It Turns Out A Spoon Is The Key To Watering Plants Perfectly

Posted on 10/05/2026 by Boris Clair

We’ve written before about how using a paintbrush on your tomato plants can help to ensure a fruitful bounty, as you can use the tool to self-pollinate them.

And now, gardener and author Simon Akeroyd has shared that when it comes time to water your soil – especially if it has seedlings or freshly-sown seeds – a spoon could be your secret weapon.

How can a spoon help me to water my plants better?

In an Instagram post, he said that watering soil can help new seeds germinate, but doing so over a large area can be tiring “if you only have a watering can with no attachment”.

Removable heads that attach to the nozzle of your watering can, like “rose” style sprinkler heads, can make the process faster and ensure the even distribution of water.

You can get similar results with various hose attachments, the gardener added.

But, Akeroyd continued, “my tip for a wider distribution of watering is to attach a spoon to the end of your nozzle”.

He does that using cable ties. Others have used tape.

That way, when you tip the can forward, water fans out from the bowl of the spoon rather than streaming in a straight line.

This is especially useful for “broadcast sowing”, Akeroyd continued, stating that “Seeds that you might broadcast sow include mustard, green manures, lawn seed, wildflowers, etc.”

Any other tips?

Yes. Akeroyd said in his clip that if you live in the UK, another way to water pre-seed soil is to simply wait for the rain to come.

Even if you’re using a watering can, this may still be sage advice.

Rainwater is significantly better for your plants than water from the tap, partly because its slightly acidic nature allows it and its nutrients to reach your plants’ roots sooner.

It is a little dirtier, but that’s no bad thing. The Ecological Landscape Alliance (ELA) said that a bit of grime in your water works “like a light application of fertiliser”.

And if your rainwater falls during a storm, even better. Lighting releases soil-friendly nitrates, and while most forms of nitrogen, which is crucial for soil and plant health, aren’t easily absorbed by greenery, nitrates found in rain are incredibly easy for your flowers to process.

Collect rainwater using a water butt or mulching to retain nature’s greatest gift to gardeners.

If You Want Stronger Legs But Have Sore Knees, A Surgeon Loves ‘Cyclist Squats’

Posted on 09/05/2026 by Boris Clair

We’ve written before about how helpful Spanish squats and reverse lunges can be if you sometimes struggle doing exercise due to knee pain.

And according to orthopaedic surgeon Dr Chris Raynor, you can add “cycling squats” to that list.

In a YouTube short, the expert said he loves to use these kinds of exercises “for rehabilitation after knee injury or knee surgery, because I think that they are a safe way of activating the quadricep muscle and developing quadricep strength”.

Men’s Health, meanwhile, called them the “ultimate quad burn” which can increase your ankle mobility, reduce the strain on your lower back, and, of course, strengthen your legs.

What are cyclist squats?

Also known as “heel elevation squats”, cyclist squats involve – surprise – keeping your heels elevated as you perform the exercise.

This is sometimes done with a sloped squat ramp or “riser”.

You should keep your feet together as you perform the movement, which can be done with or without a kettlebell or dumbbell held in front of you to your chest.

Cyclist or heel elevated squats with a kettlebell are called “goblet cyclist squats”.

How do you complete a cyclist squat?

The steps include:

Stand on a squat ramp or “riser” with your feet together, torso straight, and arms either straight in front of you or holding a weight to your chest.
Lower yourself down, hinging at the hips and knees, as if you’re trying to tuck your bottom on top of your heels.
Rise back up, “pushing” the floor away with your feet.

What are the benefits of cyclist squats?

This type of squat “encourages more work from the quads, and less on the hips, low back and adductors” than a regular squat, Mirafit explained.

They added that for people with weaker knees, cycling squats can help you progressively overload the joint over time, protecting it from future harm.

The heel elevation can help you achieve a deeper squat, too. And if you’re holding a kettlebell while doing the exercise, you’ll work your postural muscles, which help both your upper and lower back.

