Break the Rules

 

When it comes to planning your garden, it’s easy to find advice in books and online about the rules you should follow such as how to choose colours that complement one another. The problem with rules is that they can stifle your creativity. And sometimes it can be fun to break the rules. So tear up the garden rule books, try something new and you could see unexpected and exciting results.

 

Here are some common garden rules that are worth breaking:

 

Weeds are the enemy
If you helped out in the garden when you were a child, perhaps one of your first jobs was digging up the weeds. But some weeds can be quite beautiful. If you have a particular weed in your garden that you find attractive, don’t feel you have to get rid of it.

 

Choose colours carefully

Some gardeners like to plan the colour scheme of their garden with military precision but it can be more fun to mix up colours. Why not experiment with several different colours or buy a packet of mixed wildflowers where you can never be sure exactly what you’ll get.

 

Have separate areas for flowers and vegetables

By including a mixture of flowers, vegetables and herbs in your garden, you can create a really diverse environment with plants to delight all the senses – from beautiful flowers to sweet smelling herbs and tasty veg. Some vegetables are just as pretty as flowers and can enhance the appearance of your garden. In addition, by combining flowers and vegetables together you can ward off certain garden pests – for example growing marigolds alongside tomatoes can help protect your tomato crops.

 

Use the right containers

You’ll find all the plant pots and containers you’ll ever need at a garden centre but why not be creative and seek out more interesting items?  Old jam jars, an unused wheelbarrow or a metal watering can all be used to grow plants in. And things like an old-fashioned wooden step ladder are perfect for displaying plants at different heights.

 

Gardens are for good weather
The garden is a great place to be during summer but there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy your garden during cooler months too. Keep a stack of blankets at the ready and you can make the most of fresh air at any time of year – a cup of hot chocolate and a book are a real treat in the garden during autumn and winter.

 

Stick to what grows

Some keen gardeners will advise you to grow native plants that are proven to grow well in the conditions you have. And whilst this will give you reliable results, you don’t have to stick to what you know. Why not be adventurous and try growing something new? If you live in a cool climate you might have ruled out plants like orange trees and chilli plants but if that’s what you fancy growing – why not give it a go? It might not work out first time but you’ll have fun trying.

 

For more unusual garden ideas, visit: www.edenproject.com

 

Categories: flowers, garden, nbsp, plants, rules

Amitabh Bachchan"s "Two Rules For Success." Wouldn"t You Like to Know?

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Actor Amitabh Bachchan is giving away the secret of his success free on Twitter, for anyone who cares to read. (Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan’s Special Day. And it Has Nothing to do With Cricket)

 

It is this:

T 1772 – ;There are two rules for success Never reveal everything you know pic.twitter.com/6efI3fv9iR

- Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) February 17, 2015

Rule #2? Read his tweet again. Get it? Joke.

 

Had it not been a joke, it’s unlikely that India’s biggest star could offer a formula of any sort to succeed. It wasn’t because he followed rules that the shipping executive with Bollywood dreams eventually became a national treasure – it was because he broke them.

 

In his very first film Saat Hindustani (1969), the young Amitabh Bachchan played not a romantic hero but a nationalist poet in the backdrop of the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule. His fourth film (if you count a bit part in Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal’s Bombay Talkie) was 1971′s Parwana, in which he murdered the father of the woman he loved and tried to frame her boyfriend. Two films later, he played another gun-toting killer in Reshma Aur Shera. In 1973′s Bandhe Haath, he plays a thief contemplating murder. Even the film that made him a superstar had him on the wrong side of the law – 1975′s Deewar in which he played the smuggler brother of a honest cop.

 

Until Shah Rukh Khan came along decades later, Amitabh Bachchan was that rarest of Bollywood species – an actor who broke stereotype, the anti-hero who became an uber-hero.

 

For many years now, Mr Bachchan has been able to choose any role he likes – good, bad or ugly – secure in the knowledge that no matter what shade of grey he might happen to portray on screen, his status as Shahenshah of the people would go unchallenged. That’s a benediction hard to come by for most actors. And there are no rules to achieving it.

 

Amitabh Bachchan was last seen in this month’s Shamitabh and has Piku and Wazir coming up later this year.

Categories: amitabh, amitabh bachchan, bachchan, hero, nbsp, rules

The 5 Rules of Tea Towel Hygiene

 

When it comes to kitchen hygiene, we tend to focus on worktops, sinks, and dishcloths – it’s easy to forget that the seemingly harmless things like tea towels need to be properly used and cared for too.

Although you might not give your tea towel much thought, recent studies have suggested that as many as 90% of household tea towels could harbour bacteria – including MRSA and E. coli. It’s a worrying thought but there’s no need to throw away your tea towels just yet. By following some basic rules you can ensure your tea towel is clean and hygienic.

