News — Lifestyle
When I first imagined installing a concrete worktop in the kitchen, I assumed that it would be a simple-to-create, resilient and low-cost option
So hard wearing! So utilitarian. Turns out I’d been fooled – concrete might be a bog-standard ingredient in the building industry, but it’s a prima donna when you want to turn it into a countertop. I quickly discover that the primary ballast mix can be bought cheaply enough but that getting something that looks good is anything but straightforward. There is almost limitless online guides to what type of concrete you can use for different effects, the methods of pouring, how you make shuttering to hold it in place when it is wet and how to reinforce it. It’s information...
Forage it yourself: Rare burn morel mushrooms pop up in wildfire-ravaged Colorado wilderness
When writing a story such as this, you’re supposed to set the scene. You measure, in words, the splendor of the mountains — the Culebra Range of the Sangre de Cristos, if that helps — and you identify the precise blue of the sky. But I can’t tell you a thing about the forest I walked through (although I’m sure there were trees and that they were lovely), because what were popping out of the ground were the most fascinating things I’ve seen in a long, long time, and my eyes were riveted downward, on the charred, burnt earth. From...