The lights dim. The music hushes. The room hums with expectation. Drinks are sipped, pens are clicked and pieces of paper are shuffled in anticipation. It’s time to start the quiz. In the UK, the pub quiz is at once both light-hearted and deadly serious. It’s an activity that dates back at least 50 years …
All over the world, community composting is thriving – from collection of food scraps among neighbours to larger, more organised schemes in allotments, community gardens and schools. For growers, it can provide a rich source of fertiliser that may be better quality than shop-bought. But even if you’re not a gardener, you can still participate …
Language is a strange beast. It’s essential to articulate needs, facilitate transactions and transmit vital information. But humans also use it in another crucial way: to deepen personal connections. From social chitchat at work to a heart-to-heart with a friend, when you’re in a room with someone, it’s language that you turn to, intersected with …
As you push on the bookshop’s heavy glass door, the little bell tinkles its welcome and invites you to step over the threshold. With a deep intake of breath, you absorb the scent of fresh paper and new print. A glance reveals shelf after shelf of colourful paperbacks and dust-jacketed hardbacks, some placed spine-on, others …
As sunshine warms her cheeks, Kirsty listens to the hum of bees pollinating the nearby lavender plants. Her little garden, once unkempt, is now full of flowers, an abundance of roses in soft pinks and vibrant apricots. But the garden isn’t just for show: it’s planted in memory of her grandmother, who passed away a …
Don’t sweat the small stuff, they say. Look at the bigger picture. Don’t get bogged down in details. But we’re on a rock spinning in outer space: everything’s small stuff. Our entire existence, from first breath to last, is a whisper. As individuals, we don’t matter. Our only significance is as a part of the …
You might be familiar with the phrase ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’, but it’s cats that are some of the laziest creatures in the animal kingdom. According to the Sleep Foundation, domestic cats sleep for around 12-18 hours a day in a polyphasic sleep pattern, meaning they sleep for multiple blocks of time, rather than one …
How do you show appreciation and affection for someone you care about? Perhaps you’re a person who responds to physical touch and you love to greet friends with a warm hug or give colleagues a pat on the back. Or maybe you prefer to put a lot of thought into selecting the perfect birthday gifts …
One of my notebooks is labelled ‘Compost Heap’. It’s where I jot down thoughts, stick in pictures and save interesting articles that have caught my eye. I use it to scrawl mind maps of ideas that come to me out of the blue, usually when I’m trying to fall asleep. The writing is spidery and …
Tired but happy from a day spent working in the fields, you sit on the warm porch of your dream farmhouse, listening to the gentle rumble of cicadas in the trees, and watch as the golden sun slips below the horizon. This blissful scene might sound a world away from your living room sofa, especially …
