The Ins & Outs - Our Homes & Illuminating Designs

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

In this episode, Polly discusses her garden design journey, while Jojo shares plans for her home project.Jojo offers tips on brightening rooms with a need for privacy, using cafe curtains and roman blinds, while Polly emphasises the significance of outdoor lighting for a welcoming garden.There's also excitement for the arrival of snowdrops and we bid farewell to January.This episode is brought to you by Ca'Pietra. Ca'Pietra is family-run and fully obsessed with all things stone, tiles, decor, and detail. Click the link below for more details!Sponsorshttps://capietra.com/InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green, the colour of true elation Pine on a summer's day See I've been waiting for you Waiting for you Hello there and welcome to this very exciting episode of the Ins and Outs with Polly and Jojo. This week we are sponsored by the very lovely Capietra. And when I say lovely, I really do mean lovely.

My absolute go-to for the stunning terracotta in so many different shapes and sizes and forms that is my go-to product you know how much i love a limestone and i am very much feeling the hamlet limestone and particularly the cobble the tumbled and etched cobble is an absolute beauty and i would use that to break up a big expanse of paving. Absolutely scrumptious. Soft and delicious. Cafietra.com. Go and check them out. On today's show I'm going to be sharing some top tips on cafe curtains and window dressings, outdoor lighting do's and don'ts, window boxes, hanging baskets, rose varieties, Polly's mini egg obsession takes a positive turn, and of course, what

is in and out this week. Hello, you old sauce bag. How are you doing? I'm good, my love. How are you today? I'm good. What's news on your front? Well, it's a very exciting time here, actually, because I am practicing what I preach. We've just, we, I, I have just put my build out to tender for the house, which is very exciting. So I hope that will start soon. But what I am doing, which is what everyone should do, is I am designing the garden so that I have all the answers ready for when it's built.

So it's been really fun. so it's been really fun myself and all the team actually we've all had a go at designing it and sort of come up with something fabulous as a result of having all of that input which is what happens with all of our projects is it the same as when you design your own house that you find it harder when it's your garden i have found this the most agonizingly difficult experience i can design a client's garden very easily i can even walk in and I know what's happening in the space I can just see it it just makes sense to me yeah my own I am an appalling client because I've got a sort of suburban sized garden and yet obviously I want everything in it greenhouse growing spaces space for small humans to kick footballs much against my will but you know I feel like you literally

just moved in and you're suddenly you're designing it and you've kind of done all these things I'm so far behind I just cannot find the time I'm so honestly I cannot find the time to design my own house it is the way I'm built my friend impatience is my middle name I mean we had the house drawn up as soon as I exchanged on contracts to be fair it it needs a hell of a lot of work and it's not something I would want to live in long term. It doesn't work for modern life at all. So it's not so much impatience as necessity. You've seen my boiler. I have seen your boiler, babes.

I am leaning very much on my team to help with the design of my home when it comes to it. And I'm very much leaning on you when it comes to designing my garden. No, I can help with that. What's that thing I needed to get? I didn't get it, did I? You told me to get a TPO.

Tree protection. No, I did not tell you to get a TPO. No, that's a tree protection order. No, hold on. A topographical survey. I was going to say it. I was going to say it. Oh, you're such a...

Do you not have topo surveys for the house? Like, I guess it wouldn't be called a topo survey. It's not the same thing as a survey i guess it wouldn't be called a top at the survey it's not the same thing as a survey but you don't necessarily don't necessarily need a survey if you've got floor plans and obviously we do that ourselves for a garden dear listeners a topographical survey is when a very kindly person comes with clever lasers that i don't understand and measures your garden to scale including all of the levels and where your utilities are, like your drains and whatnot. But that is what we design off.

Unless you have a very small garden, which you can measure yourself. What about if it's a very flat garden? It doesn't, it's more, if you had a small urban garden that you could measure with a tape measure, great. You probably don't need a topo, although it can still be useful because even the flattest gardens aren't actually flat. Okay. So that's a very exciting time. It's a good on you. Designing the garden. I've already tagged a few trees. can still be useful because even the flattest gardens aren't actually flat okay so well there

you go so that's a very exciting good on you designing the garden i've already tagged a few trees i went to one of my favorite nurseries creepers and uh tagged a few trees because um they sell out do the good trees and also the most exciting news is this which you can't see oh it's the 1kg bag it's the one kg bag i found a kilo bag of mini eggs did you see i put on my i put on my instagram i think a couple of days ago the small bags that you get are not big enough to not warrant eating enough but when you eat that size bag you feel a bit sick really it's for two it's for two people it's not small but it's not big i know it's somewhere in the middle isn't it it's sort of a bit of a yeah and you end up eating the entire bag and i'm gonna

