants, your GP sends you off with a prescription for a healthy dose of gardening to fix your woes. Gardening as a form of social prescribing is not yet universally available – but, all going well, we should be able to look forward to more of this kind of drug-free therapy in the future. And, yes, it really can lower your blood pressure, help you sleep better and improve your mood. It has even been said that the NHS could save billions if we all had equal access to quality green spaces. Study after study has shown that gardening is good for our health, but it doesn’t have to be heavy-weather work like digging and chopping, according to…

WHERE I’VE BEEN We’ve just got back from Kerry in Ireland. It’s my spirit home. This is my 39th year there; I’ve been going since I was born. WHAT I’VE SEEN My friend Jim Sheridan’s series, Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie. It’s excellent. The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier is such a high-profile case in Ireland. WHO I’VE MET Dawn O’Porter. She and I are doing a Zoom event together because we’ve both got books coming out. I think she’s fantastic. WHAT I’VE BOUGHT A vegetable steamer. We always eat healthily. That will have been the highlight of my week!…

Geoff, 67, says: ‘I had a heart attack in November 1992, aged just 39, and spent 12 days in a coma. When I came around I was told I probably wouldn’t see Christmas, and with a new seven-week-old son, Nick, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t see his first birthday. I survived the next few weeks, and when I was seen by a cardiac specialist I was told there was nothing they could do for me – basically, I should go home and enjoy what time I had left. But I clung on – I don’t know how. By 2004, I was put on the transplant list and I spent years waiting for a call that I felt would never happen. ‘In 2009, that call came. After the transplant,…

✣ SwitchBot Curtain, £71.11, switch-bot.com Hook SwitchBot on your rod or rail to open and close curtains remotely; add the light sensor and it’ll close them at dusk. You’ll need a smartphone to set it up, but otherwise it’s a ‘fit and forget’ product. ✣ Billy PIR Sensor Outdoor Wall Light, £30, dunelm.com This wired-in security light can be set to light up for up to five minutes and has a 110º detection angle. ✣ Trust Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulbs, from £16.99 for two, amazon.co.uk No hub required – these just need your phone and an app to turn them on and off, dim them and set a schedule for when you’re away.…

ARIES 21 Mar – 20 Apr You may find some money in an unexpected place. Or maybe something you lost might be returned to you. TAURUS 21 Apr – 21 May Financially, you may receive a wonderful opportunity. If this involves collaboration, make sure all the details are clear before you agree. GEMINI 22 May – 21 Jun Friends and family are very supportive at this time. If there’s anything you truly need, you only have to ask. CANCER 22 Jun – 23 Jul Creatively you’re moving to a higher level. Don’t hesitate any longer. This is a good time to create a masterpiece. LEO 24 Jul – 23 Aug Remember to laugh, and to smile along your journey. Your relationships will improve dramatically with your change in attitude. VIRGO…