The Ins & Outs - The Ultimate Guide to Carpets & Garden Soundscapes

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

In this episode Jojo goes on a Book Club Adventure and the ladies get ready to embark on a holiday escapade!From stylish tips on concealing a teal sofa, to in-depth carpet and rug insights by Jojo, and Polly’s expert advice on creating a tranquil garden soundscape.Plus, a discussion on what to do with Polly’s ‘cock pond.’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/Jojo's Link to Sisool Carpethttps://www.crucial-trading.com/range/sisool/sisool-masai/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 Welcome back to the Ins and Outs with Polly and myself Jojo. We are sponsored this week by the very lovely Capietra. Capietra do both interior and exterior tiles and this week I just wanted to draw your attention to the dreamy

limestones you must go and have a look on the website i am having a moment for the tumbled and etched cobbles and also the parquet because i absolutely love mixing up those formats so go check out the limestones i am in heaven with a lot of those buff tones so that's capietra.com go and check them out. They're lovely. I'm looking at them now. On this week's episode, we are going to be touching on book clubs, skiing.

We're going to be talking about rugs, frogs, and more rugs, from the cuts to the piles to the Persians. How to drown out sound in the garden with Polly. How to cover up a teal sofa. And if you haven't already seen it, Polly's Cock Bond. Oh, hello, friend. Hi, mate. How are you? I'm so well, my friend.

So Operation Running is going well. Yes. How many runs have you had on the Peloton? I've only done four, but that's not bad, is it? You've got to fit it in where you can. But I'm doing this really great program, which is called You Can Run, and it's on the Peloton, and it's sort of building you up. It's a bit like Couch to 5K, but whatever the Peloton equivalent.

So that's good. And also something which I've tried and I thought of you nearly every minute I did it. I like that you think about me a lot. I think about you all the time. You're all I think about. You are my world. I did Reformer Pilates, where you get on the old table and scooch around queen yes i've never done it before i feel like there's a real resurgence of or not even a resurgence a surge of people trying out the reformer i don't know if it's the age thing

well you're you're the like pilates guru i love it um i'm actually going to get, I'm going to get my own reformer machine. I really, really want my own reformer because I don't think there's anything better to keep you in shape, straight, lean, toned. I love it.

Honestly, like when I was doing reformer, I'd never, I had a spring in my step, my, my spine, my back, my posture,

everything was just brilliant. It's so good for you. Honestly. So running in reformer I'd never I had a spring in my step my my spine my back my posture everything was just brilliant it's so good for you honestly so I really enjoyed it I was looking at it after one lesson of of Pilates and it was it was she was terribly gentle with me because I'd never been on the damn thing before but I felt sort of stretched and like areas of my body had worked like my groin and my core I was like oh okay yeah no I can see I can see how this is going to work so yeah I really enjoyed it oh good I'm so pleased how about you what have you been up to my dear friend to be honest just this the just the start of this year has just been an absolute haze of work relentlessly running around the country we've finished three projects and they're all coming to a close which is kind of that last getting the final bits in to get clients moved in and we've got photo shoots planned and various things which is really exciting and then obviously

starting on new projects and we're actually we've got a new project in somewhere really rather exciting very far flung where in Botswana sure yeah fabulous a safari lodge in Botswana for some very lovely clients of ours who own the mutton pub that we recently did in Hampshire that one and I honestly they're a dream client anyway but they've got this safari lodge and they would like a bit of house my magic in there so we are Lizzie and I are flying out there next week a couple of weeks how exciting i know that's pretty huge is that a commercial job pal or is that residential that is a commercial project yeah that's a hotel it's a yeah it's a lodge it's a very lodge hotel project do you do a lot of

commercial stuff we have done we had a that amazing resort that we did in the maldives or a few resorts in the maldives that we were working on um sort of pre-covid and then covid happened and it slightly put a match under it but we were still very much working with those clients and hopefully one day we'll do some more with them in the future um that's that's actually on my vision board so if they're listening please let us back and then um we've done a few we've done the gara rock in devon for anyone that's been down there i love that i love the imagery of that i've not been yeah i've seen the pictures that's that was a great project um but if anyone out there wants a hotel doing we i love hotel

commercial projects i love them they're really fun because you can get really creative with them it's just nice because lots of people are seeing it lots of people are going in and testing it and you know enjoying it it's fun it's really fun but anyway what else we've got going on that you know i mean let's not go together but it's been so cold and i've been outside this week i have been wearing blundstones wool socks shout out jenna, obviously. And then I've been wearing like six, I was wearing four jumpers, a coat and thermals yesterday. Gosh, you don't half love talking about the weather or us English lot, do you? Freezing, but my poor skin. So I was outside, it was freezing cold.

