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The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
‘It's a never-ending holiday!' 17 expert tips to make the most of summer
Whatever the weather, June marks the start of what we consider summer in the northern hemisphere, and many of us are seized with a frenetic desire to make the most of it. We want our homes to be light, airy and inviting and our outside spaces full of colour and scent – but if you're anything like me, that stuff doesn't necessarily come naturally. Instead, I'm chasing bluebottles, sweating into my sofa and staring enviously over the neighbours' wall at their impeccable garden. But in summertime the living really can be easy: I asked home and garden experts for their favourite simple ways to welcome the season. Sensory tweaks that instantly conjure summer are 'so fricking cool', says colour psychologist Tash Bradley, design director of Lick. A gentle hum of jazz in the background, a summery candle burning (basil or tomato leaf scents are instantly evocative), or, best of all, real greenery. You don't need a garden to raid: 'When you're next on a walk, pick foliage or bring branches in – the trees are so luscious – and put them in vases around the house,' Bradley says. (Garden designer Sean Pritchard's book Outside In is full of ravishing inspiration for this.) 'Embrace the spirit of a never-ending holiday by prepping your space for spontaneous gatherings,' says Rebecca Lowrey Boyd, design writer and author of the Wee Birdy newsletter. 'Keep a ready-to-go drinks tray or a basket of picnic essentials on standby, so you're always five minutes from hosting a garden soiree, or at least pretending you are. If you're feeling fancy, throw in a sprig of mint and a set of cocktail napkins.' (Lowrey Boyd likes a 'natty embroidered' Anthropologie set; I've found good ones on eBay.) 'With a few honourable exceptions, once May is out of the way it begins to get a bit late for planting, and certainly for sowing things that will bulk up and present an impressively romantic spectacle for the summer months,' says Andrew Timothy O'Brien, garden writer and host of the Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast. 'That said, some seeds sown in early June will get going remarkably quickly. On the veg front there's French and runner beans, courgettes and pumpkins, lettuce, pak choi, sweetcorn and carrots. Ornamentals that you sow now will extend the season by flowering in later summer and into autumn: try nasturtiums, sunflowers or night-scented stocks. To avoid disappointment, make sure you're using freshly bought seed, not something from a packet you've had sitting in the shed since lockdown.' 'I like things that maybe don't quite go together,' says Allan Jenkins, former Observer gardening columnist and author of Plot 29. 'Happy accidents are more interesting than regimented rows.' This time of year in the garden – or, in Jenkins's case, on the allotment – is for spontaneity and serendipity. 'From May onwards I will have beans, maybe peas. Sunflower seeds might find a home.' In her new book, Dopamine Decor, interior stylist and colour evangelist Kate Morgan recommends taking inspiration from holidays: the places you enjoy spending time in – cafes and bars, hotels, tavernas – and the treats you eat. Morgan is a big fan of fruit motifs. 'When I think of a good holiday, I think of warm places, blue skies and lovely bowls of pineapples, coconuts, mangoes, watermelons, lemons and limes – and a fruity cocktail or two! Delicious zingy flavours and bright colours.' Her home is full of fruity touches, from a blueberry milk jug to a cherry toilet brush. 'A summer simmer pot is simple, quick and cost-effective,' says Lesley Bramwell, sustainable fragrance entrepreneur and author of Fragrance Your Home. 'Add sprigs of summer plants – mint or eucalyptus – a handful of fresh rose petals or lavender buds and a few slices of lemon or orange to a large pan. Cover with water, filling the pot to around two-thirds full. Bring to the boil and then gently simmer. Add a few spices to bring warmth, like fresh ginger or cloves. As the pot simmers away, the steam will gently release summery aromas.' Change your fabrics for lighter, breezier versions. 'As a nation we are not particularly good at seasonal changes but, done well, they can feel like a full redecoration,' says design writer Kate Watson-Smyth, author of multiple books and award-winning interiors blog Mad about the House, and co-host of the The Great Indoors podcast. 'I once met a Danish fashion designer who was baffled by our reluctance to swap things in and out during the year: 'You change your clothes with the seasons, why not your cushions?'' No need to stop at cushions: Morgan recommends swapping 'duvet covers, tablecloths, shower curtains, blankets, rugs and towels' for lighter, brighter summery patterns. 'Make like the Danes and change heavy thermal curtains for linen panels,' suggests Watson-Smyth. Lowrey Boyd agrees: 'Your home will feel airier, brighter and, dare I say, almost continental. Less Victorian parlour, more Mediterranean hideaway.' She has her eye on Ikea's crushed linen curtains for an affordable switch-up. Watson-Smyth gives her coffee table a seasonal facelift. In winter it holds large coffee-table books, dark candles with heavier scents and decorative boxes of matches. 