have to ration myself oh my god i would have to hide those from myself i'd have to scuff around the house do like an egg hunt around the house for yourself for yourself like squirreling around the house at midnight just like where did i get that chocolate snuffling like a truffle pig just burying them around every time you move a bit of furniture you're like oh um no lots of people did message me to say did you find the one kg bag and I'm like I don't need to find the one kg bag no I do oh I'm doing something I am doing a squat challenge at the moment. Tell me more. It's this five-part daily challenge. Okay. Where you squat.

Right. And then you do these sort of hammer jacks on your all fours. Kick your leg up in the air. Sorry, hammer jack? 20, I don't know what it's called. And then you do these sideways with that one. Hold on, rewind, rewind. So you do a squat. So you start with 16 squats. Then you do a squat and then squat so you start

16 squats then you do 16 of these on all fours you kick your leg behind you with a point and then you really you're on your hands and knees and you then you all and then you do i think it's called the fire hydrant where your leg goes out to the side you do like a dog pissing on a fire like a dog pissing on it multiple times love it um and then you do yeah pumping pumping pumping action then tell the leg i presume and then tell the leg tell the leg and then you get on all fours and then you put your back leg out behind you straight but keep your foot like like that like that yeah i get you pump them up in the air 16 times pump pump pump this is operation big booty isn't it this is not big booty i just don't want a flat ass. I've got a flat ass.

I've got a flat ass. And the more I sit in the car on it, which is all I spend my time doing, the flatter it's becoming. So I have a little mission. Anyway, so you build up every day. You go from, oh, and then you do the bridge, you know, when you're on your back and you lunge up your ass. Okay. How many times a day are we doing this? Once?

Just once. This episode is brought to you by Google Pixel. I'm Jessi Cruikshank. I host the number one comedy podcast called Phone a Friend. I also have three kids. I need help making every day easier. So I switched to Google Pixel. It's a phone powered by Gemini, your personal AI assistant.

Gemini can help you summarize your unread emails, suggest what to make with the food in your fridge, and it helped me achieve a family photo where everyone is smiling at the camera. I didn't think it was possible, but it is with Google Pixel 9. Learn more at store.google.com. Breaking news happens anywhere, anytime. Police have warned the protesters repeatedly, get back. CBC News brings the story to you as it happens. Hundreds of wildfires are burning. Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canadians. This situation has changed very quickly.

Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not.

Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era make it your best with peloton find your push find your power peloton visit peloton at onepeloton.ca you start with 16 and then next day 17 next day 18 next day 19 next day 20 and you build up and you do it more and more and more and more and more so next time you see me i want to i need to be resting your glass on it my love that would be easier on a flat one wouldn't it no because i'm standing up aren't i oh like kim kardashian with the bottle like a butt shelf like a shelf yeah i mean it's a really fucking stupid challenge but you know what

who gives a shit i'm gonna give it a go and see if it works if it does i'll let you guys know and i'll share it i'll share my squat challenge tell me what's happening in the garden this week what's happening in the garden is there anything happening in the garden it's a bit mulchy out there it's this is the weirdest time of year I find for the garden because it's actually everything looks a bit crap now and uh we're starting the old cutback of all of the ornamental grasses and all of the perennials that you might have left over winter for the insects and just for a bit of interest. So that cutback is happening, which means it is probably the most dull time in the garden in terms of things to look at.

However, still a busy time. We've talked about it before, mulching. Now's a great time to start mulching. I still haven't cut back my watching my jobbies, my wisteria. I can see it all wangling. You've got the whole of February, but get to it. If it's wangling, then you didn't do it in the summer either, did you? Do you know what?

I've got my dad's coming to stay this weekend and he loves being out in the garden. Just loves mooching around in the garden. Get him on that job then. Yeah. I mean, he's a bit old. I'm not going to have him up the ladder, but he can be telling me what to do. He's good like that. He's great.

So get the wisteria prune. Get your roses prune. It's also the window for ordering bare root plants. yes closing yeah okay so it's a good time if you want any new trees or shrubs or hedges now's the time to be ordering and getting them in the ground we're in a little bit of a race against time now and actually it's a busy old time for us in the studio because this is a time when we're tagging loads of trees so when we do a design we'll always go out and and find the perfect trees. It's not a case of just hopping online and choosing one.