And then I came into central heating. It's so drying. I think it's not the cold I think it's drying. It's the central heating. If you're sitting in the car for a long journey and you get out and it's like your face feels like it's like cracking sucked dry like a raisin literally dried sort of pour oil all over your face complete segue here but one of the absolute joys of this weather I find is I've got this teeny tiny little fireplace in my 1960s house you know think of like the smallest fireplace you can have and it's got like a brass I'm staring

at it now brass inlay attractive it is not but the joy of making my own little fire and just making my room cozy do you always put a fireplace into living rooms when you're designing them if we can yeah always yeah if we can if there's space for it yeah so should I put one in mine oh yeah I would I mean I don't like i said actually on last week's podcast if you haven't got a fire in your living room and it's a piece of joinery or something instead that's okay you can still make it feel cozy but if the option's there to put a fireplace in or a log burner or even just an ethanol there's just something about the look of fire something about fire isn't there it's so because an ethanol you can just essentially make

a fake chimney breast and then put this ethanol log basket in and you just light it literally manually light it it doesn't you don't need a flu so it's nice to have it just feels it doesn't give off any heat but it's just a nice thing to look at there's something about looking it's just a real pleasure isn't it real pleasure so i've i've loved that so okay fine i shall make sure that that's that the bill. Yeah. And then something rather exciting, Paul. We're off somewhere together, aren't we? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Polly and I are going skiing together.

Or rather, Jojo's going skiing with all of her friends. She's very kindly invited her sad act single mate to come along. P.S. Jojo and everyone can ski and muggins here can snowplow no we've got a couple of single pals going as well single male friends coming and we're staying in the most beautiful lodge uh we stayed in last year actually i am going to do a name drop but it's the landscape lodge and we stayed there last year and it's the most gorgeous place it actually has a this really cool bath outside on the balcony which I feel like we might have to get in oh I better pack my swimmers yeah pack

your swimmers or I'll terrify Brad if I get in naked cooey yeah I'm not going to terrify Brad he'll be out there in an ice bath the guy's like he's like a sort of Spartan warrior he loves it loves loves an ice bath I can't wait so listeners jojo sent me a very funny um very funny gift the other day of some amazing skier like swooshing down the slopes and then their mate slowly snow plowing down and that'll be me i've also one more thing just for before we move on to more pressing matters like questions and answers um i started with some local mum friends a village book club you're adorable tell me more isn't that i mean i like i have time i actually can't believe i started this but i got some mates together locally and we've got a

book club and the first book we're reading is yesterday yesterday yesterday oh good no no hang on tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow but the funny thing is you thought you knew what you're doing what i was talking about i thought you were talking about a totally different book yesterday yesterday yesterday that's really yes that's yesterday's news anyway tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow is supposed to be very good it is one of my favorite books i have read in i'm gonna go so far as to say the last five years oh my gosh I'm so excited I love it because we're going to read the book and then for anyone listening how nice is this you you decide

on each other book you give it a little synopsis in a whatsapp chat you all take three weeks to read it and then you meet up at each other's houses or at the pub sink a bit of wine have a chat about the book and probably everything else under the sun and then on to the next book this I thought this is a really good way to get me reading I love a good book recommendation and every now and then when I go on holiday is basically the only time I ever read so I share them and I know a lot of people liked um when I shared what I read on summer so I have just read a really good book and I was going to share it I love it it was actually one of the um Reese Witherspoon she always picks the best books very clever woman um the book is called before we were innocent and i inhaled it in 24 hours is it really good

i loved it before we were innocent okay and it's a great read so add that one to your list and every time i read something else i will share it because I love a good book record but should we start an ins and outs book club where we talk about the books we love yes and our innies and outies can send what they love too and we'll share or indeed a film or a or tv and I've got something up my sleeve for you my friend I want to talk to you about a tv show but I'm saving it and it there's your little tease but I just oh okay oh okay I'm excited all right then should we jump straight into some questions and answers from our inies and outies you beautiful inies let's see what we've got for Jojo oh hello yes this is oh darling this is from

Alison I bought a teal velvet sofa when I was pregnant and hormonal and clearly insane. Oh God. And I hate it already. How do I tone it down or blend it in? Oh, God bless you. Did you do anything nuts when you were pregnant? I just ate a lot of cinnamon rolls. I, I have, I've got a great solution.

