The five best things I tried this week

Things that made me go 'mmm'

by Adrienne Wyper

BEEKEEPING

I certainly can't claim to be a beekeeper, but I've been helping out with the Hearst bees this week. About 40,000 of them live in two hives on our mini wildlife meadow on a rooftop. My 'helping' consisted of puffing some smoke over the open hive while people who know what they're doing removed the frames, which were stuffed with honey. They'll be spun to remove the honey later this week, and I'm hoping to get my hands on a jar as a reward for dressing up in the astronaut-type outfit...

ARM KNITTING

Yes, it's exactly what you'd think: it's knitting using your arms as needles. Apparently it's a new craze in the US. After watching a video for about 30 seconds I decided to have a go... Let's just say I'd recommend watching the video all the way through, maybe with a bit of pausing and rewinding, too. Typical of my approach to making things: steam straight in! I'll probably be featuring it on Allaboutyou in more detail soon...

FLEXIBLE WORKING

The law on who can request flexible working changed on July 1 this year - now anyone can put in a request to work flexibly. So I did and now I'm working a 'condensed nine-day fortnight' which means doing 10 days' work in nine days and taking a day off every fortnight. This week I had my first day off. It was great! Find out more about flexible working on Gov.UK: www.gov.uk/flexible-working/overview

FRUITY ICE CREAM

Generally I avoid fruit-flavoured ice creams, but when I saw apricot and amaretti on the menu at Gelupo I swerved from my usual preferences. And I'm so glad I did. Tangy chunks of fresh apricot (my second favourite fruit) were combined with crushed amaretti biscuits (possibly my favourite sweet treat). And happily it went really well with one of my favourites, hazelnut, also nestling in my tub.

BAKING A MARY BERRY RECIPE WHILE WATCHING 'GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF'

As you may have noticed, we're running ads for Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning taking place on September 26. We love this idea so much that we decided to do an early bird version, so on Wednesday evening my Mary-Berry-recipe lemon drizzle traybake, with added poppyseeds, was in the oven while 'Great British Bake Off' was on the TV. I paused the TV to remove the cake from the oven, let it cool while I watched a bit more, then added the icing, and it was cool enough to eat before the programme ended. It can be a bit of a tease watching all those lovely bakes being created, without anything to tuck in to yourself so this is definitely the best way to enjoy 'Bake Off' and I'll be doing it again next week! See Mary Berry's lemon drizzle traybake recipe. (It turned out beautifully: moist, light and lemony. If you want to add poppyseeds, add 28g/1oz with the other cake ingredients; that variation is in my book but not on her website.)

What have you tried this week?

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About This Blog

Escaping to the country, abroad or just down the road for a long weekend – exploring the world around you. Follow our team of staff writers and add your comments to kick off the debate.
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About The Authors

Carla  Griscti

Carla Griscti

Editorial assistant on allaboutyou; Music lover, travel bee and food fanatic.

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Emma Marsden

Emma Marsden

Food consultant of All About You, loves creating something out of nothing and decluttering.

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Bernadette  Fallon

Bernadette Fallon

Editor of All About You; an online journalist with a fetish for glossy magazines.

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Adrienne  Wyper

Adrienne Wyper

Deputy editor of All About You. I love cycling, cooking and creating

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Carol  Muskoron

Carol Muskoron

Associate editor of All About You, loves life (mostly) and one-pan recipes (always).

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