'In summer the books return to the shelves, to be replaced with magazines, bud vases and perhaps a reed diffuser in a pretty glass bottle. Anything that refreshes the room will lift the mood.' 'At this time of year,' says Bradley, 'the best room in the house is the garden.' To connect indoors and out, she suggests repainting a door leading to outside space, or a window overlooking it, in a nature-inspired green or blue. 'It's a really quick win to zhoosh up a room, make it a focal point and draw the eye out into the garden.' Your plants are probably happier in summer, but they still need TLC. 'As the light, temperature and length of the days increase, keeping up with watering is vital so our houseplants don't wilt,' says Sarah Gerrard-Jones, author of The Plant Rescuer: The Book Your Houseplants Want You to Read. 'Plants that may have only needed water every few weeks during winter might now need to be watered more frequently. The easiest way to know is to check the soil for moisture by sticking your finger deep into the pot, or weighing it in your hands. A pot that feels light indicates it's time to water.' Feed plants once a month through the summer growing season. It's also a good time, Gerrard-Jones says, to check which need repotting. 'A clear sign that a bigger pot is needed is roots growing out of the holes in the bottom, or the soil drying out quickly, which suggests there is little potting compost left.' Check for pests, too: 'It's far easier to get rid of one or two before it becomes a full-blown infestation.' 'Fill planters near the back door or window boxes with fresh mint, parsley, chives and rosemary plants,' says O'Brien. 'That way they'll always be on hand to snip for the kitchen, or to wrench off a sprig and stick it straight into a cocktail.' You don't need to make a special garden centre trip – supermarket pots will do. I follow botanist James Wong's advice to keep my supermarket basil alive: split up and thin out the dense tangle of seedlings, keep a few clumps of healthier ones and pot them up in good-quality compost. Tackling garden weeds can feel like a losing battle at this time of year, so how about not bothering? Gardener and landscape designer Jack Wallington specialises in working with, rather than against nature. His newsletter Wild Way is full of prompts and tips to reframe how we think about garden 'pests' and 'weeds'. 'Wildflowers – plants like cow parsley, teasel, tufted vetch, yarrow, Welsh poppy, dandelions, hedge woundwort, ox eye daisies and lawn daisies – often flower longer and are more resilient to extremes in weather than many ornamental plants,' he says. 'If you allow them, these wild plants multiply prolifically and then manage themselves, reducing maintenance; no need to grow from seed or water these sustainable plants.' They also encourage and support other wildlife: 'Many insects evolved to rely on them, and without that rich biodiversity many gardens feel lifeless to me,' Wallington says. Plus, they look great. 'Wildflowers we're told to rip out actually create the most contemporary and chic style. Best yet, of course, they're free.' 'It might sound bonkers,' says O'Brien, 'but consider creating a weedy planter.' Weeds flourish when everything else is struggling. 'These plants are what our soil wants to grow, and sometimes it can make sense to listen to what the garden is trying to tell us. Many weeds are attractive or sculptural. Think of the charming, daisy-like white and pink Mexican fleabane (erigeron karvinskianus); or Lady's mantle (alchemilla mollis) with its chartreuse flowers and pale green leaves, which show off raindrops to such wonderful effect. Elevate your weeds by collecting a selection and sticking them in a pot or a trough, and placing it somewhere where you can regularly take a good long look at them.' There's nothing summer chic about the big fat flies thumping into my windows while a billion tiny ones host some kind of rave on my bananas. 'We don't want to be destroying insects; they're essential for pollination,' says Bake Off legend and eco pioneer Nancy Birtwhistle, author of Clean and Green and the cookbook Nancy's Green and Easy Kitchen. Instead, 'it's about repelling them'. Her strategy: halve a lemon and stud each half with cloves (or juice the lemon and fill the hulls with cloves) then place it in your kitchen or fruit bowl or by your houseplants. 'Insects hate the smell of cloves. If they get a whiff, they're off.' If you're facing invasion from an ant army, Birtwhistle recommends squirting her homemade cleaning spray (160ml water, 60ml vinegar and 40ml surgical spirit) along their pathways. 'Now summer's here, you may not be thinking about your woollen jumpers, but clothes moths very much are,' says Birtwhistle. 'Protect your jumpers by putting them in sealed bags or boxes and by using a natural deterrent. Lavender is a great moth repellent and it's in season now, so collect a few sprigs.' 'Give your dining table (or the rickety one in the garden) a summer makeover with a bold, stripy tablecloth or some clashing printed napkins,' says Lowrey Boyd. No need for a splurge – grab a length of cheerful fabric or even a retro-inspired tea towel.' Add vibrant napkins (Lowrey Boyd fancies some 'jolly ricrac numbers from RE') and mismatched coloured candles. 'Suddenly, every meal feels like a sun-drenched picnic, even if it's beans on toast.' 