
Monty Don: A window box can be as joyful as a big garden
Don, 69, said gardening, which has helped him to deal with both grief and depression, can be a huge source of pleasure, and urged people not to be put off just because they do not have a garden.
Speaking to Kirsty Wark on the V&A Dundee podcast today, he said: 'I completely support that whole view of getting people to garden something, anything, anywhere, anyhow.
'When you have a window box, the pleasure that you can get from seeing something grow is just as great as seeing what I do in my garden outside
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The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
Lottery results LIVE: National Lottery Set For Life draw tonight, August 18, 2025
THE National Lottery Set For Life numbers are in and it's time to find out if you've won the top prize of £10,000 every month for 30 years. Could tonight's jackpot see you start ticking off that bucket list every month or building your own start-up as a budding entrepreneur? 1 You can find out by checking your ticket against tonight's numbers below. Good luck! The winning Set For Life numbers are: 02, 04, 08, 11, 28 and the Life Ball is 01. The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778. The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket holder was £42million, won in 1996. Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, won £41million in November, 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool. £1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history's biggest lottery prize £1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline £633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin £625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017 £575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018 Sue Davies, 64, bought a lottery ticket to celebrate ending five months of shielding during the pandemic — and won £500,000. Sandra Devine, 36, accidentally won £300k - she intended to buy her usual £100 National Lottery Scratchcard, but came home with a much bigger prize. The biggest jackpot ever to be up for grabs was £66million in January last year, which was won by two lucky ticket holders. Another winner, Karl managed to bag £11million aged just 23 in 1996. The odds of winning the lottery are estimated to be about one in 14million - BUT you've got to be in it to win it.


Times
an hour ago
- Times
We're delulu if we think new words should be resisted
Times readers are doubtless better informed than me, but I'd not heard till yesterday the words (or as linguists say, lexemes) delulu or tradwife. These mean, roughly and respectively, 'willingly credulous' and 'woman who conforms, often volubly, to a traditional gender role'. They're included this week, like some 6,000 other words or phrases, in the Cambridge Dictionary for the first time. Perhaps you, and almost certainly I, will find scant use for them but they're real words. Their lexicographical recognition is not a fad. Nor does it evince a decline in linguistic standards. Rather, it shows the vibrancy of English usage and imaginativeness of English speakers. Not everyone agrees that lexical change is benign. An ostensibly lighthearted Channel 5 News debate about new dictionary entries in 2013 dwelt on twerking. Shown a video of the singer Miley Cyrus twerking, Nevile Gwynne (billed as an English language expert and author of the bestselling Gwynne's Grammar) described the inclusion of the word in the dictionary as 'deplorable, degenerate and deeply shocking'. Less colourfully, the journalist and historian Simon Heffer, a longstanding friendly antagonist of mine in the language wars, recognises that new words continually enter the language yet complains when dictionary compilers have 'surrendered to usage'. This is all immoderately misguided. Dictionaries record usage so we can learn the semantics, etymology and history of any given word. Sometimes these usages are slang, being the currency of particular demographic groups (especially but not only young people). I want to know what they mean; a dictionary that shuns them won't help me. Moreover, these new words are almost always nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Other lexical categories, including prepositions, determinatives, and subordinators, almost never expand their membership. New words are coined all the time, yet the grammar of English changes only slowly. We have no problem understanding each other. Jonathan Swift, a stickler for correctness, complained when mob entered common usage, for it was, he objected, a crude abbreviation of the noun phrase mobile vulgus. Well, so much for that. Where new words serve a need, they're retained. Perhaps delulu or skibidi (another new entry in the Cambridge Dictionary, with several divergent meanings) will become swiftly obsolete. But there's no sense in regretting new words if, like selfie or catfishing or woke, they take hold. In every generation there are complaints that lexical and sometimes grammatical innovation is 'bad English'. Such ululations are always wrong, and always will be.


The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Parents' top school uniform confessions from drying clothes with a hairdryer to colouring in scuffed shoes, survey shows
PARENTS' top school uniform confessions include colouring in their children's scuffed shoes with markers and blow-drying damp uniforms minutes before the school run to keep it looking tip top, a survey has revealed. A poll, of 1,000 mums and dads of school-aged kids, revealed the creative - and sometimes chaotic - lengths they go to in order to get their kids through the term in one piece. 1 Sending their youngsters off in mismatched socks, patching up rips in skirts with safety-pins, drying clothes with a hair dryer and glueing the sole of shoes back on were other tricks parents have had to go with. Some parents owned up to using hair straighteners to 'iron' clothes in a rush while others have resorted to giving uniform and PE kit a spray with deodorant over washing them. Dawn Porto, from Clarks, which has reduced their prices to the lowest on the back-to-school range in a decade, said: 'We've all had those chaotic moments - when you realise too late that something's missing or left at home. 'Mornings are stressful enough without the added worry of worn-out shoes or a last-minute dash to fix uniform mishaps. 'It's so important to ensure you're buying durable and scuff-resistant items, some even designed to go from classroom to PE without needing a change.' Another tactic was sending kids to schools in clothes getting a little small - due to being tantalisingly close to the summer holidays. On the flip side, 22 per cent of parents admitted to buying school uniforms and footwear so big for kids - in the hope they'll last the entire year. The research, carried out via OnePoll, also revealed the pressure parents feel to keep a child's uniform and shoes pristine all year round, with 60 per cent feeling the heat to do so. It also emerged when it comes to decision-making, 64 per cent take the lead on choosing school uniform and footwear, though 15 per cent admit their children usually have the final say at the till. With the new term looming, mornings can be a source of stress with 61 per cent confessing they don't notice issues with their child's uniform until the very last minute, often in the middle of a rushed school run. UK state school in one of London's poorest boroughs outperforms ETON with 250 straight As on A Level results day With 25 per cent admitting that their kids have gotten into trouble for not having their PE kit. Dawn Porto added: 'We know how much parents want to get it right. 'They put a lot of pressure on themselves to keep their children looking smart and feeling confident at school. 'Which is why lasting quality and durability being so important in what you buy for the kids as you need things to be designed to keep up with busy school days.' THE TOP 20 MOST COMMON UNIFORM FIXES: 1. Wiped off dirt/marks off shoes with wet wipes / wet cloth 2. Wiped down muddy shoes with a baby wipe 3. Wiped off dirt/marks off uniform with wet wipes / wet cloth 4. Bought clothes that are too big to make sure they lasted the year 5. Used a hairdryer to dry damp uniform 6. Used a safety pin to temporarily fix zips 7. Sent them in with creased shirts 8. Sent them in wearing an older sibling's uniform 9. Bought shoes that are too big to make sure they lasted the year 10. Used a lint roller to refresh appearance 11. Safety pinned rips in skirt/trousers/shirts 12. Sent them in with odd socks 13. Coloured in scuffed school shoes (with a permanent marker, felt-tip pen) 14. Glued a school bag back together or the sole of a shoe back on 15. Sprayed deodorant on school uniform/ PE kit rather than washing it 16. Sent them in wearing an older sibling's shoes 17. Sent them in with missing buttons 18. Let them wear uniform that's too small 19. Cut out labels of hand-me-downs 20. Used hair straighteners to 'iron' uniform