From watering cans to 'bugbears!'
Heads & Dovetails
Jamie has been suffering stomach type cramps and tells of his search online for a natural cure and how his family nag him to drink more water! Gill and Jamie chat about how various aches and pains can be as a result of something you've been doing or not doing (like drinking water when hot!) the previous day. Gill tells Jamie about the GillHB & Friends podcast she did a few years ago in her 'gardening mini series' with Rich Pennock from Haws Watering cans and a piece of good advice he gave her to help prevent back and posture issues. Changing subjects Gill wants to talk about...
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From weddings and ChapGPT to alcohol
Heads & Dovetails
One of Jamie's daughters recently got married in the Lake District and that involved Jamie hiring a car, which he was not impressed with and taking various grand-parents with them. It was the first of his daughter's weddings for him as father of the bride and was held in a hotel overlooking Lake Windermere. It was a small wedding, 20 people in total which these days is apparently known as a 'micro- wedding'. Jamie describes what a wonderful day it was and how his duaghter had removed a lot of pre-wedding stress with the arrangements. He was worried about his speech which he had started...
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From Chelsea Flower Show to a view from the garden.
Heads & Dovetails
Gill loves the Chelsea flower show and has been lucky enough to go a couple of years ago. However reading a post on Instagram made her consider things from a different point of view. Firstly she asks, how did she get to her get and not realise that the RHS was a charity?! Jamie and Gill chat about the positives, not so positives and maybe areas that could be improved around Chelsea. They both agree that a lot of work and effort goes into making Chelsea happen but to what extent are younger people from the local area involved? Running events takes a lot of effort and Jamie tells how The Ruskin...
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From VE Day Celebrations to Just go with it!
Heads & Dovetails
With the VE celebrations last weekend Jamie went to see his Mum who had her 6th birthday on VE Day and she shares what she remembers of the day. Gill went down to join in the village celebrations on the green with over 300 people, sandwiches, cake, scones and a cuppa. Clive was also playing with his village ukulele band and it was freezing! It was so cold the ukulele players could hardly feel their fingers and playing in big coats wasn't quite the plan! Jamie also went to 'Yoga in the Park' and describe what it was like doing yoga in the rain, including lying on the mat for the...
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From nettles to the added benefit of gardening as exercise
Heads & Dovetails
Gill starts off by apologising to listeners as they should have released an episode last week but with Easter, family commitments and time flying there simply wasn't a mutually convenient time. Jamie and Gill discuss the 'options' going forward do they do an episode once a month, stay as it is with every 3 weeks or go back to every 2 weeks? Jamie 'does a Gill' as he calls it and they decide to go back to releasing them fortnightly so that it is current but with a time limit of 30 minutes! Jamie will set a timer to make sure they keep to it. Jamie talks about a Japanese book he's reading...
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From sorting out to getting creative.
Heads & Dovetails
After a busy Mother's Day being around lots of mothers Jamie was enjoying the calm. As his computer is playing up he's decided it's time for a new computer which prompted Jamie to consolidate his 'bits of paper' that he works from so he can work smarter. Gill is also having a sort out at home and tells Jamie about why she and Clive (her husband) are slowly doing it now so that they can take their time selling / finding new homes for things they realistically don't want anymore or need to just get rid of - like old diaries you put in a drawer and before you know it have 10 years worth of...
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From the bumps and potholes of life to current strategies
Heads & Dovetails
Recently both Jamie and Gill have both had a few bumps and potholes to navigate in life. We they start by having a general and then more specfically about the increasing prices in all areas of life and more importantly how Jamie feels ands struggles with himself over increasing prices for his students. They explore Jamie's 'catch 22' that if he had a bigger workshop he'd save time so could take on bigger commissions as well as keeping his t4eacing going. The downside then of course is his rent and bills would increase along with the pressure to find the work to pay for it. the question then...
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From building repairs to old versus new houses.
Heads & Dovetails
Gill's excited to report that 3 years on from subsidence happening on their house the underpinning and repairs have started! Jamie tells the saga his Mum has been having with a builder and sub contractors and how he's had to put a stop to the work. Gill can't sing high enough praise of the team that did their refurbishment. We chat about the lack of due diligence people do these days (which a guest on Gill's last 'GillHB & Friends' podcast was talking about) and when would you take a personal referral or what can you do to check someone out. Gill brings up the topic of...
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From supporting January to the great British bird watch.
Heads & Dovetails
Having seen so many post on social media moaning about January Gill decides it's time to stick up for it! There are another 6 months with 31 days in them and you never hear anyone complaining about them. Gill makes the case that it's not January's fault that you overspent at the end of last year! This opens up the chat for Jamie and Gill to talk about money management, or lack of it these days and how many people are actually in a lot of debt. It is also not being taught in schools and peole jus need basic money managemnt skills. As Gill had signed up to a webinar about running a business...
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From up-cycling a workbench to buying a washing machine!
Heads & Dovetails
As both Jamie and Gill are into up-cycling/recycling, Gill was very excited to learn more about Jamie's new project for 2025 having seen his post on IG and watched his video on YouTube (The Worcestershire Cabinet Maker) Jamie's taking an old, somewhat flimsy workbench and basically rebuilding it into a much sturdier one using a lot of bits that he has rescued and are in his workshop like old drawers and other bits of wood. He'll be filming every step so people can learn from what he is doing and see how to reuse other items they might just have thrown away. In her own...
info_outlineGill and Jamie start by saying how they've already had enough of the General Election so the only time they are mentioning it is now to say they vow not to talk about it in the coming weeks!
They cover a real range of topics in this episode but typical of Gill and Jamie they are somehow all linked. Although Gill apologises, as she seems to be doing most of the talking in this episode about her passions!
Gill explains her experience and reality of selling the furniture she up cycles and when you see people on social media selling items how easy it appears and how much you can make! She explains that it's important not to compare and to keep in mind the extra work other sellers do to have a ready made clinet base. Money is not Gill's main reason for up cycling things but a bonus if she can make a profit. She also says why she believes it is important not to be afraid to ask the buyers for advice and feedback e.g. as to where they would tend to look for her type of items and style. Jamie clarifies what he sees as the main feedback to take on board going forward.
Following on the last episode Gill did buy some chisels, with Jamie's expert help, for an idea she wants to make. Jamie has offered to do a basic chisel sharpening YouTube video for Gill - but hopefully other 'real beginners' will find it helpful as well.
They continue to chat about how important it is not to compare ourselves as we are all very different. Jamie tells of his yoga experiences after Gill gives an example using her sister!
Gill, having got some alpaca wool, wants to try out sheep's wool on the garden as a slug / snail deterrent. Having spoken to Graham Hull from https://www.wool-pots.co.uk/ on her GillHB & Friends podcast about the fate of most wool she asked locally if anyone had some wool. Helen a local farmer said: 'Come help yourself we've got 300 fleeces you're welcome to!' Helen tells a similar tale about her wool and how little they get and that's got Gill thinking!