Small Ways To Live Well from The Simple Things

Join editor of The Simple Things magazine Lisa Sykes and wellbeing editor Rebecca Frank as they dive into folk festivals, May Day customs, folklore and dancing. And to mark International Dawn Chorus Day (3 May), there’s an (amateur!) birdsong quiz…
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 supporter for this season Titanic Belfast. Find out more and how to visit at titanicbelfast.com and on Instagram @titanicbelfast
Editing and music by  Arthur Cosslett

In the April issue (166) available to buy here
Speak easy: how to have better conversations 
 
In the May issue (167) available to buy here
Up with the lark: Have an early picnic while enjoying the birdsong before heading home for a second breakfast. We enjoy using the Merlin Bird ID app to help identify birdsong.
Almanac: Embrace all things folk with the many May festivals from Jack in the Green to Garland Day and Beating the Bounds
Modern Eccentrics – mods
The Brighton Mod Weekender takes place from 27-30 August. 
 
Coming up in the June issue – on sale from 29 May or try an immediate start subscription to get it earlier
Learn all about The Lost Giants of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, the designers and co-creators of giants and beasts of disguise. 
 
From back issues available to buy here
Scene setting: look to the landscape to discover the folk tales they’ve inspired (Issue 151) Photography from the book Unseen Scotland by Bryan Millar Walker (Greenfinch)
Modern Eccentrics: The Circus (Issue 118) Giffordscircus.com
Modern Eccentrics: vintage car lovers (Issue 155). Women Drivers’ Social Club: facebook.com/WDSC
Fairground attraction: Joby Carter of Carter’s Steam Fair on the art of signwriting (Issue 142)

Join editor of The Simple Things Lisa Sykes and wellbeing editor Rebecca Frank as they embark on a dawn walk, discuss what they like to cook and eat over Easter and ways to maintain balance at this pivotal point of the year.
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 partner for Season 9, Friends of Glass, an organisation that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, drink and cosmetics. Find out more about why glass is better for health, taste and the environment and follow them on instagram @friendsofglassuk
Editing & music by Arthur Cosslett. 

On the blog
Easter feasting
Eggs en cocotte
Brioche hot cross buns
Rabbit biscuits
Austrian easter cakes Gugelhuph
Italian Easter Pie Torta Pasqualina
Hen keeping fact sheet 
What plants to plant in your garden for hens
 
In the March issue (165) available to buy here
Looking back: the history of the public clock
 
In the April issue (166) available to order here
Spring tartiflette
That’s all yolks! From pheasant egg Yorkshire puds to easter egg tiramisu
Left field farms –  where to try willow weaving, goat yoga and llama trekking
Small treasures – mini plants for spring and summer colour
The Big Idea – Lucky People by Nobuko Nakano
The wonder of whimsy 
Flourish (Volume four) our latest wellbeing bookazine available to buy here
Homebird  – our new bookazine about making the most of where you live. Available to order here

Join The Simple Things’ Editor Lisa Sykes and Author of The Slow Traveller and regular contributor Jo Tinsley. We’ll be capturing that feeling you get when larks and adventures (or even just the possibility of them) beckons you from your bed. We’re getting out and about, doing a spot of foraging, discussing what makes a good walk and because it’s Mothers Day, there are a few mum stories too
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. We can send subscriptions anywhere in the world. Or buy current and back issues here 
Thanks to our partner for Season 9, Friends of Glass, an organisation that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, drink and cosmetics. Find out more about why glass is better for health, taste and the environment and follow them on instagram @friendsofglassuk
Editing & music by Arthur Cosslett. 
 