'Just as summer really starts to get going and the weather is good for relaxing and entertaining in the garden, growth rates slow down and everything begins to look a little thirsty,' says O'Brien. 'The temptation is to dash out and buy things to make the garden look good: replace the patio set, buy a shiny new barbecue and pick up some plants. The problem is, this kind of panic buying rarely hits the spot, and anything you plant now is going to need endless watering and attention to prevent it from looking knackered and carking it within a week of bringing it home.' The secret to happy summer gardening, he says, is doing less (it's the guiding philosophy of O'Brien's book, To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing). 'Learn to love what you've already got. Lawn looking a bit parched? Let it grow rangy and a bit straggly. Get to know the wildflowers that you'd otherwise spend precious hours decapitating, while bees and butterflies make the most of the nectar resource. You can restore order in autumn; summer is mainly for dossing about.' Amen to that.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Private Japanese spacecraft aims to land in the moon's 'Sea of Cold' this week
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Japanese company ispace is poised to make a historic moon landing this week. The company's Reslience lunar lander will attempt to touch down in Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold"), a basalt plain in the moon's northern hemisphere, on Thursday (June 5) at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1924 GMT). You'll be able to watch the landing attempt online via a live webcast on ispace's YouTube page, beginning about one hour before landing. Success would be huge for ispace and for Japan, which has just one soft lunar landing on its books to date — that of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM spacecraft, which touched down just last year. It would also be a big milestone for commercial spaceflight, which has increasingly set its sights on the moon. Resilience is ispace's second lunar lander. The first reached lunar orbit but failed during its touchdown try in April 2023. If Resilience succeeds on June 5, the lander will deploy a small rover called Tenacious and also operate a suite of scientific instruments on the lunar surface. Reslience launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15 along with another private moon lander — Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which aced its touchdown on March 2. Resilience took a much longer path to the moon. It completed a brief Earth orbit phase, a lunar flyby and deep space and lunar orbit maneuvers, all of which helped guide the spacecraft along a fuel-efficient trajectory that used gravitational forces to adjust its path. Related stories: — What's flying to the moon on ispace's Resilience lunar lander? — Japan's Resilience moon lander aces lunar flyby ahead of historic touchdown try (photo) — Japan's Resilience moon lander arrives in lunar orbit ahead of June 5 touchdown The lander entered lunar orbit as planned on May 6. On May 28, Resilience performed an orbital control maneuver, a 10-minute engine burn that brought the spacecraft into a circular orbit around the moon about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface, according to a statement from ispace. "Just as they always do after a major burn of the propulsion system, ispace engineers are currently hard at work analyzing the path that the 3rd orbital control maneuver put Resilience on," ispace officials said in a May 30 post on X. "If necessary, they may make a small adjustment to optimize the lander's direction of travel called an orbital trim maneuver." Prior to its latest maneuver, the spacecraft snapped a stunning photo of the lunar surface from orbit, showcasing the moon's many craters and complex topography. Traveling at approximately 3,600 mph (5,800 kph), Resilience is racing around the moon, making a lap every two hours or so as it gears up for its landing attempt later this week.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
A chance to spot rare and mysterious noctilucent clouds
It's time to watch for the beautiful cloud formations known as noctilucent clouds. Latin for 'night shining', noctilucent clouds are seasonal and become visible in the northern hemisphere from late spring/early summer. Although unpredictable, when they do appear they will be seen in the western sky about half an hour after the sun sets. As the sky darkens into night, they will shine with an extraordinary electric blue colour. Part of the appeal of these rare clouds is that their origins are still mysterious. They are the highest known clouds in Earth's atmosphere, condensing at an altitude of about 80km (50 miles). This is virtually the edge of space. Their extreme altitude is what allows them to catch the last rays of the setting sun, even when Earth's surface beneath them is already in darkness. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the clouds is that there are no recorded sightings of them before 1885. Some suggest the clouds are therefore caused by industrial pollutants to which water vapour freezes, or by the rise of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere, which promotes water vapour production in the upper atmosphere. In the southern hemisphere, the noctilucent cloud season begins around October.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Guardian