You need to go and choose them. So when you tag it, you literally put your little stick around it and say Polly was here. Polly's mitts off. It's mine. Sold. Polly was here.

And the biggest thing, the most scandalous thing that could happen is if someone takes said tag off. Most people don't do it, but it has happened in the past. That's very naughty. Well naughty well i know but if it's a really beautiful tree you can understand it but but it is frowned upon and it's not something i endorse i would never do it do they not when you tag it sorry stupid question so you're in there and you see it and you're like that's mine tag it with your name on do you pay for it then and there no risky business this tree

stuff you reserve it and it's reserved on the system and then you pay for it then and there no risky business this tree stuff you reserve it and it's reserved on the system and then you pay for it when it's um shipped out usually it depends on the nursery it changes but it's um it's a really really busy time because we choose all of those trees because the trees are essentially the sculpture of the garden it's really important and it's not something you can just ah just take a just take a contagious thanks you want to go and see it make sure that the stems are beautiful and not crossing and not gnarly and crap. Like it needs to be a really beautiful form

because they're really important. So we're out and about. Can you take me to a tree nursery? Is that what it's called? A tree nursery? Yes. Can you take me one day? Gladly.

We'll go for a little tree tagging trip. I'd love that. Just to see, you can test me on what I think that's a nice looking tree and just say, and then teach me the, teach me the ropes.

I'd love that. Yeah. Okay. We can do that. That'd be lovely. Bring your blamestones. Your robust pair of shoes. Yeah.

And a warm coat. Any developments with the house? Oh, yes. We have definitely decided that we're going to do the garage, but we're going to do it at the end of the summer. So I've got time to sort of get planning planning we're actually going to turn the ground floor into a sort of pilates room i say i should have put gym first but i'm going to go with pilates room because i'm designing it so sort of pilates i really want to get a reformer machine i really really really really miss reformer and i need it in my life so i'm going to make

the whole ground floor a really cool gym and pilates studio and just like a zen studio somewhere I can go and you know meditate and chill out and then upstairs I think we're going to turn it into a little bedroom ensuite with a with a desk somewhere to go and work in peace and look out the window at the fields can that be my room much like joey room in Friends? Yes, you can come and stay. That can be Polly's room. Yeah. I'd love that. Oh, I so nearly asked a question, but I can't yet.

I have to wait and see about that. You have to wait and see about that one. Yes. So that's that. And what else am I doing? I'm looking for a house sign. I'm looking for a really decent house sign because no one can find us. So anyone out there that knows really good house sign because no one can find us um so anyone out there that knows really good house sign companies it's very boring for the approach to your house uh here is

yeah everyone just goes straight past it up the hill and then we get a call like yeah I'm outside uh there's a tree I can see a tree and there's a field uh and I'm like I don't know where you are mate I don't know where you are it would be quite nice if it was wooden or do you yeah I think he wouldn't i can hook you up my friend almost as if you needed to know someone that oh my god i don't know why i didn't ask you isn't it yes thank you that wasn't a hint but thanks okay speaking of house signs my house is named i can't obviously say what it is it's a very very very, very, very, very fine house. Three cats in the yard. I don't know the words, but I know the song.

Three cats in the yard. Three cats in the yard house. It's a very, very, very, very, very fine house. It's not a very fine house yet. It will be. It will be. But the name of it is a hybrid of the two people that lived there first. Oh.

And they're not great names. Oh. I don't like it. And I was thinking of changing it. So I'm agonising over sort of botanical names. It's really hard landing on a house name. I didn't know you were allowed to change house names. You can change your house name.

Is it not supposed to be terribly bad luck? Isn't that boats? Well, why is it? No. No? If a boat doesn't have a name, it's bad luck luck isn't that boats well why is it no no no if a boat doesn't have a name it's bad luck isn't it is it bad luck to change the name of the house I thought so I'm gonna look it up I mean who knows is it bad luck to drop a mirror it depends if you're superstitious something I did which um a brilliant brilliant fellow designer did for me when I was selling my house and it wouldn't sell. Well, after the divorce, well, during the divorce, we were selling the house.

