The Simple Things
August 2021The Simple Things is a beautiful, useful, quirky and fun magazine about taking time to live well. We cover mindfulness and microadventures, eating and growing, forgotten wisdom, home life and slow moments. It's for people who love their lives but want to take the pressure off and remember what’s really important. We like tea & cake, learning stuff, being outside and the satisfaction of a job well done. Do you?
in this issue
editoral
About this time in late summer, plants open their pods, fruit and flowers to release their seeds and ensure they thrive again next year. Letting go of our worries and stresses, releasing tension and pressure as we do so, is our own way of moving on, drawing a line under the bad stuff and looking forward to better times. Finding this freedom should be easier in holiday season but if your plans have been thwarted, it’s the simple things that will see you through. Choose a favourite pastime; savour an ice lolly, do yoga, enjoy a cocktail. Swim like a mermaid, curl up with a memoir, share good memories. Spend a day at the beach or just park yourself on a bench and watch the world go by. An everyday…
august almanac
A day out We’ve loved all the outdoor events so far this year and there’s more to come, from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase at Cornwall’s Minack Theatre to Alice in Wonderland World at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Perthshire. For a dose of culture with a dollop of fresh air, check out Luna Cinema’s line up at: thelunacinema.com/whats-on. Moonwatch Look out for August’s Grain Moon – it’s full on 22 August this year, and marks start of the grain harvest. In North America it’s known as the Sturgeon Moon. IN SEASON CORN ON THE COB August is corn on the cob time and it’s best enjoyed slathered in butter and chomped straight off the cob (it’s at its sweetest then before the sugars convert into starch). Totally worth the time spent with a tooth…
school’s out!
With campsites rapidly filling up and all of us now very good at gathering in our gardens, try camping out at home (or better still, persuade a friend with a big outside space to let you pitch up there in exchange for tasty treats). This kind of camping means you don’t have to load up the car, and you can prepare the food in your kitchen with all the utensils you need, not to mention having a clean bathroom within easy reach. Whether you do it in the long school holidays, save it as an after-school treat or get grown-up friends to come over, lock away the devices and feel like you’re getting away from it all. Once the tent is up and the fire is lit, you can enjoy the…
magical creatures
Every summer brings the long-awaited return of old friends: the trilling song of a skylark floating down on the breeze, the golden sweetness of sun-warmed gorse, and the arrival I look forward to the most; the sighting of the first basking shark. Basking sharks travel enormous distances, crossing entire ocean basins in their search for plankton, and are frequently sighted around the west of the UK between April and October, congregating in large numbers in the rich waters off the Hebrides. As soon as the news breaks that the first dorsal fin of the season has been sighted, usually in the far west of Cornwall, my lookout begins. Like most sharks, the basking shark is thought to be a slow breeder and its numbers depend on regular plankton blooms, which are changing…
bench mark
Every summer as child I was packed off for a few weeks to Grandma’s. She lived in a weaver’s cottage just over a humpback bridge. Less than 20 miles from the town where I lived, to six-year-old me it may as well have been the other side of the world. Her TV showed programmes in black and white and was only switched on at the weekends for the wrestling and Songs of Praise. She didn’t have a car and there was no bus route. And apart from finding out what one flavour of crisps the local village shop was selling that week, the main source of entertainment was sitting on the bench outside the front of her house. Sometimes we’d sit with a bucket of freshly-picked peas and broad beans between us, shelling them…
cake in the house
Coconut flour makes this classic sponge super soft – it’s a great summer cake for sharing COCONUT LAYER CAKE Serves 8 - 12 150g Doves Farm OrganicCoconut Flour2 tbsp baking powder150g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing150g caster sugarZest of 1 lemon, finely grated6 eggs FOR THE BUTTERCREAM: 75g butter75g cream cheese, softened150g icing sugar2 tbsp coconut flakes 1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4 and grease three 18cm loose-bottomed cake tins. 2 Mix the coconut flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the zest and beat to combine. 3 Break 3 of the eggs into the bowl, one at a time, beating well between each one, then stir in half of the prepared flour.…