Here we go. Take a big, big, big. Where's she going with this oatmeal throw and chuck it over look we do crazy things when we're pregnant buying a sofa that's teal velvet wouldn't be my first recommendation of things to do i would have gone for a cinnamon roll much cheaper however you're left with it um let's see if we can make it work um genuinely when i said about the oatmeal throw it is one thing that you can do to try and tone it down is that you can put things around it and on it that are a bit more subdued don't go sticking loads of colored cushions on it because you're just going to highlight it and make it look even more busy and even more stressful um take a nice oatmeal throw and just

throw it over sort of one side put an array of textured oatmeal linen cushions on the sofa you know all sort of different they could be all sort of different textures and tones of oatmeal and white but that will really help sort of subdue it that I'd say that would probably be the only thing I could really recommend sometimes can you buy sofa covers can you buy like something you put over the whole thing it would only it would have to be for that specific sofa when we say teal are we talking about a slightly aggressive turquoise exactly yeah it is an aggressive turquoise it's just a very friendly it's a friendly word it's a friendly it's a friendly name for a very aggressive turquoise it's just a very friendly it's a friendly word it's a friendly it's a friendly name for a very aggressive turquoise yeah that's a tough really deep deep deep turquoise

you know that's sort of very so would you add teal accents to the room to tie it together no definitely not i wouldn't do that no you want to try and lose the teal so you want it to become losing the teal if you start pulling in other elements of teal around the room you're almost just saying i really love this color teal look at it gotcha check out my teal and what about you know when people have a sofa they've got dogs or i don't know maybe it's a knackered old sofa they get like two or three cream rugs or throws or whatever and throw them over and turn it into like a ghost sofa would you do that it just looks like a bag of onions so okay so it's it's gentle natural transitions natural oatmeal keep it keep it calm yeah turn it down oh my god just while i remember have you seen my cock pond excuse me my cock pond you've seen it. Your what pond?

My cock pond. You keep saying it. I just can't. I've got a pond in my garden shaped exactly like a penis. Oh, the cock pond. I have seen it. I saw it on your Instagram. It made me just sigh.

What were they thinking? What were they thinking, the previous thinking the previous owners it is uncanny but are you one of those people that just sees phallic shapes like everything's a phallic shape no it's not like a rorschach test where i'm just looking for penises i feel like for some time it's legitimately shaped like one. I mean, I put it on socials. I have never, I find it telling of my followership, and I love you all dearly, that that story is my most watched of all time.

Tens of thousands of people engaging with my penis pond, which is not a euphemism. Naturally, you're going to keep it, I expect. Well, it is good for wildlife okay there you go there's one solitary fish in it well the things that people were suggesting i did to uh embellish said pond were frankly staggering disgusting like you innies and outies actually just you outies my innies would never never be quite so crude well frankly they were rather uncouth we had people suggesting that i put grasses around the base so as well i think you can imagine why as sort of to make a a fluffy base fluffy nest much like yours darling and uh also i had someone suggesting i put a water fountain at the tip. Oh, that'd be nice.

That'd be classy. I know, I think, you know, let's be subtle. But no, it won't be staying. But one of those like stone for now, one of those stone herons, just sort of picking, pecking at the tip. Or a little angel just cupping on the balls. Anyway, should we jump into the question? Because we've so so digressed here i've got an outie question for you this is from hannah i have followed polly's advice and bought some saroka confusa plants for my shady mixed border to add structure it's long and deep they smell divine i'm planting should i plant them in a groups or three odd numbers as per with perennials or as long as lone rangers i've got five of them love this so sarka kaka confuser that's what we talked about um evergreen with like gorgeous scent at this time of year so with shrubs you don't

necessarily need to follow the same rule as you do with perennials so a soccer cocker can get quite large and so I would say you do not need to plant that as clusters you can if you wanted to do something quite instant impact and you wanted a big old lump of it I would plant them as lone rangers or you could do them in two twos because essentially they're going to merge into one another it would be awful if it was something very neat and clipped like a ball two and two could be a little weird but because they're sort of quite free form and they're all going to merge into each other I would do them either side you could either if you've got a pathway for example it'd be really lovely to go like one two three four five and it's sort of a zigzag across the pathway um but you said it was was it one big border it's long and deep I would