And to be honest, it sold very quickly. But, you know, we talked about the impatience earlier. She gave me a little statue of St. Joseph. And she said, bury this in your front garden facing out. Oh. And your house will sell. If you ask it to sell, it will sell. So I did so. She very kindly gave me this little statue. She used it for hers and your house will sell if you ask it to sell it will sell so i did so she was very kindly gave me this little statue she used it for hers and her house sold and then she gave it to me

which i just think is the kindest thing ever so i went into the garden and i buried this sir joseph and i faced him out and i said please can we sell our house and um my neighbors must have thought i was nuts because you're meant to ask it sort of every time you walk past. So I did. And it sold within like two weeks of me putting it. And then I left it there until it sold. And then I dug it up. And what you do is you take it to your new house and you bury it facing your house.

Facing its house is kind of like your home. And it's saying your home. And so I actually haven't buried it here yet because I'm worried it's going to get dug up during the build and then that's that's how superstition starts because it's like wearing a pair of pants to a football match and I know it's funny isn't it but there was something about it I found very comforting and just really generous and I just thought it was love that very special so thank you Sophie are you are you starting to turn a little bit woo-woo out there, Paul? Absolutely not. No.

Are you? Yeah. I think I've got some woo in me. I've got one woo, not two. I'm going to pull the woo-woo right out of you. Oh, stop it. I love the woo-woo stuff so much. I'm so into it.

I know, you're more woo-woo than me, aren't you? Oh, I can feel it. Do you not feel it? You know when you meet someone and you instantly feel? That's energy. It's like a... Bad vibes. It's all about energy and vibes. Yeah, good know, when you meet someone and you instantly feel it's that's energy. It's like a bad energy and vibes. Yeah. Good vibes, bad vibes.

Definitely get that. Can we now move on to the ins and outs book club? I've got a book for you. It's called Wolfpack. And it's one of the most brilliant books I have read. It's about sort of female empowerment. It's by Abby Wambach, who she was a olympic gold medalist it's not a long thick book i mean you could get through it in one sitting it's absolutely brilliant and i just think it's

empowering for young girls it's almost saying don't who are you putting makeup on for why do you wear makeup why do you feel the need to put that dress on are you doing it for yourself or are you doing it for for men for the men's because actually it sort of says about when you're at a female girls school girls sit around in their pajamas with no makeup on and their hair up on the top of their head and they don't care and they just sort of you know they're just themselves and as soon as they know that they're going to meet boys we feel the need to put you know our faces on and do our hair and act a certain way and behave a certain way she's a she's gay ab Abby, and she cut her hair short

and she wore a suit to these Grammy Awards or whatever it was. And she went through this sort of dilemma of, should I be wearing a dress because I'm a girl? And all these thoughts that we have, that we have to, you know, now in this day and age, we need to teach and encourage our kids to be what they want to be.

And so it's very very very good and i would highly recommend it wolf pack okay add that to the download list okay should we do some questions so first we have an any question from danny hello absolutely love the podcast glad to hear it my living room and bedroom windows are really big, north-facing, and look onto the road and to neighbours. What would you do to keep the room bright but create privacy? Do cafe curtains work on such a large window? I would have to see... Hi, Dani. I would have to see a picture of the window,

but if I'm imagining it that they're sort of... I'm going to imagine in my mind that they're big... Let's go big and wide. Big sash, maybe big sash windows, but they're north-facing, so the room is going to feel quite dark anyway which means that you're going to get very cool light um if any at all so we need to brighten that up and make it feel warmer in this room so cafe curtains depending on where your sash line again i'm i'm questioning with a sash. I'm not sure. Sorry,

I didn't have an image, but cafe curtains want to sit proportionately to your window. So if you've got, you know, it would look odd if one fifth of the window is cafe curtains and the top four fifths was just window. It would look, they'd look a bit short. So if they're enormous, you don't really want long cafe curtains at half height. That would look wrong. It would look wrong, but you could do it as sort of a third, but it very much depends where the frame of your window sits so imagine if if you've got because you run presumably the pole in line with the frame you do exactly yeah so that's sort of slightly taking a view on that but i would say what you need to do and i know you want to maximize light but because it's north-facing you're not really going to get a lot of light anyway and therefore if anything I would

actually use Roman blinds curtains to actually help brighten and wall and add warmth what window dressing hang on hang on hang on Roman blinds this one always blows my mind which one's a roman roman is the one that sits it's it's straight it folds up so you pull it with a chain or you pull the string and it pulls up and up and up and it sort of pleats up sort of yes exactly it creates folds and it sits up either inside the recess or it sits just above and outside the recess gotcha though roman blinds can also come in different forms so they can be lined and blackout and therefore they'll be solid so when you pull it down you have complete blackout lined will also give a level of um you know but she wants privacy pal exactly so what i was going to say thank you uh what i was going to say is that keep you honest blind you can there's different

