The Ins & Outs - Privacy, Lafufus and Perimenopause

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

In this episode we are talking all things privacy and screening from curtains to hedges, and all the ways to stop prying eyes. Also this week, Polly has lost her hairdresser, Jojo gives us a lesson in Labubus and we get into the ultimate TV comfort watches. This episode is sponsored by the glorious Laura Vann, maker of the most stunning Art Deco style jewellery. Designed to bridge the gap between fine jewellery and fashion jewellery with timeless, super unique vintage-inspired designs, Laura's jewellery has been seen on Michelle Obama, Anya Taylor-Joy and many more. Use discount code PODCAST for 15% off. Discount codes are valid for online purchases only at lauravann.co.ukEach code is valid until 24th October 2025.Only one discount code can be used per customerDiscount codes cannot be combined with other promotions and are non-transferable, non-exchangeable, and cannot be redeemed for cash.Discount codes only apply to Laura Vann’s demi-fine collection (items with a sterling silver base metal) and not on our fine (solid gold) itemsInstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonWebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Calgary, also known as the Blue Sky City. We get more sunny days than anywhere in the country, but more importantly, we're the Canadian capital of Blue Sky Thinking. This is where bold ideas meet big opportunity, where dreams become reality. Whether you're building your career or scaling your business, Calgary is where what if turns into what's next. It's possible here in Calgary, the Blue Sky City. Learn more at Calgary Economic Development.com.

Green, the color of true elation, pine on a summer's day, see I've been waiting for you, waiting for you. Welcome to this week's episode of the ins and outs with myself, Pollyanna Wilkinson. And myself, Jojo Bar. In this week's episode, we are talking all things, screening and privacy. So we're talking curtains. We're talking privacy trees, so you can frolic naked in the garden. We're also talking gatekeeping, your hairdresser and your babysitter.

Jojo needs a blowy. We're talking Lafoufou's TV for comfort. And one other thing I can't quite remember. Oh, that's it, perimenopause. So let's dive right in. This week, we are sponsored by the absolutely amazing Laura Van. Now, if you haven't heard of Laura Van jewelry before, you were in for a treat. Because I first fell in love with her about three years ago when I got the Olive

ring. And the reason I love what she makes is it's modern Art Deco jewelry and it comes with the artistry of really fine jewelry, but at a more affordable price point, which is one of the reasons why I fell in love with it. So it's bridging that gap between fashion jewelry and fine jewelry. It's been worn by Michelle Obama, Daisy Edgar Jones, Anya Taylor Joy. And at this point, I think we're just waiting for the call-up from Taylor Swift, I'm quite sure of it. And It's a lovely story, actually. It's a father-daughter business. So Laura's dad, who I have met and he lovingly engraved a ring for me, has had 30 years in the jewellery business. And they're based in the Birmingham Jewelry quarter. So it's just this gorgeous company with gorgeous jewelry. It's stocked in Liberty, Harvey Nicks, Fortnums. And of course, you can find it on her website, Lauravan.com.uk. And because she's such a babe, she has given us in these outies and in-betweenies 15% off until October. The with the Code Podcast, all in Capitals, which I'll put in the show notes. So thank you.

Gorgeous, Laura. Go and have a jolly good purve because you're going to love it. Hello, you old tart. Hello, my darling. How are you this week? What's been going on? I'm very well. What's been going on?

I have awful news. Oh, no. I mean, in the grand scale, the chickens. It's not. It's not and it's not that awful. I mean, it's a very first world problem. and it's actually joyful. My hairdresser has gone on maternity leave.

I think your hair is looking very good. I was actually going to compliment you on your hair, Paul. Thanks. Yeah. So is this not your hairdresser? Is this a new hairdresser? No, this is just me. I washed it.

Oh. You're welcome. Just for you. Just for me, good. It's obviously joyful news. She's gone off on maternity leave. Delighted for her, but devastated for me. Because you know how hard it is to find a good hairdresser.

And when you find one, you don't let go. Yeah, well, as we know, Paul, my hair dressing days are very far, few and far between. I spend probably about four hours in a hairdresser's chair a year, I would say. And you don't colour yours, do you? I don't colour it, no. I don't colour it, although I did meet a hairdresser this week that said, you could go for something called a gloss, which would just give it like a bit of a shine. I'm trying to leave it alone at the moment.