Dr Raynor added that goblet cyclist squats may help to activate the vastus medialus obliqus (VMO), a teardrop-shaped muscle in our upper legs, as “one of the best ways to make sure that it is engaged is to activate the quad when it is in its most lengthened position”.

That happens during deeper squats, like this one. The VMO is a key muscle in stabilising our knees.

A 2025 paper found that “elevated heel heights… can enhance squat stability by reducing centre of pressure (COP) deviation and trunk lean, both of which are key factors for minimising injury risks in squatting exercise”.

Stop Binning Your Coffee Grounds: The ‘Rubbish’ Hack That Solves A Stinky Fridge Overnight

Posted on 09/05/2026 by Boris Clair

I’m still reeling from the stench I smelled in my fridge the other day. After an unpleasant inspection, I realised the issue wasn’t a rotting courgette or some turned milk; instead, the little drainage hole at the back of the fridge had gotten blocked, leading stagnant water to pool under our bottom drawer.

I probably don’t need to tell you that this was not a welcome aroma. Nor did it go away completely after I flushed and cleared the drain, no matter how many times I wiped and re-wiped the surfaces.

It took a tip from appliance company Whirlpool – using coffee grounds – to finally rid our kitchen of the stinky spectre.

Coffee grounds can absorb smells from your fridge

You’ve likely already heard that a bowl of baking powder can help to get rid of some odours.

But if you don’t have that, coffee grounds do just as good a job, said Whirlpool.

“Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, which is great for neutralising odours. If you’re dealing with refrigerator odours, try placing a small bowl of coffee grounds in your fridge compartment,” their site reads.

“It will not only help absorb the odour but also leave behind a slight coffee smell.”

They do also reccomend vinegar for stronger smells, though we were dealing with a lingering, one-off scent remnant here rather than an ongoing smell issue.

And yes, old coffee grounds do the job brilliantly, as The Kitchn noted. Just make sure they’re dry; you can do that by placing them in a thin layer on a baking tray after use and waiting.

So far, it’s worked. A day after the Great Stink, our fridge is back to its normal aroma.

Anything else?

The Kitchn also recommended using their deodorising power on your hands.

“The next time your hands are stinky from cutting fish, onions, or garlic, wet them and then use the coffee grounds to scrub them,” they said.

One caveat, though: do this over a bin with its lid off rather than a sink, so the grounds don’t go down the drain.

‘Heel Walks’ Can Make Your Shins Stronger And Improve Your Balance

Posted on 03/05/2026 by Boris Clair

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about “Japanese walking,” “incline walking”, “6-6-6 walking”, and “retro walking”.

But if you want to strengthen your calves and shins, either for running or just for better mobility, some experts, like physical therapist Dr Jo, reccomend “heel walking”.

In the caption of a YouTube video, they shared: “Walking on heels is a great exercise for helping with lower leg injuries and muscle imbalances. It can also help with ankle pain and plantar fasciitis.”

What are heel walks?

Happily, it doesn’t involve walking in high heels.

They’re performed by lifting your toes and the balls of your feet up and walking on a flat surface on your heels. You can go forward or backwards with your feet hip-width apart, physical therapist group Therapeutic Associates Inc shared.

They should be short, small steps. “The aim is to point your toes as much as you can towards the ceiling so there is as much dorsiflexion in the ankle as possible,” said Runna.

You should keep your upper body tall with your eyes looking straight forward. Tuck your elbows in and let your arms follow your leg movements.

Keep your glutes and hips tucked in.

Theraputic Associates Inc added, “you may want to perform this exercise to fatigue as in, you can’t keep your toes up off the ground anymore and exhaust the shin muscles”.

What are the benefits of heel walks?

Runna explained that, “Heel walks are a very simple but effective warm-up exercise for the muscle that runs along the front of the shin bone (tibialis anterior).”

This is responsible for keeping your feet lifted and preventing a condition called “foot drop”. Calling it an “underappreciated muscle,” Mirafit added that a strong tibialis anterior contributes to healthy movements of the lower leg which are “all essential when it comes to everyday life and specifically when walking and hiking.”