types of roman blinds you can have something called a sail blind which is essentially a very floppy roman or a london it's called a floppy or it's called a or a london blind so essentially what it is is it doesn't have a stiff bottom doesn't stop it i know it's not stiffy so it means that it's floppy so you can use a really nice soft linen lovely so it's sort of waggly it's sort of droopy wag it's droopy it's floppy. So you can use a really nice soft linen. So it's sort of waggly. It's sort of droopy. It's droopy.

It's floppy. I got it. It's floppy. And it means that it's, you're trying to create softness and warmth in a room. So it can just feel, if you have something that's a lovely sort of sheer linen or just a lovely sheer fabric, linen or just a lovely sheer fabric it will still let any light through but it will just add that bit of warmth and texture and personality to the windows that a north-facing room needs. Would your advice be that that dangles all the way down to the bottom and stays there in terms of privacy? Yes exactly so when you pull it down it will just be a lovely sheer it'll just be sheer so you can and it's always it's always down more or less no then you can pull it back up and it can sort of

sit a third of the way up but then then as well as that then you have your little cafe curtain but a cafe curtain on its own without something on a very high window at the high level is going to look imbalanced so you want to create balance i follow in anything so when you're looking at a window you can still put curtains on there as well but you if you're going to have something on the lower half you really need something on the top half as well to create balance so if you're going to have those lovely little sheer cafe curtains at the lower yes or the lower third then at the top very top you need to have something like a sort of floppy sheer roman blind and it will just add that real level of softness.

Right. Well, let's keep it Windows. Let's keep it indoors. And let's keep it with... Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast. And I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of all the phones I've ever had. Now, with Gemini built in, it's basically my personal AI assistant. Since I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era,

dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era,

make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. So I've got something from Charlotte. Desperate help needed for window dressing again. We have just moved into our new home, which has a wonderful double-heighted atrium, letting in loads of south-facing light. You lucky thing. How nice. However, now we're in, So this is the complete opposite of Danny's question. Where you've got south-facing light, you've essentially got

the sun's rays coming into your house lovely and with those sun's rays they can be harmful to any fabric so this is where these sort of commercial style blinds are brilliant because they are not going to get frazzled by the sunshine that light that's going to come into that atrium is going to be very warm it's going to heat up that room like a conservatory um and it will be pretty unbearable to be around so i think you have to sometimes go practicality over appearance in rooms where you have some south facing light the other thing is such a consideration is where you put your furniture because that sun as soon as it hits it's going to fade so in that atrium you're you're going to have to go with fabrics that are very light like oatmeals and things so i i think you've yeah i'm afraid you've got to think practically

here because any fabric that you use unless it's a sort of anything like a sort of sheer eventually it's going to sort of start it's going to fade it can burn i mean and don't use silks in a room that's south facing where the sun beams in it can actually burn would you do curtains or would you be doing blinds well so curtains so what did she say sorry paul say again what was the window like it was an atrium it's an atrium window atrium yeah so um double-heighted atrium letting in loads of south-facing light we think it needs custom blinds well yeah i wouldn't go option yeah i think custom blinds is the only option i'm afraid yeah and i think yes and i i would also say in that space um use the furnishings to help soften it but i would say on a hot summer's day you obviously have the blinds open

when you're you're there open when you're there. But when you're not there and you're going out, make sure you put those blinds down to protect everything in the room and keep the heat out. Otherwise, you're going to get home after a long day and your furniture is going to have got a blasting. And also even the wood flooring. If you've got wood flooring, it's going to bleach. All these things. Just think about sunshine. Think about what it does to your skin.

One for you. This is from an outie lucy is asking a dummy's guide to outdoor lighting please polly that's what it says but dummy's guide to outdoor lighting whenever we're lighting a garden our two key principles are wayfinding and features so our goal in the garden is to number one, allow you to move around it when it's dark. So wayfinding as in we're going to put lighting on pathways. So what I prefer to do is a downward facing light, usually on a pole that you'd sort of recess with into the border, which sprays, sprays? Casts, casts light along the pathway. And you can do them quite far apart, but it's to show where you can go. Equally, on any steps, we're going to put a step light either recessed into the step and casting that light across the step. Or if the light, if the step is surrounded by, say, a wall on both sides, we might recess the light into the wall.