I did, when I was on holiday, get a little sort of white, grey, grey, grey, wiry hair sticking out the middle of my head, which is, I haven't had many of those, but it's interesting you say that about hairdressers because I was actually going to put a call out to say, what do you do when you've got hair that's as flat as a witch's tit? And I can't get any volume in this girl. Like, it's just so flat and I need to have like, I want that kind of, you know, those sort of, what's her name, that amazing actress that had those sort of big waves, those sort of big, I want that, but it just, I can't do it.

I don't know what it is. That's a lot of work, isn't it? That's a big, that's a big old blow dry. I just, I don't know if it is. I don't know if it's one of these, like, wrap things, but nothing works on my hair. It's so heavy. So, um, but any, any recommendations, gals, give them to me, please. Help a girl out. Maybe I just need to lob it off like yours and then just give it a little. It's a lot of work though, but the problem is, okay, so my hairdress, I have to go quite regularly to keep it this length, but it's the colour. And I deviated away from her once when she was on holiday, went from one of her team members, and I walked out looking like

a badger. It was, it took almost a year to get it back from its streaky shit show. Do you remember the hair mascara we used to have as a kid? Yeah. It looked like someone had done that to it. Oh, nice. I used to, when I went through the, when I was a kid, a teenager, did you go through the sun in the days of the box sun in? And everybody had this like mental orange hair. Including the boys. And then we had these tiny little skinny eyebrows and we'd always like pull these bits down at the front when we were like they'd always this bit hanging down here and it was always this awful orange colour and it was the sun in

or lemon. Do you remember? Everyone just used to squirt lemon in their hair. Just go for lemon. I mean wild just bleach, bleach it and then I went through the cap, those plastic caps that they'd pull over your head with the holes in that made you look like you're from horror film and then pull your own hair through and I meant my mom would sort of put this purple stuff all over my hair

and of course it would leak and then you'd get these blobs of blonde bit. Oh back in the days days 90s were just the one, aren't they? Fun fact. Oh, go on. In my early 20s, I decided I wanted to look like Lady Gaga when she had the like blonde helmet hair.

Yeah. So I bleep, we, I went to hairdresser, got it done. But then I was doing it myself to keep it blonde. And I did it so much that my hair started falling out like if you were to pull candy floss off a lump. And it just started coming off in this big stretchy globs. Oh, no, that's not good. Yeah, that's fun.

Oh, hair and fine. ventures. So that's my, that's my biggest news is just I don't have a hairdresser. No one wants to tell you who they use because obviously they don't want them to be busy. Yeah. So, yeah, just watch this space. That's so true. I find that people keep good hairdressers really quite close to their chest. Secret squirrel. They don't want to, yeah, they don't want to, don't want to, announce. I'm not telling you that source. You're not not telling you. Otherwise, they'll never come back to me. It's that child minders. Ain't no one sharing those either, are they? Oh, no, childmines are the number one.

Babysitters. Have you got a good babysitter? I've got a really good babysitter. Oh, can I have her number? No, you can't. You absolutely can't. Yeah, I feel you. I feel you.

What else has been going on, my love? Just driving around the country here and everywhere. Oh, very exciting. The shade planting plan and part shade planting plans are out. So that's been the big launch. So if you don't know how to plant your garden in shade, I'm going to hook you up. Go on the website.

Okay. And other than that, I mean, the only other news I've got is something I wanted to discuss with you was the demise of sex in the city or in just like that. Okay. It's over. The girls are gone. That's it.

I think it's about time. It was getting a bit bad. It was getting a bit bad. It was getting a bit, let's be really honest here. They were pretty bad. The latter ones. I mean, they were appalling, but I loved it. Do you know what?

I think you've just got to give up when you're sort of, I sometimes think it's good to just stop when you know when when when when it's good and then it just they should have given up a long time ago I'm sorry that's of that I'm with that kind right fair enough but but on the back of that was having a conversation the other day and I wanted to ask this do you have so every year I will watch something like Gilmore girls or one tree hill and I'll start the beginning and I'll go all the way through and it's like my comfort watch do you have a comfort watch that you kind of go back to when you just want to like get into bed and watch something you already know no oh I'm To the opposite, I don't like watching something I've already seen, no matter how good it is.

It could even be a really good film. Yeah. Like, almost find it really hard to go back and watch something that I've already seen. Perhaps the in-betweeners, that's pretty funny. But I couldn't do friends all over again. I know loads of people watch friends again. Yeah. I just, yeah, I don't, I don't almost, I don't get the same.