probably zigzag those as a five through the border so three at the front two at the back or vice versa nice yeah i don't think they need to go near each other good choice though well done for buying those you will not regret it okay let's see what the innies have for us today oh hello yes please so jojo do you have any recommendations for a carpet that is durable soft but aesthetically pleasing for bedrooms what are your thoughts on wool pile carpets help and thank you both the podcast has been so helpful and that is from Paula and I just want to add to that Jojo I just want to add to it really quickly I know that you talk about I'm gonna say it wrong sisal sisal sisal a lot but i personally love the look don't love the feel underfoot and nor do my children so yes let's go

back so her question is carpet that's durable soft aesthetically pleasing thoughts on wall carpets i love a wall carpet i do hold on i love no that's not particularly true I don't like a cut wall carpet so much as I like a loop carpet so loop wool so a cup you know what do you know the difference is a cut wall carpet a bit like when a man has a buzz cut and yeah it's a buzz cut yeah exactly so it's just you can see all the the end you know the yes like grass imagine cutting grass how would you be able to tell what a loop one a loop is literally like the the pile has been taken up and over so you've got lots and lots and lots of little loops that make the carpet so it's still made of wool but it's a loop car loop style carpet

i'm not sure i've ever got down on my knees and had a look oh you know if you saw it but um okay i will do they tend to be deeper yes it, it's slightly spongier. Okay. And I like it because it has a little bit more structure and I think it adds a sort of texture. Whereas a cut pile, as well as being not quite so forgiving, so if you were to drop something like makeup on it or anything in the bedroom, it's just a little bit more open. It's almost just like the open pores, if you like. But I do like them.

They are what they are I think if it's a loop pile sometimes loop pile you can have a sizal and loop so there's a sort of lovely sizal weave that runs between the loops and that can look really lovely she wants still soft still soft yeah it's a look at a loop pile sizal carpet. And that can be a really that's a lovely solution because it adds it still gives you that sort of texture. But it just adds that bit of variation. What if you don't want sizal though? Because sizal can be a bit of a bitch if you drop a lipstick or something. Well, then wool is your option if you don't go Persian or that sort of style.

So you could do something like that. So you're okay with that. Do you know what my my only slight beef with wool carpet and I feel like you're going to hygiene shame me again but I don't think this is anything to do with hygiene is I have had moths in my house oh yeah and they bloody love it they are such bastards they eat it's awful it's the they lay exited moths lay eggs in wool carpet and then they just start to get to work and it's really hard to get rid of horrible bastard things is there ever a place for an oh god i'm really going to embarrass polyester i don't know no not for the non-wool carpets

but then but but then so hypoallergenic people that are so a lot of people are actually allergic to wool and therefore they have to have something that's you know like a like a that's why sizal is so brilliant or just go wood floor but but she wants what is sizal made of so sizal is essentially a long coarse fiber and it comes from the leaves of the agave plant really yeah god agave is a useful old plant isn't it tequila it is right sugar very hard wearing sort of it but it's quite stiff you're right some people love it or hate it i've never had a problem with it i've put it in so many bedrooms over the time over over the years and i i've never it's never really bothered me underfoot i don't i quite i quite like it it's brilliant upstairs it's very hard wearing you know my boys

call it pinny you know they're like it's a bit pinny depends because you can get sort of soft sizels and then you can get very rough ones it depends on what if you've got a very mucky family I don't know you've got dogs or whatever can you can you go for one of the mixes where it's wool plus that's exactly the the one I said which is the loop loop pile with the size all through it's beautiful i'll link a picture on the on the show notes so that you can all see what i mean i've got another carpet question for you talking carpets yeah uh we are re-carpeting the entire upstairs of the house but i'm struggling to find much carpet advice out there my gut is to go pretty neutral with the same color throughout to give flow and continuity to the house then let the walls and furniture in the rooms bring the personality what is the designer's

take on this is that playing it safe and boring wait for it my husband thinks we should have a fun carpet i'm fascinated to know what that is although i can't quite unpick what he means by fun carpet nor can i my dear and that is from viv so first of all jojo what the hell is a fun carpet i imagine it's well it depends what you can do you think he means a jazzy stripe i think he means jazzy i think he thinks he means if you were to go and stay in a 1990s hotel and the corridors have a sort of slightly jazzy carpet that hides things. Hides the stains. So my answer to that is please don't do that, Viv's husband. No fun carpets.