But either way, we're trying to show people where they're going to trip over. So steps, pathways, equally things like front doors. We always like to put lighting either side of the front door or driveways either side of any kind of gates or things you're going to crash into. So that's your wayfinding light. That is the most important light in your garden. And with lighting, we always put it on different circuits so that your wayfinding lights are separate to your feature lights. Your feature lights are there to essentially eliminate the black mirror. So we spend so much of time in this country looking out onto darkness and it gets dark at four o'clock at the moment. It's very depressing and it can feel very oppressive if

you don't close your curtains. So what we like to do is pick out the key features in your garden, such as a really beautiful multi-stem or maybe it's an ancient old tree or maybe you're very lucky and you've got a nice piece of sculpture and we like to uplight those and very gently but sort of cast that light on it so if you've got a stunning multi-stem and you uplight it it shows all the shadows of and it's instantly it's like outdoor sculpture so and we don't light up gardens like Heathrow I find less is more and it's better just to choose those really special pieces rather than shoving loads and loads of pole lights into every single border and it being a blaze I just think that's not necessary it's not ecologically friendly and it's more about just bringing the garden into the house even at night time so that it feels less

of a black mirror and as soon as you put lights in your garden it adds a depth to your house when you're in it and you see the garden for one thing I think it feels a lot more inviting and a lot less oppressive because there's something that really freaks me out about just having this sort of black abyss but if by putting them on the different circuits you can just have the feature lights on as opposed to the wayfinding lights you don't need your path lights on if you're not outside so that's how we tend to approach it and in mind all the time at the moment as well you know sustainability is really big for us but also wildlife is just as important that was actually going to be one of my questions about wildlife

and about how much light is is too much like because aren't there some areas where you're actually not we worked on a project together didn't we wear dark skies yeah and and you have and especially if you're by the sea actually isn't it you can't have a house that's lit up like you know like a christmas tree because it's something to do with the ships and the boats and um but wildlife bats you can't have too much light can you in some areas we try and limit it anyway because from a wildlife perspective they need darkness they don't need it to be all lit up so wherever possible we do try to keep as much lighting downward facing which is much friendlier to wildlife as opposed to anything that's cast up in the sky so again that probably will look nicer at night anyway when you look outside i mean it's sometimes nice to uplight

the odd tree or the sculptural things but equally you know wildlife comes first so it's it's a case of having that downward facing light keeping it to a minimum as well which i've already said but also um having it all on timers so that it's not on not on all night it shouldn't be on all night it should be turning off i don't know when you go to bed 10 o'clock or whatever or as soon as you don't need it anymore turn it off but lighting is actually very expensive it's something that people get really shocked by when when quotes come in so we just think just be really judicious with it wayfinding and features and always a warm light i shouldn't even need to say this by now we've talked about it so much a nice warm light no cold light um

my question was to add to that is when you so say you already have your garden and it's all laid out and and it's great but there's absolutely zero lighting would your suggestion be to get some lighting sort of wired lighting that you can sort of bring into the house because presumably if you haven't planned it and they suddenly want to add it it's probably much more expensive like do you run it under beds or do you would you just go with solar lighting all this stuff that you because solar lights quite good now aren't they or would you just go with solar lighting, all this stuff that you... Because solar lights are quite good now, aren't they? I find solar lights to be completely pointless. I'm yet to find one that I'm impressed with. Please send me recommendations if you come across one.

But our country isn't sunny enough. I had a south-facing garden and bought some solar lights. They weren't very expensive. This was a good five years ago, ten years ago. They were crap. They were great in the summer. They were crap the rest of the year. Maybe that's a mission.

Anyone send in some really good solar lights because i would actually love to have some in my garden yeah i welcome any solar we we are yet to find any that we've been pleased enough with great and actually from an interior perspective when we branch out into the garden a little bit where you've got only your sort of soft furnishings like your sort of seating area or your dining table I would encourage people to bring candlelight outside like on the table so if you've got those lovely low-level lighting and then you've got your trees being lit up which is stunning I think then almost like little hanging candles and candelabras that you have in the garden looks beautiful actually in

the summer yeah and do you know what I really love actually which are relatively new is the rechargeable lights by Pookie. They're amazing. You recharge them, then take them outside, put them down a dining table. I think they're magical. And then you can bring them inside them, too. So those, the Pookie outdoor lights that you can put on a dining table are a brilliant investment. I've not bought any yet for myself, but I really want some.