I don't get a thrill from watching something for the second time. Okay. All right. Well, I've heard something new. Yeah. Probably says something about our personality types. I feel like we're very different in that regard because the women I were with were either like,

oh, I don't watch any TV. And I was like, oh, what are you doing? Filling your time. I hardly watch it. Yeah, all right. I know. But then I am. Is that cool?

I don't know. I think it is. I think it's like a badge of honour to not watch TV. Is it? I also think it's because, just because I haven't got the attention span to sort of sit and absorb something. I have to be off doing like a million other things.

But no, I like, I mean, I'll read three books at the same time. That says something about me as well, I'm sure. But yeah, I'm probably more of a researcher. Like, I love learning about new things. So then I feel like I've already seen it and done it. I'm like, oh, no, it doesn't really tick on my interest. Yeah, but the annoying thing is I don't remember anything I've seen. So I'm not that really cool person that remembers, you know, intellectual facts about something I've just read.

I could watch something really interesting. I'm like, oh my God, I've got to tell you about this amazing thing that just happened. I can't remember who wrote it. I can't really remember the entire storyline, but it was really good. Let me just look it up on my phone and tell you what it was. That's what, that's me. So I'm pointless. I'm like a goldfish, basically.

Swim from one side to the tank to the other and I've forgotten what I was going to say. Yes, I must slap some more HRT on. Well, that's my news, pal. That's all I got for you. It's keeping it light this week. What about you? It can't always have riveting stuff to talk about. I've been, I have been, um, mad this, it feels like this, it's a huge moment where we've, this

week been photo shooting, um, Jamie and Sophie Lang's house. The house has finished. It is impeccable. It's absolutely beautiful. Something I'm so proud of. And we've been keeping it really under wraps. And this week has been photo shoot week. And there's a fucking train strike, isn't there? So everything. And I had two talks as well in town and there was lots events, things going on. Everything's either been cancelled. but it's been taking me two hours, 45 minutes to get, because I have no other choice. This is the only window we've got to shoot the house.

And we had a big interview with the evening standard, which will be out by the time this comes out, which is really exciting with Jamie and Sophie. So it's this big buildup that suddenly happened, and it couldn't be a worst week. The team couldn't get in. Everyone's just stranded. It's just chaos.

It feels like absolute chaos when the trains break down in London. People just can't get around. You can't get around. because it's not like a small city that you can walk. You know, if you're going from one side of London to the other, it's hours. No, so you've been driving around like a maniac. Oh my goodness, I've been spending so much time in the car. And Joey and I left the sheet yesterday.

Her laptops just went completely blank, totally black, smashed like base of the front. And it was like a sign. It was the universe saying, you're done. Get out of here. Get out of here. And we got out, got in the car, and it's total gridlocked. Every single residential road we couldn't move. So I was like, do you know what?

Part of the car. we're going for a margarita so that we did yeah parked up the car and we went some nice dinner together had a little marg it was lovely this oh no that's sometimes just what you need you know but in other in other news we have i'm looking out at my paddock and the fencing the new fencing is now in and i am thrilled what did you go for go on well we didn't go with anything too fancy to be on it's it's a three and a half acre paddock so it's an expensive thing i didn't we don't want to spend money on. I haven't even done the bloody house. We went with just post and wire and it looks really smart. The guys that have done it are amazing. Do you know what? Jobs are good in. It looked

much better than a rotten falling down fence. So that's that. And then obviously the garage is starting very soon. So we're kind of starting to make, starting to make very small tracks around here, around this. So with that fence, does that mean we can start the alpaca farm? We can start, yes. Piggy goats coming. You got it, gal. Yeah. Yeah. I've now become really slightly obsessed with this account on Instagram and I feel like now I need to tell you his name and again I've done that classic thing I literally see this is what I do

I don't now remember it I know that I keep sending these things to Brad because I'm like baby you've got to you've got to see this I want to live basically my life like this and of course we won't the account my loves is called wild minds community have you seen it no mate tell me what it's about this guy

and he's like I he sets up a set up a community where they literally live off the land and he's this really cool guy with a young family and he just shows how you. That sounds very huge. Doesn't it? I feel like it could be me. You're never not out there toiling in the soil. Yeah, no. I mean, obviously Brad would do that bit, but I mean, I would like, you know, just walk around my little basket collecting, picking little wildflowers and eggs and my chickens. Are you giving, this is giving Ballerina Farm here. Have you heard about this big surge in, oh God, what's it called? Hello,

perimenopause. The thing, like, homesteading. This is going to make for a really good podcast. because eventually we're going to be like, hi, what are we doing? Sorry, what are we talking about? Sorry, who are you? Who am I? I don't have to have a clue. Paraminopause can suck a fat one in my opinion. It really ruins everyone's fun.