It may help to prevent shin splints, increase your balance and mobility, and reduce your risk of overuse injuries because they make you better at absorbing shocks, they continued.

Heel walks also stretch your calf muscles and strengthen the flexors in your foot, Runna said.

Oh Good: Cooking Sprays Are Probably Ruining Your Nonstick Pans

Posted on 25/04/2026 by Boris Clair

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how olive oil might not be the best choice for roasting spuds.

It turns out the kind of oil you use for nonstick pans matters no matter what you’re cooking in them, too.

According to cookware brand Circulon, “there are several reasons to avoid using cooking sprays on your nonstick cookware”.

Why are cooking sprays so bad for nonstick pans?

Speaking to the New York Times’ Wirecutter, Fran Groesbeck, a managing director of the Cookware and Bakeware Alliance trade association, said that – ironically – some non-stick sprays can ruin the coating on your pans.

They can leave a thin film behind after use, she said, and it’s especially hard to spot on nonstick pans.

“You can’t necessarily see that residue, because nonstick coatings are all black, but if you don’t properly clean it off after you’re done cooking, then your food will start to stick.”

This film is made up of ingredients not usually seen in non-spray oils, like soy lecithin. As they linger on an often-reheated pan, they polymerise, becoming next-to-impossible to remove.

But that’s not the only unwanted side effect. Because these sprays typically have a lower smoke point than many other oils, they begin to burn on your pan – corroding the nonstick surface further.

Speaking to EatingWell, cookware company Our Place’s associate director of product development, Stephanie Hong, said: “Many spray oils also contain chemical propellants, which are prone to breaking down under high heat. This instability can lead to scorching, residue buildup and long-term damage to the nonstick surface, ultimately causing the very sticking you were trying to avoid.”

What should I use instead?

If you want to use less oil, try wiping your nonstick pan with a paper towel dipped in your usual oil, Circulon shared.

Alternatively, you could place regular oils in a mister bottle, though Hong warns this could carry its own risks.

“The ultra-fine oil particles (even from pure oil options or refillable oil-misters) can burn and carbonise during cooking, leaving behind a stubborn residue that bonds to the pan’s surface and gradually impacts the pan’s nonstick performance,” she told EatingWell.

She added, “To preserve the quality and lifespan of your nonstick pans, skip aerosol sprays” altogether.

Torte Peasana: This Italian Cake Is The Best Way To Use Up Old Bread

Posted on 21/04/2026 by Boris Clair

I’ve recently got back into making sourdough, but it’s brought about a problem I could never have expected: by day five, I sometimes have rock-hard leftovers.

I can’t bring myself to throw it away. But now I’m at week four, I’ve grown a little tired of bread-and-butter puddings.

So, when I found a recipe for torte peasana – an Italian dish that’s sometimes called “village cake,” “black cake,” or “milk cake” – I figured I’d give the baked custard a go.

Spoiler alert: it’s delicious.

What is torte paesana?

It’s a cake from the Lombardy region of Italy. There’s no one set recipe, but usually, it uses up stale bread in a thin custard made with sugar, cocoa, eggs, and milk.

Grappa-soaked raisins sometimes make an appearance (I soaked mine in orange juice, which is probably sinful but tasted delicious). Nuts, like almonds or pine nuts, are common, and crushed Amaretti biscuits occasionally feature, too.

But I would be doing the dish a disservice if I pretended its scope was that limited. You can include a variety of fresh or dried fruit (I reckon pears, dried cranberries, or figs would be delicious) if you want.

You don’t have to soak dried fruit in anything, but if you choose to, a variety of wines and spirits will do, as will some fruit juices.

You can add orange zest to the mix if you like. I used old sourdough, but you don’t have to: stale baguettes or even old ciabatta would be great too.

Cocoa can be substituted for chocolate, and vice versa. Like bubble and squeak, torte paesana has all the hallmarks of a brilliant leftover recipe: it’s endlessly adaptable, next to impossible to mess up, and almost inevitably delicious.

How did it taste?

