Poodling Around

A lifestyle podcast focusing on where to enjoy great travel experiences and days out in the UK (and sometimes abroad), plus news about cookery, pets and dog-friendly things to do, home and gardening and food and drink. Guests reveal all about their special venues, recipes, tips and events. Hosted by Jane Hunt, an award-winning UK-based PR.

Build Your Own Pizza Oven Through a Tuscan-do Approach 05/20/2024

Build Your Own Pizza Oven Through a Tuscan-do Approach If you can’t head off to Italy this year, you simply have to bring the tastes of the Mediterranean to your own home and what could be better than a tasty woodfired pizza, bubbling with cheese and with a beautifully charred base worthy of any pizzeria in Naples? Maybe a pizza - or even better, another recipe concoction, rustled up in your own garden oven? But how do you top that? Maybe by serving up that pizza from an oven you’ve built yourself, so it comes with a big topping of self-satisfaction? Jane Hunt interviews Andrew Manciocchi, the Anglo-Italian and managing director of Orchard Ovens, who first introduced the concept of woodfired pizza ovens to the UK in 2003, to get to the bottom of what’s involved with building your own pizza oven. Having helped homeowners incorporate ovens into garden designs not just in the UK but beyond, Andrew has a wealth of knowledge to impart. So how much time do you need to allow for a DIY pizza oven project? Is it a two-person job? What are the first steps, if you want to be poodling around your garden, living life as if in La Bella Italia … or as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Oliver, or other Valoriani celeb customers who've been furnished with pizza ovens by Orchard Ovens? Jane learns all from her Catapult PR client, to discover how homeowners can get their DIY skills into full swing and have a glorious self-built pizza oven in their own garden or back yard, potentially in time for the 2024 Euros, if they buy themselves a Valoriani pizza oven kit and adopt a Tuscan-do attitude. With these Valoriani ovens available not just in the UK, it’s something that anyone in Europe, the USA – or in other countries – could do. Jane discovers how many DIY talents you might need for the project, how the kit concept works and how not to get the whole project wrong, by buying the wrong self-assembly pizza oven kit in the first place. Tips are provided as to where to situate the oven and avoid regular pitfalls that many of those building their own pizza oven encounter. Jane also discovers what help is available to UK buyers and what sorts of dishes, beyond pizza, could be cooked outdoors – including those she has managed in her own pizza oven! But if DIY isn’t your thing but you desperately want the lifestyle benefits of cooking and entertaining outdoors, Jane and Andrew discuss what the other woodfired pizza oven options might be, for those who are not that handy with bricks, mortar and render but who want to have the ultimate garden party catering option. With these Valoriani ovens also being available worldwide, it can inspire anyone. With a Coldplay Chris Martin story thrown in, and Jane explaining how she finds cooking in her own oven and who she’d most like to serve up a woodfired treat to, in her dreams, at a pizza party, there's lots to digest. /episode/index/show/poodlingaround/id/31381682

Yew la la: Topiary's French Connection 04/14/2024

Bremen: a city's that music to the ears 04/03/2024

Easels & Evergreens - Tree Therapy and World's Oldest Topiary 02/17/2024

Easels & Evergreens - Tree Therapy and World's Oldest Topiary It's so easel! That sums up the forthcoming 2024 season at Levens Hall and Gardens in the English Lake District, as Jane Hunt discovers when interviewing self-taught artist, Bob Sutcliffe OBE. Jane learns how first a diagnosis of epilepsy, and then a heart attack 10 years later, resulted in Bob picking up a tin of watercolours and painting for the first time, using art therapy to manage his health condition. She also finds out how this has subsequently led to an incredible charity fundraising journey, significant sums being raised and the award of an OBE for charity work. Jane also explores how Bob's latest fundraising project - his new book entitled 'Tree Therapy' - has led him to arranging a season-long art exhibition at English stately home and Elizabethan property, Levens Hall and Gardens, home to themed gardens that include the world's oldest topiary garden - a Guinness World Record Holder. She explores the plans for the artworks that will grace these gorgeous English gardens, the community involvement that will surround their appearance in the Levens Hall gardens and how Bob's artworks will add a completely new dimension to the fourth World Topiary Day, to be held on Sunday May 12. The content of the book, which has artworks of trees in both the Lake District, England and Finland, is discussed, along with themes of creativity applying to both adults and children. This podcast conveys an uplifting real life story that should inspire anyone who receives a poor health diagnosis and feels that the future looks dim. It will also provide lots of inspiration for those wishing to visit Levens Hall and Gardens in 2024 or join in with the annual World Topiary Day event which Levens Hall and Gardens founded in 2021. For anyone who lives in Cumbria or the Lake District or who is intending to travel their this year, it will also help pinpoint a must-see experience that many people put on their bucket list. /episode/index/show/poodlingaround/id/29997163