No, no. Carpets should not be a feature, no? No, I just, that's a big fat no for me. So is she playing it safe and boring by going for pretty neutral? I like what she said about going nice and neutral and then getting stuff on the walls, nice paints, artwork. That can bring the interest in but I wouldn't personally decide on a jazzy fun carpet unless that's your cup of tea I'd fight the husband hard on that one. Would it be fair to say that the carpet is almost

the eyebrows of the room in that you're not trying to make a big deal about you want them to be there and you want them to be presentable but you're not wanting anyone to be like i'm staring at your eyebrows i've stared at many eyebrows and think wow you have great brows those stop it no i think i think i think it's carpets very important because essentially it's like a foundation so it's a it's it's the sort of it sets the tone for everything around it. So it's so important that you get that tone right. It's actually more a foundation layer. Don't go, yeah, I wouldn't say go, you know, like anything with grey.

You know how I feel about grey? I was going to say, I was going to say she doesn't mean grey when you say neutral. You don't mean grey, you mean oatmeal, don't you? Keep it sort of on the oatmeal chain not the gray gray tray the oatmeal train the buffs if you will yeah buffs neutrals um but yeah i'd say or i people are really funny about wood floors up on first floors don't be afraid of wood floors i'm still on the fence on this one pal i'm having to make that decision pretty soon come around to mine and have a walk around in my bedroom and see if you like it you can test drive it you lie on it you can have underfloor heating it's lovely and then you put

put nice rugs down I just like I like a carpet upstairs I know it's so much chica to have the wood but I just like a lot of people would downstairs carpet upstairs yeah I know I should be cooler than that but I just I like it what of it it's it's such a personal preference but back to viv's question i would stick to something neutral anything too jazzy i think you will regret this for one final one we're doing three back-to-back innings here because they're all oh my gosh they're all very related right okay so this is from cat i would love to know your thoughts on persian rugs are they in or are they out p.s love the pod love listening to it in bed

to switch off and relax before going to sleep oh thank you so much what was her name cat oh cat hi cat thanks so much you bloody love a Persian rug I flippin love a Persian rug I think as we all know um I sell antique Persians I source antique Persians one of my hobbies is looking for antique Persian rugs um and therefore i am a diehard fan i don't think they will go out of fashion and the reason being is that they've never been out of fashion yeah they're very classic aren't they but there's there's persian rugs and there's persian rugs an actual persian rug it's very deep in color it's got lots of deep dark reds and it's quite rich and opulent the rugs that you see me me using um that we

stock are sort of like a um an over dyed they essentially sort of shave it and then it's sort of almost like bleached it's kind of has the color taken out of it so it looks washed looks like it's been lovely slightly bleached so it's much more subtle so you still have those lovely patterns um but what i love about them is they've just got they just ooze character and it's it's an antique so it's a piece of history it could be 100 plus years old um it's an investment it's not going to lose its value um they hide stains they're. I am such a fan of Persian rugs. And no, I don't think they're going to go out of fashion at all. Oh, but here's a big one for you. What do you think about, you know, like Berber rugs?

I think that's what they're called, the big white fluffy ones that were... Yeah, with the black crosses on them. Yeah, very, very fashionable. Couldn't move for them on socials a year or two ago what do you do you think those are going away i don't know if you buy i mean there's the real deal burbers and then there's no i'm not talking the real deal i'm talking what you can buy on the high street my issue with them is they're because of the way the nature of a burber it's it's very open you've got a very long pile yes they're extremely absorbent if you spill anything on it you're never going to get it out I mean they are like and they can slightly matte so

they need looking after and I wouldn't put them in a high traffic area don't put them under a sofa that you're going to use all day long every day they're going to get wrecked but I think they're beautiful Berber's again it's something that's quite classic poll back to you my love um this is from sophie um sophie has said we have a classic london terraced house with a small garden and raised beds we're hoping to sell it over easter but the beds are looking empty and sad are there any low cost big impact plants that we can buy now for spring that's such a great question sophie because i feel exactly the same i've got big empty beds and I'd love to know what is big impact but low price. So your number one thing that's going to look good in spring is going to be spring bulbs. Obviously, I've been banging on about them.