It’s impressively rich and deliciously squidgy; a bit like bread and butter pudding or French toast, but more grown-up and with a greater mixture of crunchy and chewy textures.

It’s addictive.

How do you make torte peasana?

Ingredients:

The recipe I ended up making for my tiny torte peasana was:

125g old bread,
30g raisins (other dried fruit will do),
30g flaked almonds (whole almonds or other nuts will be great too),
10ml orange juice (grappa, wine, coffee, or other drinks will do),
25g cocoa,
250ml full-fat milk,
1 egg,
3 tablespoons granulated sugar.

But this was only because I had a tiny amount of bread (125g) left, and it left me with a smaller, thinner tart.

Double what I have here for a bigger, better cake.

That would look like:

250g bread,
60g raisins or other dried fruit,
60 nuts,
15ml orange juice, grappa, coffee, or other soaking liquid,
50g cocoa,
2 eggs,
6 tablespoons granulated sugar,
500ml full-fat milk.

Method:

1) Heat up the milk. I was dealing with very old, tough sourdough. If your bread is softer, you may be able to cover it in cold milk and sit it, weighed down, on the counter for an hour or so, but I couldn’t do that. I brought the milk to just below boiling.

2) While this is cooking, place a tablespoon of e.g. grappa over the dried fruit. This can be done in a bowl. And if you don’t have anything “special” to soak them in, boiling water plumps them nicely; hot coffee would be delicious.

3) Pour the hot, but not boiling, milk over finely-torn bread and place a weight (I used a bowl full of ceramic beads) on top to ensure it’s submerged. Let it sit for about half an hour. Now would be a good time to add fruit zest if you want to include some.

4) Preheat the oven to 170°C ten minutes before the bread’s finished soaking. Line a tart tin (I used a pie tin, which worked fine despite my meagre half-serving) or a pie tin, though ideally not one with a removable base, as this can leak. If you are using biscuits, whizz them into a powder now.

5) Mash the bread. I used the end of a wooden rolling pin, but a wooden spoon would probably have worked. For especially stubborn bread, use a stick blender. Make sure the milk is not still hot; tepid is fine, but hot milk will cook the egg early.

6) Add the cocoa, eggs, and sugar. If you’ve blended or smashed up some biscuits, add them now too. Stir or mash them together. Don’t worry too much about how the batter looks: so long as there are no massive lumps of bread and nothing’s curdled, it’ll work.

7) Add the nuts and soaked raisins and stir. Then, pour the mix into the lined container and bake. For my mini-tart, it took 20 minutes. For the bigger one, it should be about 35-40 minutes. Check to see if the tart is firm.

8) Let it cool. Torte paesana gets better with age (allegedly: I didn’t wait long enough to check), so leave it overnight in the fridge if you can bear it. Serve with cream or creme fraiche, or (as I used) mascarpone, if you like.

Grating An Apple Into Your Sourdough Starter Can Make Your Loaves Taller And More Delicious

Posted on 19/04/2026 by Boris Clair

I’ve just about managed to get a new sourdough starter to bubbling good health, and have been amazed by how simple the process is.

All you need is water, flour, and time (as well as the ability to handle that day-three stench).

But just because it can be that easy, it doesn’t mean it always is. For instance, Paul Hollywood grates an organic Cox apple into his – and he’s not the only expert to recommend the method.

Here’s why that’s a great (or should I say… grate? Sorry!) idea.

Why should I grate an apple into my sourdough starter?

Of course, the step is completely optional. But given that sourdough starters are used for their wild yeasts and “good” bacteria, the addition makes sense.

A 2016 paper found that the addition of flowers, fruit, and berries to “mother” sourdough levains can stabilise the bacteria in the mixture quickly.

That’s important because in lots of ways, the formation of a strong starter is a kind of battle between “good” and “bad” bacteria.

That benefit was seen with all kinds of plant matter.

But only starters made with apple flowers (blossoms from an apple tree) or apple pulp contained multiple species of a bacterium called Acetobacter, which might make softer, taller, more flavourful loaves.