 

Change your tea towel daily
Use a fresh tea towel each day to minimise the risk of bacteria multiplying. You could keep a small basket in your kitchen to pop used tea towels into at the end of each day. Then every few days you can simply put all of the tea towels into the wash together.

 

Hang to dry after us
Bacteria thrives in damp conditions and if you leave your tea towel crumpled up on a kitchen work top it’s unlikely to dry properly. So always hang your tea towel up to dry in between jobs, remembering to keep it well away from naked flames.

 

Wash at high temperatures

While we’re often told to wash our clothes at lower temperatures to help save energy, this doesn’t apply when it comes to tea towels. You need to wash at a high temperature to ensure that the bugs are killed. Experts recommend washing tea towels at 60 degrees to zap the germs. It’s also best to wash tea towels on their own rather than mixing them in with a clothes or bedding wash, to avoid cross-contamination of germs.

 

Only use for one task
When we’re busy in the kitchen, it’s easy to fall into the habit of using tea towels for several jobs. Perhaps you dry the dishes and then use the same tea towel to wipe down your counter top before using the tea towel again to dry your hands. This is a bad practice as it’s easy to spread germs throughout your whole kitchen and across your hands this way. Instead, only use tea towels for drying dishes. Have a separate cloth specifically for wiping down counter tops and another for drying your hands. You could use colour-coded towels for different jobs to make it easy to grab the right one when you are in a hurry.

 

Beware of meat juices
If you prepare raw meat in your kitchen it is especially important to follow good hygiene and ensure that the meat juices don’t find their way onto your tea towel. In particular, don’t use a tea towel to wipe your hands after handling raw meat as you can quickly spread harmful bacteria across your entire kitchen.

 

The NHS website has lots of good advice on home hygiene. Find out more here: www.nhs.uk/Livewell/homehygiene/Pages/Homehygienehub.aspx

Categories: hygiene, rules, tea towel

The Important Cardio Rules That Everyone Should Follow

To keep your fitness levels up, you need to do a regular cardio workout. Not only will this be great for your wellness and wellbeing, it will help to keep your body in good shape, which in itself is a boost to your self-confidence and mental health. Cardio is not something that everyone automatically gets right, however, and you may actually find that your cardio workout is doing you more harm than good. You might find that you are getting more injuries than you would like, for example, or your weight loss may have plateaued.

 

To make sure that your cardio session is working for you, mix things up a bit. Pick up the pace and add a few interval training circuits into your workout. This will help you to burn more calories and will undoubtedly increase your endurance, too. High intensity interval workouts will help you to increase the calorie burn and ensure that your time in the gym is not wasted.

 

Don’t just stick to cardio either, as you will find that your body quickly becomes used to the same type of exercise. If you add some strength training (even just ten minutes) can make a huge difference to how your metabolism works.

 

Start slowly, too, to avoid injuries. A full on sprint without warming up can cause burnout and injury, so make sure that you do a proper warmup before starting any exercise. Five minutes of slow jogging, walking uphill or slower reps on an elliptical machine or bike will get your muscles primed and ready for a good workout.

 

Don’t do too much, either – there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. Over training can lead to injury and fatigue. Be aware of how your body is feeling and cut back on the training if you are feeling overtired.

Categories: body, Cardio, cardio workout, fitness, nbsp, nbsp don, rules, training, Workout

Five Rules of Nutrition That Everyone Agrees With

Of course it’s common knowledge that sugar is bad for your health. It is definitely true that added sugar is just empty calories. But it’s also true that there are no nutrients in it and if you eat a lot of sugar then you’re likely to become deficient because you aren’t getting enough foods that contain important nutrients.

Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial

Studies have consistently shown that omega-3 fatty acids are very good for us, and that they are essential for the proper functioning of the human body. They can be taken by eating oily fish or through supplements.

There is no ‘perfect’ diet

Not every diet will be perfect for everyone, and that it something that we need to accept. Obviously there are some things that you’ll find in most diets – reduce sugar and fat, and eat more fruit and vegetables – but other than that, our perfect diet is purely a personal thing depending on your body and levels of activity.

Eating vegetables will improve your health

Vegetables are naturally rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants and a huge variety of trace nutrients that we are only just beginning to understand. Of course we know about the 5-a-day rule of fruit and vegetables, but the truth is the more vegetables you eat, the healthier you’ll be.

Refined carbohydrates are bad for you

Everyone agrees that refined carbohydrates are much worse for you than complex carbohydrates. It is known that eating refined carbs will cause you to have rapid spikes in blood sugar. This is then followed by quick production insulin in the blood which triggers fat storage and contributes to insulin resistance and various diseases like obesity and diabetes.

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Five Rules of Nutrition That Everyone Agrees With

Categories: carbohydrates, diet, fatty acids, nutrients, Omega-3, perfect diet, refined carbohydrates, rules, Sugar, vegetables