A chance to spot rare and mysterious noctilucent clouds
It's time to watch for the beautiful cloud formations known as noctilucent clouds. Latin for 'night shining', noctilucent clouds are seasonal and become visible in the northern hemisphere from late spring/early summer. Although unpredictable, when they do appear they will be seen in the western sky about half an hour after the sun sets. As the sky darkens into night, they will shine with an extraordinary electric blue colour. Part of the appeal of these rare clouds is that their origins are still mysterious. They are the highest known clouds in Earth's atmosphere, condensing at an altitude of about 80km (50 miles). This is virtually the edge of space. Their extreme altitude is what allows them to catch the last rays of the setting sun, even when Earth's surface beneath them is already in darkness. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the clouds is that there are no recorded sightings of them before 1885. Some suggest the clouds are therefore caused by industrial pollutants to which water vapour freezes, or by the rise of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere, which promotes water vapour production in the upper atmosphere. In the southern hemisphere, the noctilucent cloud season begins around October.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Connections' Hints For May 26: Clues And Answers For Today's Game
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections. Each day's game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. As such, 'today's Connections hints and answers' depend on where you are in the world. In case you need them, here are the Connections hints and answers for Sunday: Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week. I know it's going to be a great one for you. I'm happy back to be with you for another midweek run of Connections columns. For those who are just joining us, I have a little thing I do on Mondays. In addition to the daily recommendation I include at the end of every column, I like to kick off the Monday edition with an upbeat song. My hope is to put a smile on your face (or make one that's there even broader) and get you moving around. Let's get those endorphins flowing and your week off to a positive start. Summer is almost upon us in the northern hemisphere and that's the best time of year for upbeat music. Whether it's pop, funk, soul, Motown, reggae… whatever. It's time to listen to fun music and have a good time. I do love a bit of ska punk, though. I firmly believe that you can improve any song by adding a brass section, and the syncopated guitar chords in this genre meld beautifully with the trumpets, trombones and saxes. I have just decided as I write this to make this an all-ska punk theme week here on my column. Even if you don't think that's going to be your thing, give it a go! We're gonna kick things off with an absolute classic, 'The Impression That I Get' by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Enjoy: FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us. Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, May 26 are coming right up. Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Today's Connections groups are... Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... That's win number 90 in a row. Yay! I did it with a perfect game too, which was even better. Here's how I fared: 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 POLAR, COUNTER, REVERSE and OPPOSITE certainly seemed like a group. I decided I wanted to go for the reverse rainbow today, so I held off on submitting those at the jump. WASHCLOTH, SHEET, PILLOWCASE and TOWEL seemed like a decent shout for a group as they're all household fabric items (I wasn't sure a WASHCLOTH would quality as a linen). My guess was that the synonyms would be yellow and the fabric stuff would be green. However, I wasn't seeing what would go together with TEDDY, SLIP and GARTER (TEDDY and GUMMY seemed like a red herring!). Perhaps PILLOWCASE, as a group of things make of silk? But that would throw off what I presumed would be the green group. Hmm... Eventually, I realized that HOSE could be short for "pantyhose." So I figured I had the blues at that point. As for what I presumed were the purples, I did not figure out the connection there, largely because I almost never get these kinds of groups were one letter is changed. Still, I submitted those first. They refer to gin (DIN), bridge (FRIDGE), rummy (GUMMY) and poker (JOKER). (My hint refers to bluke, king, pitch and knack. Not the most obvious card games, but there weren't a lot of options that made sense! These are the purples and they're not supposed to be easy, so I'm okay with it.) The blues were next, followed by... the yellows. Rats! I got the yellows and greens mixed up. So, so close to my sixth-ever reverse rainbow. Maybe tomorrow. That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday's game if you need them. P.S. I'm really looking forward to playing the remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 that's coming soon, so I've been listening to a playlist that includes songs from across the series. For me, no song is more closely linked with these games than 'Superman' by Goldfinger. It fits this week's ska punk song theme and it's still terrific, so here you go: Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