Shocker: bread legend Paul Hollywood knows what he’s doing.

How can I make a sourdough starter with apple?

Paul Hollywood grates one apple, skin-on – ” I like to use a Cox, but any organic apple will do” – into 1kg flour and 360ml water.

He recommends using organic kinds as too many chemicals might mean ”the starter may not ferment”. If the study we mentioned earlier is anything to go by, apple flowers should work too.

Mix those together and cover them in an airtight container (without touching them) for three days before your first feed.

Then, keep discarding some of the starter daily and adding flour and water to feed until it doubles in size consistently. I usually wait ’til it’s performed well three days in a row before I put mine in the fridge; I then feed it twice a week, once the day before use and once the day of.

If you use it more often, Hollywood says, keep it on the counter and feed it every three days.

Wall Planks May Be The Best Exercise For Blood Pressure

Posted on 18/04/2026 by Boris Clair

Regular exercise can help to manage blood pressure, because it makes our hearts stronger.

But according to a huge 2023 study, which looked at 270 trials from 1990-2023, “isometric” exercises might be the most effective at the job, with “wall sits” the best performer among these.

Researchers found that isometric exercise was more likely, on average, to lower blood pressure than aerobic exercise training, dynamic resistance training, combined training, and high-intensity interval training, though all forms were still immensely helpful.

What is isometric exercise?

It involves keeping your body still while you tense specific muscles for a set period of time. You don’t move your joints during the movement.

“Isometric exercise” is sometimes called “static” exercise.

It is the opposite of “dynamic,” or “isotonic” exercise, which involves little load and consistent pressure on various muscles. For example, running and swimming.

Most forms of exercise involve a combination of isometric and isotonic exercise, though some are 100% one or the other.

What are some examples of isometric exercises?

These include:

Wall sits
Planks
Glute bridges
Side planks
V-holds
Calf raises
Hollow holds
Copenhagen planks.

In the 2023 study we mentioned earlier, published in the BMJ, wall sits (placing your back against a wall with your thighs parallel to the ground) were the most effective of the isometric exercises for lowering blood pressure.

Does that mean I should only do isometric exercises?

The best approach to exercise seems to be a mixture of weight training and aerobic training. This has been linked to increased longevity compared to sticking to one or the other.

Speaking to the British Heart Foundation, senior cardiac nurse, Joanne Whitmore, said: “Exercise is good for your heart health and health in general. It can reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases by up to a third.

“Aerobic exercise in particular can help the heart and circulatory system work better through lowering blood pressure. Current guidelines also encourage muscle-strengthening exercises, like yoga or Pilates.

“It’s encouraging to see other forms of exercise explored in this research as we know that those who take on exercise they enjoy, tend to carry on for longer, which is key in maintaining lower blood pressure.

“However, there are other lifestyle choices that can benefit your blood pressure. These include keeping to a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, cutting down on salt, not drinking too much alcohol and taking any prescribed medication”.

Speak to your doctor if you have a heart condition and want to take up new exercise, she added.

What Happy Vs Unhappy Married Couples Bring Up Most In Sex Therapy

Posted on 17/04/2026 by Boris Clair

About 20% of Brits say they feel somewhat sexually incompatible with their partners; a factor you might think determines their levels of happiness.

But speaking to HuffPost UK, sex therapist and intimacy coach Leigh Norén said that “oftentimes unhappily married couples and happily married couples bring up the same sorts of issues in sex therapy”.

What tends to be different, though, is how they present and the causes behind their concerns.

What do happy vs unhappy married couples bring up most in sex therapy?

Both groups often come in to discuss “mismatched libidos, erectile unpredictability and orgasm issues,” the sex therapist said, “but the sexual problems affect the couples in different ways”.

Among happy couples, there might still be a lot of physical, but non-sexual, affection, she added.

They’ll also have, “A lot of emotional connection. But it’s no longer translating into sex for various reasons.

“For instance, they might feel more like roommates than lovers because their identities have become enmeshed. They act like a collective and do everything with one another, as opposed to being two individuals who have chosen to live together and have both separate and joint lives.”