I'm sorry, it's not okay. And actually I put this thing out. This is so naughty of me. So I have obviously a subscriber account on Instagram where I share with my very close in-ease, everything I'm up to. And it usually is a bit of an overshare of most of my life. And I was up in my room and I'd have basically had a monster fight with Brad. And I was acting very irrationally. Like really irrationally. What did you do? I just was like, no, and you never

do anything around the house. Nothing ever gets done. Everything I have to do myself, don't one of those real rants. That old chestnut. And you know when you walk away, you're like, for much better now. And then you go to the loo. And there it is a sign. And you're like, shit. I forgot my period. It's the time of the month. It was, that's where I've been an absolute bitch for the last 24 hours. It's like this dragon, like, just builds up inside of me. And I just flames come flying out my nose. And I'm like, the closest person I'm going to take this out on is Brad.

So Brad got it. And I shared it on my Instagram. There he was. Because when he goes very quiet and he's like, fuck, Joe's just, I think, you know. And there he is, literally, I could just see him out there doing like a million jobs, like doing everything he can possibly do to sort of keep. the flames, keep the flames at bay. Bless you.

But anyway, that was funny enough. Then I put it on the subscribers and everyone was like, girl, get that HRT on you. Get the old HRD on you. ASAP, Pronto. ASAT Rocky. So, sorry, what was I talking about? It was me. It was me that couldn't remember.

Homesteading is the new cult symbol. So, you know, have you heard of ballerina farm? No. Okay, that's fine. She's a lady, she's got like 47 children and she makes everything from scratch. and she lives on a farm. But apparently, the new kind of cult status symbol is, number one, big families, because who can afford to have lots of children these days?

And two, it's this kind of like tradwife vibes. Like it's really being pushed. You just want to be a tradwife and you just want to pop out loads of kids. And that's the ultimate status symbol. I find it very insidious. And live off the land or is it much more like, is it? Yeah, live off the land, but also look immaculate doing it and put it all on social media. so that you've got like this perfect life with your perfect children and your perfect

vegetables and you're like perfect sourdough that you've made yourself that you've milled the wheat yourself and it's all of it. Let's undo perfect. I think we're doing that one podcast at a time, my friend. Thanks for sticking with us. Anyway, so Jojo, we briefly touched on your sexy new fencing, which brings us on to the questions and this week we are going privacy and screening. Well, would you believe it?

It's like we lined that up. It's like we lined up. We're not nearly organised enough to have lined that. But I like that. I like that. We're talking curtains. We're talking hiding from the neighbours whilst you sunbathe naked. We're talking other forms of privacy and screening.

Let's get into it. Yeah. We want you guys to run around your house and garden completely naked and not worry about anyone looking at you. Unless you want them to. Hey, there we are. little peep holes in the fence. Oh, speaking of peepoles.

Do you remember when as a kid? You know those shitty fences, the ones you don't like. And then they've got the knots in them and the knots obviously dry out. And then you would go, as a kid, you'd just walk past neighbours' fences and you just poke them all until one of them just fell out. Tell me you didn't do that.

No, I didn't. You're joking. That's like... I thought we were going down a glory hole route here, so this is where I was with this. Didn't do glory hauling when I was younger, lucky, no. It wasn't really for me that many might have done.

Anywho. Stop it. Let's start indoors, shall we? Come on. Let's run in then. What are we doing? Right. First question for you. This is a question about bathrooms. Window dressings for a bathroom window. How are you practical, but also stylish? I mean, that's what we prefer to in life, isn't it?

Do you know what? It's a really good question in this. and one that we obviously come up against a lot because it very much depends on the size of your bathroom and is it a bathroom or is it a shower room? Is the shower enclosed so that the, you know, the steam goes up into an extractor or is it very much like you shut the door and the entire room fills up with steam? Those are considerations of what we put in a bathroom. If we are talking a little shower room that literally steams up and you've got one window, for God's sake, don't even bother, even using moisture-resistant material, it is eventually just going to look crap. So some options we've got for you.