There are some brilliant rechargeable little table lamps now that have these really pretty little shades and things like the Pookie ones. But yeah, great. Yeah, yeah absolutely okay uh next one oh have we got a stupid question the stupid question for you this week paul is uh by no name can i ask please can you plant two different types of david austin shrub roses say a red and a white rose in the same pot it may be a really stupid question but i keep reading one plant will eat the other one and will not grow please tell me this isn't true embarrassed face i think the red would win that fight that's just a really good question though because would you with a rose because they grow like wildfire don't they would you put them in the same pot well my biggest question is how big's the pot okay let's say it's really let's

say it's a big pot a massive great pot I mean you can plant all sorts of things together if you've got a massive pot but if you've got something which is your typical I don't know 30 or 40 centimeters you can plant one rose in it it won't be very happy for very long so I mean I don't put roses in pots very often can you plant this plant the same variety of rose in the same pot in a different colour, for instance? Well, my answer is yes, if the pot is big enough. So for me, with roses in pots, first of all, I wouldn't go putting a rambling rose in a pot. It will not be happy. It will outgrow its space. I like it when there's, say, three of the same rose in a pot but it needs

to be really generous and the reason is like plants, roses in particular, they're a hungry old plant, they need a lot of feeding so you need, it would need to be a really generous pot to allow you to have enough compost to give it enough food. So it can look stunning if you've got say, I personally don't like mixing and matching cultivars in a pot of roses. If I was doing a really beautiful stunning rose display in a pot, pot it would be three of the same it wouldn't be two different ones I think that will look very awkward and I would very much you know how I feel about the best two of the same would look a bit weird two different ones no I have a stupid interior question it's not it's not stupid Do we need to keep caveating that?

My not stupid question about the interiors is, should I put a rug under my dining table? And that is from C. I love this question. Thank you, C. I love this question. Oh, I don't know the answer because if you drop food on it. Yeah, because I scratched my head over this.

It very, very, very, very much on on you and how you live how many children you've got how old your children are on the types of dining chairs you've got you know you want you don't want to go and put like a berber rug under a dining table that would just be catastrophic trying to pick the fish fingers out of that squished baked bean out of a um yeah absolutely not so very much depends on the rug so i'd say if you've got babies very small children no unless you want to put a big mat like a feeding mat down under your high chair um and then take it away when you've got friends over because rugs as i always say rugs create zones they're the number one way to create zones so if you've got a massive open plan kitchen

and you've got your dining table just floating in the middle of a wooden floor or on the or even a tiled floor so it can feel quite cold the best way to warm it up and create a little zone around your table and to make it feel like a little area that you want to go and sit and get cozy is with a rug but the rug either just don't spend a fortune use a rug like go to rugable or have a really sort of you know inexpensive sizable rug that's very thin so when you're dragging your chair back and forwards it's not going to pucker don't obviously go with something like a wool pile or anything that's going to just pick up food and just look like an absolute dog's dinner after two months and you'll be furious because you wasted all that

money or just or something even like an antique Persian that's going to really disguise any stains or drops of whatever food or something that you can get cleaned occasionally but you just can't don't don't put something down that you're precious about I'd say that's the only rule but I personally like rugs under dining tables but just be considerate of what you're putting down and don't be precious about them. I've got a little outie question for you by Our Renovated Home. Our Renovated Home, doesn't have a name, but she's got an account called Our Renovated Home. Is it possible, Polly, to have window boxes with year round interest? Not really. As in, if you plant, if you mean plant them once and leave them, no, is the answer. So window boxes

i very rarely use them anymore because they're a hell of a lot of work if you want to sign yourself up to something which is quite high maintenance you'll plant window boxes the only exception to this is in central london or very warm towns which seem to have geraniums flowering non-stop all year you know the sort of red do you know what i'm talking about when i say geraniums flowering non-stop all year you know the sort of red do you know what i'm talking about when i say geraniums yeah so they're usually red and they're flowering and they flower extraordinarily throughout the seasons because it's just so warm but they they just flower near constantly in very very warm central cities and then obviously you get them in lovely places like greece but even they don't flower all year round so the answer is if you're thinking of planting something once and then flowering all

year no if you are willing to do the work and replace them seasonally yes or little caveat to that you can obviously do something evergreen all year round so you could have something like a skimmier in there for much of the year and that's going to give you greenery for quite a lot of the year and then it's going to flower at certain points but if you want really interesting window boxes then you're going to need to change them seasonally and treat them as a kind of seasonal display gosh we've covered quite a lot today haven't we we've covered so much um this leads us on to the next section which is one of my favorites what is in and what is out this week oh tell me give me some clues what's in for you what's in for me is that I just got 100,000 followers on