I know it's too late for you to plant them now to get that impact because Easter is only two months away. But you could go to the garden centre and often they will sell big pots of bulbs and you could plant them straight into the borders in their pots and you you'll need quite a few but you could do that what I would also do is given the time frame I would suggest that you probably go to the garden centre two three weeks before you want either the photos taken and you buy what's in flower or about to be in flower because if you want it to look good for then then it makes the most sense to buy what's looking good then this goes completely against what I recommend for your house if you want it to look good for then, then it makes the most sense to buy what's looking good then. This goes completely against what I recommend for your house if you are living in your house long term.

Do not do this. Do not go to the garden centre and buy what's in flower because it means it will be out of flower very soon. But for the case of selling a house at a low cost, I would be buying bulbs and big impact plants, she says. Big impact plant, which is relatively reasonable, would be pittosporum. Lovely green domes that cost far less than something like a taxis ball, and you could scatter them down. That's going to give you some structure.

They're usually about £30 each, so it's not cheap, but hopefully your garden, you say small garden raised beds, so hopefully you wouldn't need many of them. And then just whack in some colour from what's ever, in flower in the garden centre, and only do this if you're trying to sell your house did you say when you buy those bulbs in the garden center they literally when they come

in their pot and you usually have like three or four or something in them and you can see the little tips coming up already can't you do you literally take the entire pot and you put the whole thing in the ground yeah so some people will plant their tulip bulbs, for example, in a pot. And the reason they do that is because they don't want to wait for them to die back afterwards. Oh, I see. What I would say is this is a one-off, which I'm recommending so that you can sell your house. But I do not recommend this on the whole because it's only going to look good for a fleeting amount of time, which is all very well if you sell your house quickly. But I would never condone this.

I would always actually be condoning buying things which are going to give you different seasonality. And frankly, I think a lot of people going to buy a house would know that March, April isn't a very exciting time for the garden. So I think as long as it's neat and tidy, you don't necessarily need to spend money on temporary plants because if you go and bought things which would look great in the summer, they're just going to be still under the ground in late march so i would just don't go spending loads of

money to make it look amazing i think as long as it's neat and tidy but if you wanted to do a bit of impact i think some bulbs would would go a long way cool great answer polly oh you're good aren't you um right i've got another one here from a firm. She's calling herself a firm outie. All right. Yes. The garden is my happy place, she says. Oh, wait, this is Eve and Kiel. Oh, I love that.

Eve and Kiel. Get it? I love that. A firm outie, the garden is my happy place. And although it's a good size, we live alongside a busy road. So my dream of a peaceful retreat feels hard to achieve. I'm wondering if I could incorporate some kind of water feature close to the main seating area to help mask the noise.

Could that work and what kind of thing would look good, not bankrupt me? Visions of these horrendous garden centre fountains are putting me off. Eden Kill wants to know what could she do? She's by a busy road. She's wondering if a water feature might sort of help with the masking the noise. Could that work? What kind of thing would look good? Yes, and it's exactly what we do. It's exactly what we do.

Whenever we go to a garden, one of the first thing I'll do is actually just have a listen because sometimes the road is right next to you. Sometimes the road is far away, but you can still hear it. And the solution is white noise, which is water. Now, there is an art to water features because what you don't want is to feel like you're sitting next to a horse in mid flow so it's the trick is getting the right gush oh no well no not that word i think you mean trickle well it's actually i prefer more of a bubble to a trickle oh okay so i like a bubbler so one of my favorite ways of doing a water feature is to have a big pot and there are

various companies that will custom make you a pot um or to have a big pot and there are various companies that will custom make you a pot or you can buy a pot and do this yourself and then you buy a bubbler so I appreciate you said you didn't want to absolutely bankrupt yourself so what you could do is get a pot and you can buy from places like landscape plus a little water bubbler which is something which essentially makes the water bubble so your goal isn't to do a gush. Sorry, Jojo, I know you hate the word. And you're not trying to do a sort of torrent. It's a sort of, you could either have it, as Jojo said, a sort of tinkling trickle.

But I like the bubbles, which is a pot and you get the bubbler. And either you can have it so the water is sort of rimming over the pot. And then if you do that, you need a reservoir beneath. And so what the water tumbles over the pot, trickles over, trickles into the reservoir, and then the water comes round. And you can buy these as a kit. Or you could have the water below the surface in kind of a water bowl. And then the bubbler, the water all remains within the pot.