Number one, which is my one of, I'm going to add this to my list of detests. It's in there with short curtains, frosted glass. Oh, God, I was about to ask you about that. I fully appreciate why we need to do frosted glass. It is obviously really necessary sometimes where you are, say, looking over like a neighbor's house and there's literally no other option. I would rather you go with something like a vinyl shutter and I don't even like, I'm not a huge fan of shutters because I think they're a bit sort of clunky but at least they let some light through. They can off with privacy. Even with

those though, you are having to connect them and they have got little obviously the metal attachments. They can rust over time. So they work in slightly bigger bathrooms, but in a really small shower room you might have to just go frosted and accept that that is what it is. You can get moisture-resistant fabrics, obviously, that have been coated. It's a sort of waxy coating that you can get on roller blinds and things like that, which can look really nice. So roller blinds is a really practical solution. If your bathroom is bigger, so say we're talking a bigger bathroom and you're not having a huge problem with moisture escaping into the room too much, and say you've got a nice bath and you can crack open a window, you can do cafe

curtains. And you'll see we do cafe curtains in a lot of our projects. If you do not ventilate your room and occasionally crack the window or have good ventilation in that room, your cafe curtains will pick up little mould spurs and you will see mould on them. That will happen. So don't expect that to not happen. Yes, after you've had a shower or even just running, you know, the bath or whatever, do open a window to let the steam escape or even just pull the curtains to one side for a little bit. But yeah, they've got to air. They will, they will trap little bits of moisture that will eventually turn into mould. So if it's not, Moister-resistant.

So, yeah, but otherwise you can look for moisture-resistant fabrics or shutters. You can also get this film, obviously. Like, it's a film that you stick on the window that's slightly frosted. Yeah, and it has, and you can get it with little sort of tiny patterns in and things like that, which is, again, it's a solution. It will start to peel off eventually, which, you know, around the edges. I know you don't love it, but just in its defence, okay, although I've had a dilemma with this, so it sort of leads on.

I have three bathrooms, and each one, overlooks quite a busy road and particularly our downstairs loo literally faces onto the drive with cars just going past constantly so if i didn't put that film on you would just be waving you'd literally be bare-assed waving yeah waving uh whoever had driven in the amazon driver but same with all of our bathrooms they're all completely unprivate and so i did do that the film which at least lets loads of light in and it also just gives you a sense of privacy because you'd be getting out the shower and just feel like you're just waving at all and sundry. The reason I have a problem with it is because you can't see sky. I get from the

lower heart. It's like this, it reminds me of a hospital and it's got that sort of, it's, it's quite oddly when we have a frosted glass. It almost gives a feeling of, you feel quite oppressed in the room, almost quite slightly claustrophobic because you haven't got sky. So, yeah, anyway, there you go. My biggest dilemma, though, to jump on this one more is all of them have the frosted glass because they have to because otherwise, I mean, Colin would literally be standing in the room exposing himself to our neighbours. Is that a bad? Any time he had a pee. Maybe they'd like it.

Yeah. But I agree. I don't like it on its own. So then I've been like, should you do a cafe curtain or something in front of it just so that it's still decorative. Yes, we do that a lot. We've covered up, we've covered up frosted windows. Because also sometimes don't forget, sometimes frosted glass in windows is fixed. To actually get it changed, it's not a film.

You actually would literally physically have to take the glass, get someone to take the glass out and replace it with clear glass. That's an expense, right? So we don't want to do that. So sometimes we have a literally covered up sash windows or cottage casements, the lower half, with a nice kaffa curtain. But just please ventilate it because you don't want to go ruining those things because they're a good tip. I haven't be ventilating my bathroom. I'm going to go open a window. Good.

Crack it open, girl. We should be doing that every day, people. this is one of my major tips for your every you should be opening your windows every day and letting some air circulate around the house. This is a good tip. Okay, I've got one here. Sorry, guys, we've chopped the names off accidentally, so I apologize. We aren't actually saying here these are by, but evergreen for a privacy hedge, 15 to 20 feet tall and fast growing.