On the blog
Book-based trails

In the March issue (165) on sale now, available to buy here 
Could do list
Outing – follow-your-nose trails
How to drink magnolia
The fine art of mothering – artist Caroline Walker

In the new April issue on sale from 27 March. Order at picsandink.com from 23 March
Blossom foraging

In previous issues available at picsandink.com. 
Climbing a Small Hill (Issue 67)
Taking a train to the sea (Issue 61)
Sketching (Issue 39)
Lost gardens (Issue 153)
Wisdom: daughters learning from their mothers (153)

In our new Homebird bookazine
Outing - Reading the landscape when you are on a walk
Foraging – Hawthorn and elderflower in spring hedgerows
 
Learn more
Rivington Terraced Gardens
Lost Gardens of Heligan
Hawkstone Park Follies, Shropshire
The walker’s guide to clues and signs by Tristan Gooley
Britain’s Best Small Hills by Phoebe Smith
The Monsal Trail, Peak District
Slow ways – connecting rural and urban spaces
Make ways – Places you’d like to be able to walk
National Parks in 100 seconds

Join The Simple Things’ Editor Lisa Sykes and our regular co-host, contributor to the magazine and author of The Slow Traveller, Jo Tinsley, as they get thinking about how spring is much better time than wintry new year to take stock of you, exploring realisations and understanding about yourself and others. If you think that sounds a bit serious, do not worry, we’ll also be doing a procrastination quiz, learning life lessons from literature and highlighting a few of the great women and their stories we have featured in the magazine for International Women’s Day.
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 partner for Season 9, Friends of Glass, an organisation that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, drink and cosmetics. Find out more about why glass is better for health, taste and the environment and follow them on instagram @friendsofglassuk
Editing & music by Arthur Cosslett 

On the blog
Quiz | Which member of The Famous Five are you?

In previous issues (on sale at picsandink.com)

Kitchen Therapy: Layers of onions (Issue 164)
Life lessons from Russian Literature (issue 64). Read more in The Anna Karenina fix by Viv Groskop 
Lessons from The Famous Five (Issue 123)
Gifts from the Goddesses – Contemporary retellings of greek myths (issue 122)
Life Lessons from Alice – Be curious, eat cake and never steal jam tarts from royalty (Issue 109)
Procrastination Quiz – Find it hard to Get Stuff Done, occasionally? Take our entirely scientific and extremely focused quiz and find out exactly what type of procrastinator you are and how best to overcome it (or simply live alongside it). (Issue 87)
As Good As Your Word – Using more positive language can make a big difference to your life, reawakening your confidence and boosting your happiness (Issue 76)
Wisdom: women doing what they love across the UK’s paths and roads, bridleways and waters (Issue 156)
Wisdom: Learn with Mother – women who have each inherited unique qualities from their mothers, with childhood lessons carried into their adult lives (issue 153)
Flip-thinking - turning problems into opportunities (issue 129)
Future tense: why some anxiety is good for us (issue 123)
 
In our Flourish Volume 4
Mental Notes – Life lessons from around the globe
 
Find out more
Words Can Change Your Brain by Dr Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman (Penguin) 
50 Sentences That Make Life Easier: A Guide for More Self-Confidence by Kari

Join The Simple Things’ Wellbeing Editor Rebecca Frankand our regular co-host, contributor to the magazine and author of The Slow Traveller, Jo Tinsley, as they talk about how these early days of spring bring about a rise in energy, an urge to sort and maybe spring clean and how to bring new life to old and get out in the garden.
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 partner for Season 9, Friends of Glass, an organisation that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, drink and cosmetics. Find out more about why glass is better for health, taste and the environment and follow them on instagram @friendsofglassuk
 Editing & music by Arthur Cosslett 

On the blog
Koromagae Linen Spray
 
In the March issue (165) on sale now, available to buy here
Spruce up – As the garden springs back to life, now is the time to rejuvenate neglected corners. 
Magical Creatures: An appreciation of the first butterfly of the year
Home Economics: Tropical Fruits. How to ensure the long journey of these drops of sunshine is worth its while.
Gathering: Clothes swap brunch 
Wisdom: The joy of enough. A change in circumstances made Anna Kilpatrick rethink her life. 
 
In the Feb issue (164) available to buy here
My Place: linen cupboards 
Change by numbers: Helping to make the world a better place 
 
In our Flourish Volume 4
Pleasure Garden – Spring seems to arrive sooner when you have fruit trees and blossom
The First Blossom:  a promise of renewal each spring. 
 
Find out more
Plantlife's No Mow May Movement
Not Needing New: A Practical Guide to Finding the Joy of Enough (Orion)