And that's, I would argue, even easier to do. But absolutely, you're onto a winner there. White noise. And again, again as you said you don't need my help put it near your seating area andy have we got a stupid question of the week has somebody asked a stupid question okay this is from suzy uh suzy has asked the stupid question of the week well she says it's stupid again there's never no such thing what is a perennial and actually i don't know what a perennial you know you i hate i know you talk about it a lot but i actually don't know what a perennial is what is a perennial so a perennial essentially is a plant that lives for two or more years and a lot of the time when i'm talking about perennials, I'm talking about plants that grow and bloom in the spring, summer or maybe even the autumn and then die back every autumn and winter.

But then they keep coming back from the spring. They come back again. So something I notice and it's not a stupid question at all. And I must remember sometimes that something like a perennial isn't something which is obvious. Sometimes something like a perennial isn't something which is obvious. So annual would be something like a sunflower or a cosmos or something which you grow from seed and it flowers one year and then it dies and it does not come back. That's an annual. Perennial comes back year on year, all being well. So that's your short answer. But it's something that I noticed a lot of people new to the garden worried that they've planted something and they go, oh, my God, it's died because it's winter.

It hasn't died. It's just gone to ground. It's sort of conserving its energy and then it will come back the following spring. Well, did you know that the meaning of peri is about or around? So when you add peri to something like perimenopausal, perimenopausal. It means that it's about or around. Well, I must be about or around because I woke in the middle of the night absolutely soaked with sweat and I hear that's a... Oh, pal. You're a few years behind me actually in age,

but I'm in the perimenopause phase. Oh, pal, it's starting. You want to go and get yourself some HRT, love? I'm 38. I thought I had a couple more years yet. Perimenopause comes on about then. But it can be very early onset. Aren't we lucky us girls?

Well, should we put that in our in category? What's in perimenopause? What's in? Is it ever really in though? I wish it would go out. Well, apparently it's in. It's in. Can I tell you what else is in?

Go on. What's in? What's in is the TV show from our childhood gladiators oh my god have you watched the reboot no i don't know anything about this have i been living under a rock you are in for you know gladiators from when we were a kid right as in the one where they jump you know sort of the they gladiators and they hate eachators that one contender are you ready yes that was a terrible accent wasn't it yes so it's back it's back it's on saturday night i've watched it this weekend oh sweet jesus the thighs on one of the games

is you have to run across the bridge and they have they the gladiators swing and they sort of trap you between their legs and i thought well i'm not sure i would find that one that sounds nice i know what i'm doing tonight when i get off this podcast what is what's out for you paul oh i'm angry about this what's out is the, Paul? Oh, I'm angry about this. What's out is the amount of mini eggs in a bag of mini eggs. It is reducing. It is. A couple of years time, there's going to be one egg in a bag.

You want to try opening a bag of walkers. That is shameful how many, how few crisps they put in that bag. What is going on? Every single year, those eggs reduce. I agree. Or maybe you just eat them faster. Maybe you eat them too fast. But I completely agree with you.

I think it's really bang out of order. One little sad egg in a bag soon. I'll be paying £2.50 for it. I feel like they do it with everything now. I even feel like with moisturizers and creams. Why make a bottle that big when you've really only got it three quarters full? Makes me cross. So that's what's out for me.

That's out. I agree with you out what's in for you in interiors it's actually layering it's I think it's lots of lovely layers and blankets and throws and texture and yeah all that lovely stuff you know warmth uh what's out for me do you know what's out I think is just over just over polished lives. You know, lives that are too perfect. Everything just looking a bit too shiny. Just, you know, I don't like that. Keeping it real.

That's what it's all about. Keep it real. You know, the world's a funny old place at the moment. I think we've just all got to be a bit more, get off our, you know, perfect horses. Just show life like it is. I think so. I think it's nice to know that we're all messy messy life is messy thank you so much everyone for joining us this week as always

um we're always so i say every week we say it almost every week but we're so touched at how many of you tune in and all your lovely messages of support and you know actually just giving us your general feedback is great we love it good and bad yes we love you dearly innies and outies and thank you for keeping reviewing we read every single one of those reviews and we do some of the bad ones are utterly hilarious they are really good as you write your own review for us and give us a five star rating and remember to like subscribe follow share with your mum share with your colleagues share with people you meet on your walk just just walking along the street just stop them and go hey you have you have you heard the next house mate you want to get that in your ears