I seriously am asking for myself because we're on a sort of private road side, so we want to create high privacy as quickly as possible. Yeah, I get that. lot. It's a tricky one to answer because they can also be very oppressive. You've got to watch out evergreen hedges that are very tall can suddenly feel like you're being sort of caged in. And also, you know, similar to what you said, Jojo, about wanting to see sky, the taller they are, the lesser that you're going to see. So you've got a number of options. You've got the laurels. So if you're in shade, then laurel is a great option. And you've got the kind of bog standard laurel,

which, you know, it's got that big, fat, shiny green. Oh no, I've got that. I do not like it. It's not my favourite. I would avoid it in urban areas, but it does work well. If you're in like a woodland setting or somewhere with shade, then you find it often in woodland's woodland edge. So it grows and it's bulletproof and no animals are going to eat it. So if you are one on a budget or two want something that grows fast and three have a bit of shade, it is a good option. It's just not the prettiest. So if you want something prettier, then I always go with Portuguese laurel, which has got a much smaller leaf and it's dark green. It's almost got like a little pinky stem. I think it's very chic. It's very cute. It's got a looseness, which means that it's not as rigid as you, Texas, or you, which we'll get to in a minute, which is very formal in my view. So it's got the loosey-goosiness of a bigger leaf without being like, Laurel, the big Laurel. Do you see what I mean? I do. It is a bridge between the formal. I like it. Yeah, that's what we've been looking at. And how quickly does that bad boy grow? Relatively. So not as well.

If you were to stick it in the, when you first put it in, how tall would it be ideally when you buy it? It's not crazy expensive. What I really say with hedging, right? Because sometimes I'll go to client sites and they've bought hedging and it's like knee high to a bee. And they're like, oh, we've put this in for privacy. And I were like, you will have privacy in 10 years. That's exactly what we did. Thank you very much. Which you get it. These things are expensive. If you've got a big garden, which, you know, if you live out on the countryside, you've got more land. then it's going to add up really quickly, which is why often it's that big fat laurel that goes in because it's the cheapest and it grows real quick. But really the best thing you can do

when we're just approaching that time, you know I go on about it. Bare root season is a coming late October, early November. Best time possible for you to buy these hedges. They'll be their cheapest and then get them in the ground. But really, go for as tall as you can afford because, you know, nothing's growing like a meter a year. So you're going to be waiting. So there's that. And then if you were on the coast, because I think there were a couple of questions about coastal, then look at grisilina, which is good for kind of salty, windy sights. So there's grisillina. And then Taxus, obviously, we use loads. If you want something more formal or very kind of like English country garden than you or Texas, which is that very

tightly, it's actually a conifer, but I never think of it like a conifer, then that is a gorgeous option. Some people say you grows fast. Some people say you grow slow. That sort of depends. But it's probably your most expensive option. Calgary, also known as the Blue Sky City. We get more sunny days than anywhere in the country. But more importantly, we're the Canadian capital of Blue Sky Thinking. This is where bold ideas meet big opportunity, where dreams become reality. Whether you're building your career or scaling your business, Calgary is where what if. turns into what's next. It's possible here in Calgary, the blue sky city. Learn more at Calgary Economic Development.com. Okay, next question. Double curtains shear behind, yes or no? I don't

understand what that means whatsoever, so I hope you do. Okay, so this is a good question. So when you have a pair of curtains, there are so many ways to dress a window. That's the truth bit. from, you know, roller blinds to cafe curtains to Roman blinds to sheer Roman blinds to blackout Roman blinds, to blackout curtains, to sheer curtains. So there's lots of layers and it's completely up to you what you like and what you prefer in the shape of the window, whether you need a Roman blind to help raise the eye up or you're happy with, you've got lovely high windows. So you've got lovely big high sash windows and you just need curtains. But you also need privacy. In this instance, this would be a really great place to have a double pole with a curtain and a shear. The reason being is that the curtain, your blackout curtain, say it's a bedroom, blackout lined curtain, will sit on the outside of the pole.

So that's the one you see on the outside. And that's going to give you your blackout at night. But then behind it on a secondary pole, which is still the same pole, it's just designed that it's two tracks. Yes. You've got your sheer curtain, which you can literally pull across if you're getting changed or you want some purpose of set the lighting. And we're talking like a sort of, ethereal netting, voil situation. Literally like a boil, yeah. Gotcha.

Like an ice floor. And that can be pulled across. And it's called a double pole. And it's usually a metal pole, wooden pole. And they are metal pole usually. Actually, that's true. And what is that? What is the purpose?