Instagram yes you did you hot piece you kind of sausage I don't know why it's such a stupid slightly mildly narcissistic thing I don't know but I feel really you've worked really hard like I said I've never had a viral reel or anything and I feel really I've worked so hard at building the account and so much of my business and my work comes through Instagram and I've built such an amazing community on there of like-minded people that I genuinely love and I just I love it I really it's such a I love it I love my I love my followers and I've got a really engaged following and to get to 100,000 feels like such an enormous milestone. When I remember starting up in the COVID days, I basically, I think I had a few thousand followers and I hated putting myself on it. I hated showing up on it. I didn't really believe in it. And then I, COVID happened and obviously the business was on its knees and I thought you know what I'm just gonna put myself out there and start helping people and then

slowly but surely it sort of built up and up and up and since then I've sort of yeah I just feel quite it's quite it's quite a milestone isn't it it's like it feels like thank you very proud of you that's my what's in this week is that I just hit 100,000 followers on Instagram um and for anyone out there who's wondering how to do it you've just got to keep authentic show up real show up um respond to people don't feel like you just got to put stuff up and you've got to engage with people and get to know people and yeah um anyway so it's brilliant and then what's out this week for me is dry skin i've got the most dry skin at the moment I I don't know if it's getting in and out the car and it's like the heating heating in the car but my skin is so dry

and I'm just over it oh yeah dry skin I can't you know moisture anything I put on my face is just like doesn't want to doesn't want to revive my dull skin I've got something for you there my friend oh okay I me i've been trying you know i'm on operation skincare have you heard of votary yes this is not an ad just a fan votary they're doing a they do a super seed moisturizer and a super seed serum made from all sorts of seeds but it's designed for exactly what you've just said which is kind of that dried out winter skin going from cold to central heating i am loving it i think you had me at seed as well because i like anything that feels

organic and that's an oil i love oils i'm a huge fan of oils okay they come in the green bottles you'll recognize them now but i've been i've been using them and i absolutely i'm obsessed i love it and so does my poorly winter skin too. So I shall, I'll keep you abreast on, on that. So what's in for you this week, my love? In for me?

Drum roll. Dating. Yes. And that's all I should say for now. Sex. No, I didn't say that. I said dating.

Sex. Sex. Smut. With dating comes sex, my love, and it's very exciting. I can't wait for all the gossip. Okay, good. Right, that's what's in. I've left her stunned. God, anyone would think I'm not getting it at the moment. I am flustered. Okay, let's quickly change the subject. What is out, my love? Out, thank God, at the time of listening, is January.

I'm so sick of this month. We're on January the 100th. It has been the never-ending month, and I'm so excited to move further into New Year. So out is January. Oh, bye-bye, Jan. Bye, Jan. Bye, bitch.

One last thing to leave on. I don't know why this excited me so much but the snowdrops first day i saw them today the snowdrops have started popping out in my back garden that's what's out as well little galanthophile oh it just means it's a bit of life isn't it when you start seeing life just popping up it's so pleasing fun fact about snowdrops go on some people pay up to seven thousand pounds for a single snowdrop bulb that is insane why it's it's a because it's a niche market galanthophile is if you're a snowdrop lover you're a galanthophile i guess you are you just said so so you could pay seven thousand pounds for a bulb i wouldn't do that just one okay all right great that was a brilliant catch-up love well that is a wrap on another joyous episode of the ins and outs thanks for

joining us team don't forget as always to like subscribe thank you for those new reviews this week we read them have you written yours yet if not why not kindly go do so do it do it a little bit let the truffle pigging commence i'll get my kids to scatter those mini eggs and i'll start snuffling i just want to scatter them in my mouth right now come here love i'll get a funnel in life when you're ready to lead with purpose, we can get you there. The University of Victoria's MBA in Sustainable Innovation is not like other MBA programs. It's for true changemakers who want to think differently and solve the world's most pressing challenges. From healthcare and the environment to energy, government, and technology, it's your path to meaningful leadership in all sectors.

For details, visit uvic.ca slash future MBA. That's uvic.ca slash future MBA. Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 That's uvic.ca. I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.