Meanwhile, for unhappy married couples, “mismatched libidos or a sexless marriage might have come about because of different views of sex, or because one partner is responsible for the mental load and has started to feel resentful. When sex has become a chore for one of the partners, it can quickly escalate into high conflict or avoidance.

“When that avoidance becomes the norm, it moves from avoiding sex to avoiding anything that could ‘send the wrong signal’, so physical intimacy lessens over time, leading eventually to the erosion of emotional intimacy, too”.

How you talk about sex matters, too

It’s not just the topics themselves that matter, Norén told us. How you talk about sex can reveal a lot, too.

“Oftentimes, unhappily married couples struggle communicating at all about sex, just as they might do about other things in their relationship. There’s often a sense of one of the partners being ‘in the right’, and the other being ‘in the wrong’ about how they function sexually,” she said.

“Perhaps the high desire partner says stuff like ‘it’s not normal to never want sex’, and the partner with low desire says ‘all you care about is sex’… Fundamentally, the unhappy couples aren’t on the same team, whereas the happily married ones tend to be more on the same team.”

Happily married couples tend to find communication a lot easier and less likely to follow rigid scripts about what a “good” sex life should look like, she continued.

Though it’s not always that black and white, she added: “whenever any couple comes to sex therapy, there is usually a part of the sexual problem that is negatively affecting the relationship”.

How can I improve my relationship and communication around sex?

It sounds a little obvious, Norén said, but talking openly about sex with your partner is “usually one of the first and best steps to take if you want a happier marriage and sex life.

“Just like the rest of us, our sexuality evolves over time, meaning what once turned your partner on might not anymore, and as we age, our genitals tend to get less sensitive.”

Letting things fester can cause resentment and blame.

Educating yourself about sex can help, too. “We know surprisingly less than we think we do about things like how libido really works, and common sexual difficulties in relationships and why they come about. The more we know, the less likely we are to spin into anxiety over it, and the more likely we are to solve it quicker.”

And lastly, the sex therapist said, don’t be afraid to try something new.

″Step out of your comfort zone from time to time. For instance, yes, you may love oral sex, but what happens if you try something else that feels slightly intimidating but also exciting?

“You’ll likely find it infuses a bit of humour into your sex life, a bit of vulnerability that can be really gratifying, and a bit of spice that can make you more aroused,” the expert advised.

Laneige Juice Pop Box Lip Tint Review: Pricey, But 100% Worth It

Posted on 15/04/2026 by Boris Clair

We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

If you’re remotely interested in lip tints, listen up – because I’d bet my bottom dollar that I’ve found your new favourite.

K-beauty brand Laneige launched its Juice Pop Box Lip Tints in the UK in March, to a decent amount of fanfare online.

Well, I’m here to tell you that the hype is very much warranted.

I tried the shade Mocha Remix, a semi-sheer plummy brown. While at first it goes on quite thinly, looking a bit like a wine-stain (only more chic), if you layer it up, it soon builds to a much deeper colour.

This is ideal for me, since it means I can wear it differently depending on my mood.

Its staying power is seriously impressive – you can couple a few layers of it, eat a good meal, and forget about it for hours before you notice your lip colour hasn’t budged.

Unlike lots of other lip products I’ve tried in my time, you can apply it on the go without looking with total ease.

Aidan trying the Laniege tip tint

And what’s more, it feels super nourishing on the lips, thanks to the ‘Water-Oil Remix Technology’, polypeptide, and ceramides boosting the tint’s moisturising and firming formula.

My only minor critique is that, after spending most of the day wearing it, the colour tends to sink into the natural creases in my lips, and I like to add a quick layer of some clear lip balm to even things out again.

But all in all, between the lovely shade, the tint’s versatility, and how very easy it is to use, it’s an ideal option for everyday wear.

At £20, it’s not the most budget-friendly buy in the entire world, but it’s very far from the most expensive too.

Further to that, in my humble opinion, it’s worth every penny.

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