Is it just giving a little bit of privacy? It just gives you privacy. But equally, if say it's a south facing elevation, you know, southeast, southwest elevation, you get a lot of hot light, you know, sunlight coming in and you want to not fry your room or the, you know, your furniture within it, then you can obviously pull your share. So it's just a nice way to. give a bit of shielding from the sun, but also privacy if you need it.

So you say yes. I love them. I think they're really nice. Yeah, love, yes. It's a double polo is a yes from me. Okay, I've got one here from Catherine Schreier. Trees, your favourite Aspellier trees, please, to create privacy. Mm-hmm.

Okay, fine. So Aspelier trees, if you don't know, are trees which have been trained to be flat. So think of it like a hedge on a stick. that's been squashed. There's been squashed flat. So it's been trained so that it goes outwards. You can show us. Oh, okay.

So, oh. We're a spalli trees for you. You are a spalli trees. But also, if we're being bougie, actually a pleached tree is a hedge on a stick, but a spallier could mean that it's kind of, I don't know if she meant this. It can mean that it's fan trained or like,

it just means it's been trained into a flat shape. But for privacy, and we use these a lot, smaller urban gardens more than we would in a country garden because space is a premium. So we're trying to not take up too much space by doing big old trees which could potentially shade the entire garden. So my favourites, everyone says which evergreen one can we have because we want permanent privacy. And my answer is you will have permanent privacy at the expense of interest and also evergreens are by their very nature really boring. They're just dark green

me all year so i will answer the question if you want evergreen then we use a lot of holly so ilex nellie stevens is very good and we use portuguese laurel is a good option we used to use whole moak but it's bloody hard to get hold of with those try again with the hedging just try and stretch to the most established ones you can get when you're buying a pleached tree you're going to buy it by its girth and ain't this the truth The bigger the girth, the better. Yes. But also the more expensive.

More expensive, yes. Yes. So you can buy the ones that you'll find. If you go online on a website, you'll probably find them with a 10-12 girth or even an 8-10 girth. These are the cheapest you can get, but they are puny.

You are going to be waiting a long time for that to actually give you any privacy. So if you can stretch to it, go to a 12 to 14, a 14 to 16 to 16 to 18. And your girth is literally the measurement of the stem. And that's telling you, how old it is and how long it's been on the on the frame um but i would urge you to consider deciduous options because let's face it you're not in the garden that much in the winter anyway

so you know i think it matters less how private your garden is in the winter but it also means you're more likely to get some blossom out of it some autumn color out of it and they also just look way softer in the summer trees look so gorgeous when they're spellio don't they i've actually got what i bought my first um it's a uh uh Apricot. Oh, very nice. And then I've got a pair as well. Well, we went to, you know, we went to a, see, I've done it again.

Where did you go? Where did you go? How did you go? How long have you got? A garden centre? No, we didn't. It wasn't. It was a trust.

It was a, you know, trust house nearby. A national trust. National trust house. There we go. We got there. It had these incredible, yeah, but which one is the one I'm trying to get to, is that's the first hurdle. We haven't even got to the second fucking hurdle yet.

I mean, you're going to be here all day. And it's, anyway, we saw this incredible blossom tree that was up, this old brick wall that was probably 20 foot high. And this thing was absolutely beautiful. And it's spread out across this entire wall. And I was like, right, that's it. I took a photo and I took it to the garden centre. I was like, I want one of these.

Can you show me where they are? She literally pointed me at the trees. And it was like, it's tiny, tiny little blossom tree, this little apple tree. And she said that tree is probably about 80 years old. Yeah. Yeah. She said long outside.

Yeah, you're not going to find anything. I'm afraid like that. No. Oh, you're like, I want that one. That instant 100-year-old tree. Thanks so much. Pop it in the boot of the car for me, would you? National Trust properties, I tell you.

