Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at You

The latest State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report warns that between 30 per cent and 75 per cent of the UK’s population of hedgehogs has been lost in rural areas in the last two decades.  The largest falls are in the eastern half of England. However, there is some evidence that in our towns and cities,...

If music be the food of love… Going off to Uni Things you do on holiday but never at any other time Walnuts Two sleep better than one How to keep your house cool in a heatwave How many hours of sleep do you really need at night? Eat your porridge Have you taken your...

 You are in the centre of your local town looking at market stalls, and you become aware of a growing racket nearby. Some local young musicians have got loose. Pretty soon you cannot even hear yourself speak because it is so noisy. The sound is blaring out through amplified loudspeakers with a heavy bass. People...

This month thousands of young people will be preparing themselves for the exciting prospect of going off to what they all call ‘Uni’ in the autumn. Parents, grandparents and godparents will enjoy a mixture of pride and apprehension. This is a major step in life: leaving home, making new friends, study without compulsion and the...

Lend your key to a neighbour and spend half an hour explaining the knack of locking the front door which entails pulling, turning, and pushing at the same time. Worry about your hanging baskets and runner beans. Worry about your cat. Spend an hour looking for window lock keys which you have not seen since...

A handful of walnuts may help reduce your feelings of hunger. Walnuts are unique among nuts in that they are mainly comprised of polyunsaturated fats, which help decrease ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger.  They also seem to increase peptide YY (PYY), a hormone that increases fullness or satiety. As appetite hormones play an important...

Adults sleep better together than they do alone. Of course, that may be hard to believe if your partner snores, sleepwalks or likes a different level of darkness and coolness in the bedroom. But a recent study at the University of Arizona has found that working-age adults who sleep with a partner fall asleep faster...

When the sun is sizzling overhead, many of us fling wide our windows and even doors, in an effort to get a draught of air through our homes. But an NHS sleep consultant advises that, instead, people should keep their windows shut and their curtains drawn all day. “It’s all due to temperature differentials. As...

Margaret Thatcher famously thrived on four hours a night. These days, 40 per cent of us struggle to nod off at all, while the hoped for ‘ideal’ is eight hours a night. But how much do we really need?  Recent research at the University of Cambridge and Shanghai’s Fudan University looked in depth at sleeping...

A daily serving of wholegrains can help slow down your middle-aged spread. Recent research has found that the wholegrains found in oats, as well as brown bread and brown rice, are the key to midlife weight control and loss. Wholegrains are usually low in fat, rich in fibre and starchy carbohydrate and often have a low glycaemic...

One of the latest trends in fun home decorating is to ‘dress’ your fireplace. Known as ‘mantelscaping’, it can range from simply rearranging your favourite things among seasonal flowers, to creating a huge and dramatic floral display with the help of bunched chicken wire that waterfalls down your mantelpiece in a grand sweep to the...

Those careless words Day surgery Good grief? Watch less TV, and live longer Next time you take a selfie, don’t worry about your nose Worried more about money  ** Editor:  David Pickup, a solicitor, considers dangerous things to say. Those careless words With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we...