You just can't have any of it. But lovely to go and look at. Anyway, so that's my digress. Can I just ask a really silly question? Is there any way to speed up the growth of trees, which I know it's like, you know, giving them sort of steroids. But I know you can get all this sort of tree feed because obviously dad's trees down in the paddock

and it's doing so well, by the way, everyone. And we go down and I do give him a sort of a couple of weeks. And sort of, you know, every couple of weeks, I give him a little feed with some tree feed, even though he is in now the soil. It's not like he's in a pot. I probably, I'm going to double check this, but I'd probably stop feeding it now

because what you don't want to do is we move into autumn and winter is encouraged loads of new growth. which is obviously very tender. Okay. And because then if we get frosts, it's the tender new growth that suffers the most when we suddenly get cold weather. So I would tend to say we're coming to the end

of the growing season. So I would stop feeding now. Such good advice. Such good advice. Stop feeding your pots because they're going in to sleep. They're going to sleep. You just stop feeding your plants now because it's definitely not a time

when you're trying to encourage growth. But to finish the question, pal, for deciduous options, they need to be looking at carpinus, they need to be looking at beach. You could be looking at crab apples, which look amazing as an espalier. There's three of our favourites that we like to use for pleached trees. You're going to sacrifice winter privacy, but I think it pays dividends in the rest of the year. Okay.

They're cheaper as well. Deciduous is cheaper, cheaper. And very quickly back to my question, if you were to feed the trees at the start of the summer season, is it going to help, literally help their growth? It will support their growth. Nothing can fast forward the growth of a tree. Okay. You can't fast forward growth, Jo-J.

Paul, what is in and what is out this week? JoJo, I'm so glad you asked. In for me this week, and I know it's early, is beauty advent calendars because they're all starting to drop now and last year I left it too late and couldn't get one. So for me, I've just ordered one. I've gone with the space NK one. Okay.

Because I'm told it's the best one. Because I've had these things in the past. and I just end up with basically fucking loads of plastic, little bottles lying around of unused product that will never get used because I don't like the smells or you want stuff that you really are going to use

and to be fair, I'm facing K is probably the one, isn't it? Because you genuinely want to use everything in there. Because otherwise you're like, I don't want any of this. And I suppose you can always give it to friends of, you know, a friend or family. Defo, it's a good one. So there's a hot tip for you, grab it now. they do sell out um and i what's your in my friend what is in for me which is doing my head in

and i would like some some explanation as to why i feel this pressure from kids to buy this shit is yeah something called a lalaboooooo a laliboo is it not a lalaboo is it not a lalaboo i'm sorry what is what is the hype it is literally okay let for anyone that doesn't know a Bibu is a collection of pretty ugly looking dolls. So they're not even dolls. They're little monsters and they're all different colours and they've got these little sort of faces with these teeth and they're furry and they're on a key ring and they are extortionately expensive and they're a hype right now.

The kids are hyping over them. Even adults apparently are hyping over them and they come in different colours and they are not cheap and my girls are now hell-bent on me buying them at a luboo. And I am so anti this shit. I'm really anti it. And I just, but I don't also want to be that horrible mum that doesn't want to, like, doesn't, because I did say back to school, what would you like? And they both asked for these.

And I was like, I just, I just don't get it. You could get them, a lafoufoo. Oh, a lafufu. Do you know what that is? No, tell me. A lafoufoo is a fake la booboo. Is it called a lafoufoo? That is genius.

It's called a lafufu. Well, there are, I have seen the fake ones around. and they are half the price. But then apparently there's lots of parts that come off them and the plastic and then hence you don't buy fake because they're haunting though, aren't they? I find it creepy. But also what are you going to do with it?

So I get like Salvanian families. There are lots of little creatures that you can sit in your room and you can play with them and make like make believe. I get that. This is a doll about this high, about sort of 25 centimetres high, 20 centimetres high, with a key ring on. You're going to look at it and then it will get disgusting.

along with every other doll and that's, I don't, someone help me out here. I don't go out. I feel we should put Labibu's in out then rather than in. Okay, that can go in out. In, Advent calendars, out. Yes. Lafoufoufos. Okay, good.

Amazing. Well, on that note, don't forget to like, subscribe, review, send us praise, send us your questions, just generally engage with us because we love it. We love it and we love you. And if you don't love it, then we're quite frankly, we're just not coming back next season. So that's the end of us. Okay, my loves. We love you very much.

Goodbye. Bye-bye. Time to check on the skies. It's another sunny day in Calgary. Forecast calls for high levels of economic activity. Late afternoon, we've got a burst of potential. in a place ranked North America's most livable city. Tomorrow, blue sky thinking in the blue sky city

should hold steady, and the outlook remains optimistic throughout the week. So come grab your dreams and enjoy watching them take hold. It's possible in Calgary, the Blue Sky City. For the full economic forecast, visit calgary economic development.com.